I am an Assistant Professor in International Relations at Durham University. My research interests are in international relations theory, global history, international institutions, critical geography, historical sociology and environmental politics. My current work approaches environmental cooperation from a historical perspective, by analysing how and why the first international organizations were established in the 19th century to manage a contested transboundary issue—the international river. I focus on discourses of civilization, control and rationality in the establishment of these early IOs. I am particularly interested in meaning creation as a historical process and how social meanings attached to physical geographies impact international cooperation and conflict.