Leah Schmidt

Research Project

PANIC ATTACK: Theorizing Security Anxiety on the Brink of Doomsday

Biography

Leah Schmidt (She/Her) is a SSHRC-funded 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. 

Leah earned her Master of Philosophy from Cambridge as a Chevening Scholar and Rotary Global Grant Recipient. Currently an a/Senior Advisor on Human Rights at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, she serves as a North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network research fellow and Managing Editor for The Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Previously, she was Gender Lead for Canada’s G7/G20 diplomatic team. Named to the 2024 Canada-France “Future Leaders of Defense” cohort, Leah is also a Fulbright Killam Fellow alumna and Alberta Top 30 Under 30 recipient. 

Combining academic expertise with a commitment to public service, Leah is dedicated to advancing inclusive socio-political policy and fostering responsive Canadian approaches to ontological security.