About the project
鈥淭he Volcanic Mind鈥 uses volcanic risk reduction as a lens to explore how resilience emerges from the interplay between emotional trust and deliberative confidence in times of crisis. Combining volcanology, social science, political psychology, and creative practice, it reimagines how societies can sustain trust and adaptability in an accelerating world.
Volcanoes offer a rare laboratory for understanding resilience: decades- or centuries-long periods of volcanic quiescence can transition into violent explosions within weeks 鈥 or even seconds. Volcanic risk unfolds across timescales almost impossible to grasp through human perception, and mitigating these risks requires an equally adaptive framework of long-term trust in scientists and institutions enabling rapid collective response when crises strike.
This project asks what lessons volcanic risk management, where monitoring, community engagement, and trust-building have demonstrably saved lives, can offer a world facing accelerating environmental crises.
Bringing together volcanology, political psychology, social science, and creative practice, this project examines how resilience depends on the interaction between fast, emotional trust and slow, deliberative confidence in institutions. Comparative analysis of volcanic case studies will examine how these dynamics evolve within different socio-political and cultural contexts, and how they may erode under pressure. Scenario-based workshops in the UK climate-risk context will then test how affective and reflective modes of engagement shape public responses to uncertainty and adaptation.
A creative research strand will translate findings into near-future fiction and data-driven audiovisual artworks, exploring how narrative, sound, and emotion can make resilience tangible and experiential. Across these elements, the project develops a new theoretical framework for understanding how social and institutional trust evolve under stress, and how societies can sustain preparedness in the face of accelerating crises.
By linking geological, psychological, and creative understandings of resilience, this research seeks to reimagine how collective trust and adaptive capacity can be cultivated for a volatile world.
Additional technical training or support
Training in volcanological data collection and interpretation, including field- and lab-based techniques (e.g., microscopy, mass spectrometry, satellite imagery).
Integration within the National Oceanography Centre鈥檚 vibrant volcanology/geoscience groups.
Immersion in the UK and international volcanological community through Mangler鈥檚 network.
Attendance of Tompkins鈥 module 鈥淎dapting to climate and weather hazards鈥 (GGES3019), covering: the contested nature of resilience, disaster risk reduction cycle, risk perceptions, behavioural motivation.
Training in integrating psychological theory with social and environmental research and developing an interdisciplinary and methodologically robust approach under Capelos鈥 guidance.
Creative mentorship from Esapathi on narrative development and arts-based approaches to exploring global justice and resilience.
Supervisors
As well as Dr Martin Mangler (lead supervisor), Professor Emma Tompkins and Professor Tereza Capelos from the University of Southampton, you will also receive supervision from Bhavani Esapathi.
References
Barclay, J., Haynes, K., Houghton, B., & Johnston, D. (2015). Social processes and volcanic risk reduction. In The encyclopedia of volcanoes (pp. 1203-1214). Academic Press.
Adger, W. N., Brown, K., Nelson, D. R., Berkes, F., Eakin, H., Folke, C., ... & Tompkins, E. L. (2011). Resilience implications of policy responses to climate change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 2(5), 757-766.
Capelos, T., Provost, C., Parouti, M., Barnett, J., Chenoweth, J., Fife鈥怱chaw, C., & Kelay, T. (2016). Ingredients of institutional reputations and citizen engagement with regulators. Regulation & Governance, 10(4), 350-367.
