Leah Schmidt is a PhD student in Gender Studies at the University of Cambridge, Department of Politics and International Studies. Her research bridges “crip theory,” Foucauldian biopower, and critical security studies to examine how anxiety operates as a political force within nontraditional security movements such as doomsday prepping, AI “doomerism,” and climate anxiety. By analyzing multidisciplinary intersections of violence, power, gender, and embodiment, Leah’s thesis investigates how under-analyzed emotions, such as anxiety, drive contemporary patterns of mis/disinformation and institutional mistrust.

Watch her thesis presentation of three minutes titled “PANIC ATTACK: Theorizing Security Anxiety on the Brink of Doomsday” during an introductory meeting in Saint-Paulin, Quebec.