Daniel Zimmer

Bio

I am a lecturer with the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education program at Stanford University. My scholarship draws on ecological political theory, the history of political thought, and science and technology studies to explore how humans came to exert power on a planetary scale and the political implications this carries. I teach courses such as “The Science and Politics of the Apocalypse” and “Earth, Space, Bits: Contesting the Nature and Future of Humanity.”

My research explores the connections that bind nuclear weapons, planetary ecological crises, and the rise of artificial intelligence into a broader syndrome. Recent projects have addressed the politics of Earth System science, the relationship between existential risk and biopower, how learning to live with nuclear terror affects the response to global warming, how nuclear and ecological anxieties have shaped understandings of AI risk, the need for greater diversity and pluralism in the field of existential risk studies, and a history of how the human power to destroy all human life reshaped Western political thought during the 20th century.

Academic Appointments

• Lecturer, Stanford Introductory Studies - Civic, Liberal, and Global Education

Professional Education

• PhD, Cornell University, Political Thought (2022)
• MA, The University of Chicago, Social Science (2014)
• BA, The New School, Historical Studies (2011)