SHANNON BRINCAT
I am a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and Program Director of the Bachelor of International Studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC), Australia. My research begins with a deceptively simple question: how do political orders emerge, reproduce inequality, and become open to transformation?
Working across critical International Relations theory, political philosophy and dialectics, I examine the social relations, historical contradictions and struggles that shape world politics. Rather than treating states and institutions as fixed entities, my scholarship explores how they are constituted, contested and changed. This work engages with Hegel, Marx, recognition theory, cosmopolitanism and Global International Relations, while bringing European and non-European philosophical traditions into critical dialogue. This includes asking how Indigenous knowledges, relational philosophies and decolonial approaches challenge inherited assumptions about political community, authority and knowledge.
My 2026 book, Dialectical Dialogues in Global International Relations (Oxford University Press), develops these themes through conversations across different intellectual traditions. I am also co-editing Global International Relations: An Introduction with Štěpánka Zemanová. My research on recognition and misrecognition investigates political agency, conflict and the conditions of more inclusive ethical communities.
Alongside this theoretical work, I lead international research collaborations on Timor-Leste, climate politics and governance in the Asia-Pacific. Since 2025, I have served as International Liaison for the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), supporting partnerships and community governance initiatives. My research examines Timor-Leste’s postcolonial politics, self-determination, development and climate adaptation. In 2026, I co-edited a special issue of Global Discourse on Understanding Timor-Leste.
My environmental research explores climate justice, adaptation and resource governance, informed by fieldwork and collaborations in India, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Mozambique and Timor-Leste. I have also worked with the United Nations University on sustainable transformation in coal-dependent regions.
I am co-founder and co-editor of Global Discourse and have published widely in journals including European Journal of International Relations, International Studies Quarterly, Global Environmental Change and Globalizations. My work with L. H. M. Ling on Hegel and the Dao received the International Studies Association Theory Section’s Best Theory Paper award in 2015.
As a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, I am committed to critical and globally inclusive teaching and postgraduate supervision. I also contribute to public debate on international conflict, human rights, climate change and AI governance. Across research, teaching and public engagement, my aim is to understand not only how world politics works, but how it might be transformed.
