About
About
I am a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where I have been a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Human Security Lab. I specialize in international relations, with research interests in human security, climate politics, mass violence, and the legacies of colonialism.
My research focuses on the intersection between climate and security, how the framing of global issues shape public attitudes and politics, and how colonial histories continue to shape citizenship and belonging.
I have training in qualitative and mixed methods, including through the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (IQMR) at Syracuse University.
My research has been supported by multiple grants and fellowships, including the REAL Fellowship, the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Summer Research and Writing Grant, and the RAPID Research Grant at UMass Amherst, as well as a Davis Projects for Peace Grant.
I am also the founder of Air dan Terang, a WASH initiative that brings clean water and sustainable energy to rural communities in Indonesia.
Email: gsantoso [at] umass [dot] edu
Research
Research Interests
My research sits at the intersection of international security, climate politics, and transnational advocacy. I study how political actors frame global problems as security threats, and what those framings do to public attitudes and to the wider issues they draw on. and to the wider issues they draw on, and how militaries and the laws of war shape how states and societies respond to insecurity.
I am also interested in the military as a political actor, and in how military institutions, norms, and ways of thinking reach into other areas of politics. As a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Human Security Lab, I have studied how US service members understand their legal and moral obligations. That work includes a survey of US troops on the duty to disobey manifestly unlawful orders, which is forthcoming in Research and Politics and was featured in The Conversation.
Dissertation: Borrowing Security in Climate Advocacy
My dissertation asks why, and to what end, transnational climate advocates link climate change to other security issues. We know a good deal about why advocates frame problems as security threats in general. We know much less about why they choose to link climate to established security domains such as refugee protection, nuclear weapons, or mass atrocity, rather than presenting climate as a threat in its own right. We also know little about whether these strategies work, or whether they have side effects. For example, does framing climate displacement through refugee law change how the public sees refugees? Does comparing fossil fuels to nuclear weapons affect support for disarmament? And do advocates anticipate these risks at all?
The project compares three campaigns, each of which borrows a treaty framework created in response to a major security crisis:
- The climate–migration nexus draws on refugee protection frameworks developed after mass displacement in the Second World War.
- The Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative adapts the nuclear non-proliferation model, with its pillars of non-proliferation, disarmament, and a just transition.
- The campaign to criminalize ecocide builds on international criminal law, from the Genocide Convention to the Rome Statute.
Publications
Carpenter, Charli, Heather Kumove, and Geraldine Santoso. "'Manifestly Unlawful': How US Troops Think about the Duty to Disobey Illegal Orders." Research and Politics (forthcoming).
Public Scholarship
Carpenter, Charli, and Geraldine Santoso. “4 out of 5 US Troops Surveyed Understand the Duty to Disobey Illegal Orders.” The Conversation, 13 Aug. 2025, https://theconversation.com/4-out-of-5-us-troops-surveyed-understand-the-duty-to-disobey-illegal-orders-261929.
Works in Progress
"Threats or Victims? How Securitizing Climate Change Shifts Public Support for Refugees." (Under review)
"Building on Ruins: Colonial Legacies of Citizenship in Indonesia." (Under review)
Teaching
Introduction to World Politics
Introduction to the principles and practices of international relations in the political, military, economic, and environmental realms. Study of the development of the contemporary system to explore the effects of the structure of the international system, the institutions through which states conduct their relations, and domestic characteristics on the relations among states.
Image : Artists Against the Bomb
Law and Colonial Legacies
This course examines the relationship between law and colonialism, both historically and today. It considers the role law has played in building and sustaining empire, how legal systems were imposed and contested in colonial settings around the world, and how the legacies of colonialism continue to shape law and politics.
Image: Keith Piper, An Artist’s Story, 1986, paper & spray paint on paper, 122 x 122 cm, accession no. 1988.002, Bradford Museums and Galleries, Bradford, United Kingdom, Art UK Collection.
Global Politics of Climate Change
This course examines how countries at different levels of development understand and respond to global climate change, and how climate politics is reshaping North–South relations in international cooperation. It considers how human activity is transforming the Earth systems that sustain life, and what that means for current and future generations. The course also explores changing ideas about sustainable development: the shift from a model built on economic, social, and environmental pillars toward one in which human wellbeing is pursued within global ecological limits.
Image Credits: Still from documentation of Proyek Bendera (Flag Project) performance titled Crossing Point, 2011, with activist and Pangukrejo communities at Mount Merapi, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87qvoOIkPDY&t=13s
Globalization, Global Governance and World Order
This course examines the many dimensions of globalization and how they shape international politics and everyday life. Students study the state and non-state actors involved in global governance, and analyze efforts to steer globalization and what they mean for security, prosperity, justice, and the environment.
Image: David Paul Chun, San Francisco Pier, 1943, lithograph, sheet: 29.2 × 39.4 cm, image: 24.1 × 36.2 cm, object no. 43.47.274, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Met Collection