phd thesis
Title: ‘The Atoms of Time’: The Politics of Sensorial Frictions Across the IAEA’s Nuclear Safeguards
PhD Supervisor: Prof. Anna Leander | Dr. Rens van Munster (external ; Danish Institute for International Studies)
Expected completion date: 2026 (expected)
The thesis explores the politics of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) nuclear safeguards, a key global nuclear governance instrument aimed at verifying whether states comply with their commitment not to divert nuclear materials and technologies from peaceful activities to nuclear weapons acquisition. In particular, this PhD research asks how the material elements - the atomic matter - operating in this policy intervene in the configurations of the global nuclear (dis)order. For instance, how the atom and a series of equipment, objects, tools, machines, devices etc. present in the workings of safeguards impact on power dynamics concerning embodied conditions of (in)security and the distribution and dispersion of agential possibilities in the global nuclear (dis)order. This thesis aims at showing how these material components are integral to the constitution of the order, while keeping a recalcitrant condition that displaces the normalized configurations of power. This PhD research contributes to and engages with transdisciplinary debates taking place across science and technology studies, social sciences, and humanities on the political role performed by (socio)materialities, and in particular, resituates International Relations and Political Science perspectives on the global nuclear order by looking at these material interventions. By articulating new materialism, posthumanism, actor-network theory, and aesthetic perspectives in social and political sciences, this study envisions to provide an empirically grounded theoretical repertoire that accounts for two dimensions of the atomic matter’s interventions, namely its associative and dissociative connections and the sensing ways in which these interventions unfold. This PhD research mobilizes affective methodologies through the observation of sites where safeguards operate, interviews with political stakeholders, archival research, among other qualitative methods.
profile
Lucas Perez Florentino (he/him) is a PhD candidate in International Relations/Political Science at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a bachelor’s (2010-2014) and a master’s degree (2015-2017) 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 by articulating aesthetic approaches, new materialism and posthumanism, actor-network theory, science and technology studies, and affective methodologies. For ten years, he contributed to research, co-designed education and capacity-building initiatives, and engaged in 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.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Aesthetics
- Science and Technology Studies
- New Materialism and posthumanism
- Reflexivity
- Affective Methodologies
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)