Matthew Adams

I am a researcher, writer and lecturer based at the University of Brighton, UK. I undertake research that explores the power of human connections to the rest of nature, including human-animal relations, focusing on experiences of mental health, wellbeing, belonging, identity, reciprocity and much more besides. For me, distress as the natural world degrades is an important dimension of connection to nature, so another aspect of my research looks closely at how we respond to our ongoing ecological and climate crisis, addressing a wide range of responses including anxiety, grief, denial and defence mechanisms, anger, activism and resilience. My books Anthropocene Psychology: Being Human in a More-Than-Human World (2020) and Ecological Crisis, Sustainability & the Psychosocial Subject: Beyond Behaviour Change (2016) are good examples of my approach to these topics. As well as books I write journal articles, give public lectures and presentations, and media interviews. I also work collaboratively with community groups and academic colleagues exploring these and related issues.

I do not adhere to the idea that there are strict boundaries between psychology and related subjects such as philosophy, sociology, biology and ecology. I draw on work from these disciplines as well as classic and contemporary work in psychology.

I am a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol); and a Chartered member of the British Psychological Society, and a member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, and the British Sociological Association. I have a PhD and a 1st Class Honours degree in BA (Hons) Communications Studies (Nottingham Trent University).