Education
University of Connecticut, Department of Political Science, PhD
Political Theory & Public Law (2023 — present)
Institutional Awards: Jorgensen Fellowship (2023-2028), Governor Abraham Ribicoff Fellowship (2024), George F. Cole Dissertation Fellowship (2024)
Vassar College, BA
Political Science, Italian, Environmental Studies* (2018 — 2022)
Senior Thesis: “Towards a Theory of Non-Invidious Environmental Governance in the Age of Climate Catastrophe: A Veblenian Critique of China’s ‘Ecological Civilization’ (生态文明)”
Senior Project: «Landolfi in traduzione: tre racconti» (*minor)
Academic Roles
Graduate Teaching Assistant, UConn (2024 — present)
- introducing undergraduate students to the organization and operation of the American political system in POLS 1602 – Introduction to American Politics (Fall 2024)
(Check out my blog post about teaching this course!)
Graduate Research Assistant, UConn (2023 — present)
- ongoing work with UConn’s Agricultural & Resource Economics, Geography, and Political Science departments on public policy and public opinion concerning renewable energy, specifically offshore wind
Publications
Robert T.F. Downes. (accepted for Issue No. 4). “Reason vs. Reverence: Unsettling Social Ecology’s Enlightenment Roots with Indigenous Cosmologies.” Harbinger: a Journal of Social Ecology. https://harbinger-journal.com/.
Robert T.F. Downes. (accepted for Fall 2025 print Issue). “Green Anarchy & Red Praxis: An Anarcho-Indigenous Dialogue towards a Democracy of Species.” Anarchist Studies.
Robert T.F. Downes. (2024). “Natural Dialectics: Māori & Sioux Ecosophy Encounters the Rule of Law.” The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/agsjournal/vol9/iss1/2
Conference Presentations
“Mycelial Politics: Radical Ecology & Renewal in the Anthropocene” - Western Political Science Association (April 2025), Conference Theme: ‘A New Requiem for Politics? Racing Toward Catastrophe—or Transformation?’, Section: Environmental Political Theory, Panel: Critical Ecology
“Judicial Ideology & Federal Environmental Protections: An Empirical Study of U.S. Courts of Appeals” - New England Political Science Association (November 2024), Section: Judicial Politics & Public Law, Panel: Judges and Courts as Governing Institutions
“Procedural Justice and Offshore Wind’s Landfall in Southern New England” - North American Wind Energy Academy (NAWEA) / WindTech (October 2024), co-author/research assistant, with faculty and graduate students from UConn’s Agricultural & Resource Economics, Geography, and Political Science departments: Samuel Ayivi, Carol Atkinson-Palombo, Oksan Bayulgen, Syma Ebbin, Vanessa Heigel, Lyle Scruggs, Nathaniel Trumbull
“Procedural Justice and Offshore Wind’s Landfall in Southern New England” - New England – St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society (October 2024), co-author/research assistant, with faculty and graduate students from UConn’s Agricultural & Resource Economics, Geography, and Political Science departments: Samuel Ayivi, Carol Atkinson-Palombo, Oksan Bayulgen, Syma Ebbin, Vanessa Heigel, Lyle Scruggs, Nathaniel Trumbull
“Green Anarchy & Red Praxis: An Anarcho-Indigenous Dialogue towards a Democracy of Species” - Caribbean Philosophical Association (June 2024), Conference Theme: ‘Decolonizing Epistemologies’, Panel: Afro-Latine Theorizing: Epistemic Harm and Resistance
“Natural Dialectics: Māori & Sioux Ecosophy Encounters the Rule of Law” - American Graduate School in Paris (April 2024), Conference Theme: ‘Global Boiling Point: Old Problems and New Solutions’, Panel: Indigenous Issues & Social Justice
“Offshore Wind Blows Ashore: Best Practices for the Equitable Siting of Offshore Wind Points of Interconnection in Coastal Communities” - The Sustainable Clean Energy Summit: Decarbonizing Society and the Grid (October 2023)
“Court Canaries: Black State Court Judges’ Perspectives on the Criminal Justice System and Visions for Its Future” - Law & Society Association (May 2021), co-author/undergraduate research with Professor Taneisha N. Means
“Identity, Methodology, and the Joys and Challenges of Doing Judicial Politics Research” - Southern Political Science Association (January 2020), co-author/undergraduate research, co-author/undergraduate research with Prof. Means
UConn Political Theory Workshop
Discussant for “Fear of a Blank Planet: On the Possibility of a Planetary Turn in Political Theory” by Kamran Moshref, PhD Candidate, Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center (September 2024)
Discussant for “Of Glaciers and Whiteness: Ecofascism, Genre, and the Existential Risks of the American Environmental Imagination” by Dr. April Anson, Assistant Professor of English, UConn Storrs (November 2023)
