phd thesis
PhD Thesis Title: ‘The Atoms of Time’: The Politics of Sensorial Frictions in the Global Governance of Nuclear Safeguards
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Anna Leander (Geneva Graduate Institute) / Dr. Rens van Munster (Danish Institute for International Studies)
Expected completion date: 2026 (expected)
This PhD research explores the politics of nuclear safeguards, a key global nuclear governance instrument which aims at verifying whether states comply with their commitment not to divert nuclear materials and technologies from peaceful activities to nuclear weapons acquisition. The thesis asks how the material elements operating in this policy - the ‘atomic matter’ - intervene in the configurations of the global nuclear (dis)order. To put it another way, how do the atom and an infrastructure of artifacts in safeguards affect the embodiment, the political economy, and the imagination/manifestation of that (dis)order? This thesis contributes to and engages with transdisciplinary debates on the political role of (socio)materialities, thus resituating nuclear scholarship in International Relations and Political Science by looking at these material interventions at a granular level. By mobilizing insights from new materialism/posthumanism, STS, and aesthetics/affect theory, this study provides an empirically grounded theoretical repertoire accounting for the associative/dissociative and sensorial ways in which these interventions unfold. This PhD research leverages affective methodologies through the observation of safeguards sites, interviews with political actors, archival and documental research, visual and digital methods.
profile
Lucas Perez Florentino (he/him) is a PhD candidate in International Relations/Political Science and Research Coordinator of the SNSF-funded Sinergia project “The Future of Humanitarian Design” at the Geneva Graduate Institute, in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a bachelor’s (2014) and a master’s degree (2017) in International Relations from the Institute of International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (IRI-PUC-Rio) in Brazil. Lucas also held a visiting position as a PhD student at the Department of History at the University of Vienna, Austria (April - June 2024) and was an exchange undergraduate student at Georgetown University in Washington DC, US (August - December 2012). His areas of expertise include global governance, nuclear governance, critical nuclear studies, critical security studies, IR theories, and epistemology. His current empirical research investigates global nuclear governance while mobilizing insights from new materialism/posthumanism, STS, and aesthetics/affect theory. For ten years, he contributed to research, training and capacity-building, as well as the public debate on (global) nuclear governance in Brazil through a series of academic and applied projects at FGV School of International Relations and IRI PUC-Rio. He is the author of the e-course “Fundamentals on Global Nuclear Politics”, available at FGV Online.
Areas of expertise
Global governance,
Nuclear governance,
Critical nuclear studies,
Critical security studies,
IR theories and epistemology
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES
- Teaching Assistant, Geneva Graduate Institute, Fall 2024: “Controversies in World Politics” (PhD); “Critical Security Studies” (MA/PhD); “Postcolonial Politics” (MA/PhD).
- Project Assistant, Project "Infrastructuring Democracy: The Regulatory Politics of Digital Code, Content, and Circulations", Brazilian-Swiss Joint Research Programme, Geneva Graduate Institute, CCPD (Nov 2023 - Feb 2024)
- Teaching/Authorship, Online Course 'Fundamentals on Global Nuclear Politics,' FGV School of International Relations/FGV Online (in Portuguese)
- Research Fellow, FGV School of International Relations (Brazil) (2017-2022)
- Teaching, Course 'Global Nuclear Politics', FGV School of International Relations (Brazil) (2019; 2021)
- Research Assistant, Institute of International Relations PUC-Rio (Brazil) (2013-2016)
- Teaching Assistant, Course 'Classical Theories of International Relations', Institute of International Relations PUC-Rio (Brazil) (2015)
- Research Intern, BRICS Policy Center, Institute of International Relations PUC-Rio (Brazil) (2011-2012)
OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES
- Project Associate, FGV School of International Relations (Brazil) (2017-2022)
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
- PhD financial package recipient (2022-2026), Geneva Graduate Institute
- ‘Mestrado Nota Dez’, Rio de Janeiro State Research Foundation (Faperj) (2016 – 2017) (MA)
- Prosup and Proex, CAPES, Brazil’s Ministry of Education (2015-2016) (MA)
- PUC-Rio Scholarship Awards - Academic Distinction, PUC-Rio (Undergraduate) (2011.2, 2012. 1, 2013.1, 2013.2)
- Undergraduate Scholarship Award (100% Tuition Fee Reduction), College Entrance Exams Merits (Ranked in 1st place in the IR major), PUC-Rio (Undergraduate) (2010-2014)