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Michael Mills is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. His academic work focuses on criminology and sociology, with particular expertise in survivalism and "doomsday" prepping cultures.
Dr. Mills earned his PhD in Criminology, MA in Methods of Social Research (with Distinction), and BA in Criminology and Sociology (First-Class) from the University of Kent.
Michael Mills is a criminologist and sociologist who has established himself as one of the world's foremost experts on cultures of survivalism and "doomsday" prepping. His research agenda involves sustained face-to-face engagement with individuals and groups who prepare to independently survive major social collapse. Rather than accepting media-driven stereotypes that portray prepping culture as apocalyptic and politically extreme, Mills' work demonstrates that preppers' fears and activities often draw on politics and disaster-based fears that resonate throughout mainstream American society. His research methodology combines ethnography, interviews, media analysis, and surveys conducted longitudinally over more than a decade. Mills' research covers themes including the sociology of risk, apocalypticism, and the connections between prepping culture and major political events.
His scholarly publications reveal a consistent focus on understanding prepping culture within broader social and political contexts. Mills has examined the relationship between American prepping culture and major political events including Obama's presidency, Trump's presidency, the covid-19 pandemic, and the aftermath of the 2020 election. His work bridges cultural criminology with political sociology, risk perception studies, and disaster preparedness research, showing how prepping has moved from fringe activity to more mainstream concerns.
Dr. Mills actively supervises doctoral students, with recent successful projects covering diverse topics including low-level drug markets, psychedelic drug use, the lived experience of kava consumers, and domestic violence victims' access to justice in Trinidad and Tobago. His research has been featured in major media outlets including The Independent, BBC, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Sky News, Metro, Rolling Stone, and The Atlantic, as well as international outlets in Australia, Denmark, Greece, Belgium, Poland, the United States, and Brazil.
He teaches modules on Introduction to Contemporary Issues in Criminology, The Evolution of Crime and Criminology, and Media, Society and Crime. His expertise has positioned him as a leading academic commentator on the growing phenomenon of prepping across the political spectrum, noting that while conservatives dominate the prepping community, liberals constitute about 15 percent of preppers who are primarily concerned with climate change disasters and potential government instability under certain political administrations.
