Jennifer Keating

Jennifer Keating is an Associate Professor at the School of History, University College Dublin (UCD), holding roles such as Deputy Head of School (2023) and Director of Teaching & Learning (2020–2022). She specializes in imperial and Soviet Russian history, environmental history, and political ecology, focusing on Central Asia and the Russian Empire's environmental imprint. Her research explores ecological change, land use, and imperialism's impact on conflict and state formation. Keating completed her PhD at University College London (UCL) and held postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research in London before joining UCD in 2018. She co-founded the UK Environmental History Workshop and is leading the ERC-funded project 'Land Limits' (2024–2028).

Education: BA (Hons) from Durham University, MA and PhD from UCL. She has taught at Cambridge University, LSE, and UCL.

Research Interests
Her work combines environmental and spatial history to analyze imperial dynamics. Current projects include pastoralist networks in Central Asia and an ERC project on population, environment, and conflict in Russian Eurasia (1860s–1920s). Her monograph On Arid Ground (OUP, 2022) won the 2023 Royal Historical Society Gladstone Prize and an Honorable Mention in the 2024 BASEES Nove Prize.

Awards & Grants
- Royal Historical Society Gladstone Prize (2023)
- ERC Grant (Land Limits, 2024–2028)
- UCD ADVANCE PhD Scheme grants (2019–2024)

Teaching & Mentorship
Coordinates modules on environmental history, Revolutionary Russia, and Central Asia. Supervises PhD students researching resource regimes and regional identity in post-Soviet Tatarstan.

Professional Activities
- Editor of Environmental and Cultural Destruction at Imperial Margins
- Member of ESEH, ASEEES, and BASEES
- Reviews for Journal of Global History, Kritika, and Cultural and Social History