Dr Shannon Brincat is a Senior Lecturer in Politics & International Relations in the School of Law and Society at the University of the Sunshine Coast (UniSC). His research specialises in critical international relations theory, dialectical approaches to politics, environmental politics and political imagination. He has also been researching on politics across the Pacific, with a particular focus on Timor-Leste, PNG and Fiji.

Dr Brincat’s research investigates processes of global transformation that operate beyond the state, with interests in dialectics, cosmopolitanism, global responses to climate change, the politics of assassination/tyrannicide, and political imagination. He has just completed a book published in the Voices series of Oxford University Press, Dialectical Dialogues in Global International Relations.

Key research impact

Dr Brincat’s work advances theoretical and applied understandings of how political ideas and cultural practices shape responses to global challenges. He has made sustained contributions to critical international-relations theory and to debates about political recognition, imagination, and climate policy helping scholars and practitioners reframe political agency and responsibility in the face of transnational environmental risk. His writing also contributes to public debate and media commentary on political developments in Australia and the world with numerous op-eds in The Conversation or the Australian Institute of International Affairs, amongst others, and many TV and radio interviews.

Dr Brincat has published extensively (articles, chapters, edited symposia) in leading international journals and edited collections.

Translation to practice and policy

• Dr Brincat’s empirically informed theoretical work on climate politics and local adaptation supports evidence-based approaches to municipal and regional climate resilience planning (for example, translating class and status capacity at the local level for climate adaptation or examining Indigenous knowledges for application to climate policy).
• His engagement with public commentary, policy discussions and interdisciplinary research networks helps bridge high-level theoretical insights and practical policy responses to climate, governance, and security challenges.

Recognition and significance

Dr Brincat’s research has been recognised by peers (including an ISA award for best theory paper in 2015) and he has held research fellowships at institutions including the University of Helsinki, University of Queensland, and Griffith University. His international profile and cross-disciplinary work increase UniSC’s research visibility in critical international relations and environmental politics.

Dr Brincat contributes to UniSC’s research conversations that explore climate, culture and transcultural approaches to environmental adaptation. His theoretical and applied work complements the ITRC’s mission by advancing transcultural and ecologically engaged scholarship that informs both policy and community practice.