Biography 

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Christopher R. Cox is an international cross-disciplinary educator and scholar/activist, currently completing his PhD in Geography at the University of Washington in Seattle.  He lives with his wife, 4 1/2-year old son, and dog in Budapest, Hungary. He currently teaches full time at the International School of Budapest, where his students are from the 8th-11th grade on the International Baccalaureate system. He is the 8th grade homeroom teacher and social studies (history and geography) teacher for all classes between 7th grade and the International Baccalaureate years (10-12). 

 

His research is both theoretical and historical, revolving around discussions of extinction, settler colonialism, human-forest relations, indigenous knowledge and history, capitalism and indigeneity, historical sociology, environmental history, social and spatial theory, and philosophy of science and technology. His primary framework for analysis seeks to blend critical social theory and World-Ecology, foregrounding the environmental history and political ecology of capitalism, understood not simply as an economic system, but as a socioecological system that entrains nature (human and otherwise) to produce accumulative spaces. His ongoing work on indigenous knowledge and history, especially in the Far Northwest of the American state of California, is primarily engaged with understanding the role of capitalist scientific management and settler-colonial production of space in the making of the climate and extinction crises. His PhD dissertation, entitled The Productivore's Dilemma: Extinction or Extermination, looks at the historical and systemic processes that were involved in the 'bringing-to-endangerment' (if in fact it is endangered) of the coast redwood tree and what that tells us about the historical production of sapce and the inherent 'systemic' versus 'systematic' drivers of the so-called 'extinction crisis'. Following the completion of that project, he plans to expand his theory of 'systemic extermination' to the urban, with the goal of developing a relational ontology for the study of the 'extinction crisis' as a 'system crisis'. Increasingly, his current work is leading him to suggest that the socialization of the surplus value and capital of A.I. replacement is necessary to push against the tide of extinction.

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Between 2014 and early 2019 Christopher taught several classes at the University of Washington, including Introduction to Globalization, Explanation and Understanding in Geography, International Development and Environmental Change, Geography of Health and Healthcare, Introduction to Political Geography, Geographies of Food and Eating, and Geographies of the Developing World. He is also a member of the adjunct faculty of social science at Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, WA. He has taught two extensive online classes Introduction to Sociology and History of the United States: 1914-present, as well as Sociology courses on campus. Currently, he is the full-time Social Studies Teacher at the International School of Budapest, in Budapest, Hungary where he now resides with his family. In the Spring, he will begin teaching part-time at McDaniel College Budapest as well.

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Before returning to university in 2003, Christopher was a professional trombonist, who played with a long list of renowned jazz, hip-hop, funk, and big band artists, most notably with the band Junkyard Empire, who were once called "the jazz version of Rage Against the Machine." The band played many historic protests across the country, and toured Cuba as a guest of the Ministry of Culture in 2008, when they played 10 shows in 7 days. He still plays the trombone, but has recently taken a strong interest in playing wooden flutes from around the world, especially the Hungarian 'long flute' and various Native American Indian flutes. There are plans in the not too distant future to re-involve music into the work he is currently doing. 

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When not writing, teaching, or playing music with various groups, he enjoys meditation practice, walking, and spending quality time with his dog Zoltan and his son Oliver in the many amazing parks of Budapest. 

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