James Cullis

Research Topic

Material Nature: Material Forces in Seventeenth Century Natural Law

Supervisor: Dr Jon Parkin

My project seeks to explore the way in which debates around matter and material forces arose in seventeenth century natural  law. In particular, it concentrates on the Anglo-Dutch context and the works  of Hugo Grotius, Lambert van Velthuysen, Samuel Parker, Richard Cumberland and John Locke. Doing so, it also seeks to argue that traditional approaches to the history of political thought, stressing the role of language and rhetoric, have overlooked the crucial role played by physical materiality.  In the process, it will argue that physical concerns play a  significant factor within broader intellectual history. Before coming to Oxford, I completed a Mphil at Sussex University entitled ‘Landscapes  of Progress: The Place of Physical Geography in Scottish  Enlightenment accounts of  Stadial Theory’. The thesis highlighted  the role played  by the physical terrain in  explanations of historical progress outlined in the work of  four stadial theorists. In  addition to this, I became interested in the  way the Humanities disciplines engages with questions surrounding  Climate Change and co-edited volume entitled: Climate Change and the Humanities: Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary Environmental Crises.

More broadly I am also interested in

• The relationship  between environmental concerns and the History of Political Thought
• Methodological debates within Intellectual History and it’s relationship with Political Theory
• The life and career of John Locke

Publications

'Adam Smith, Natural Extraction and Historical Judgement: An Unwarranted Environmental Legacy’, international Review of Environmental History, Vol. 5, Issue 2, 2019, 115-121.

Edited Volume

Climate Change and the Humanities: Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary Environmental Crises, Edited by Alex Elliott, James Cullis, and Vinita Damodaran, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

Book Chaptersc

Co-written with Alex Elliot, ‘The Importance of the Humanities to the Climate Change Debate’, in Climate Change and the Humanities: Historical, Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Contemporary Environmental Crises, Edited by Alex Elliott, James Cullis, and Vinita Damodaran, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, 15-42.

I am also a keen amateur chess player