Dr Nathan Stephens-Griffin

Assistant Professor

School: Humanities and Social Sciences

Nathan started as a Lecturer at Northumbria University in September 2018. His research interests include animal advocacy, environmentalism, and other forms of political activism, with a particular interest in the criminalisation of political protest. He is also interested in biographical, visual and graphic narrative approaches to social research.

Before joining Northumbria, Nathan worked as a Teaching Fellow in Criminology in the Department of Sociology at Durham University, and as a Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology at Teesside University. Nathan completed his PhD at Durham University in 2015. In 2017 he published a monograph based on his PhD research, entitled ‘Understanding Veganism: Biography and Identity’.

Email Nathan

@drnathansg

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Critical Animal Studies

Green Criminology

Veganism and Animal Advocacy

Criminalisation and Repression of Protest

Undercover Policing

Abolition

Biographical and Visual Research Methods

Comics and Social Research

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Discipline-switching through a Bourdieusian lens: examining the experiences of academics moving into criminology, Cook, I., Stephens-Griffin, N., Laing, M., Barwick, D., Mitchell, S. 5 Mar 2026, In: The British Journal of Criminology
Sabotaging hunting, prefiguring anti-speciesist futures, Brock, A., Stephens-Griffin, N., Davanna, T. 13 Feb 2026, In: Human Geography
Eco-Abolition: Policing Environmental Injustice, Stephens-Griffin, N., Brock, A. 19 Mar 2025, Abolitionist Voices, Bristol, Bristol University Press
Policing Ecocide, Brock, A., Stephens-Griffin, N. 22 Oct 2025, Towards Anti-Policing, Lanham, US, Lexington Books
Criminal enforcement of environmental laws cannot deter ecological harm or achieve environmental justice, Stretesky, P., Gladkova, E., Stephens-Griffin, N. 16 Jul 2024, Research Handbook on Environmental Crimes and Criminal Enforcement, Cheltenham, Glos., Edward Elgar
Biting Back: A Green-Cultural Criminology of Animal Liberation Struggle as Constructed Through Online Communiqués, Stephens-Griffin, N. 1 Jun 2023, In: Crime, Media, Culture
Embracing ‘Abolition Ecology’: A Green Criminological Rejoinder, Stephens-Griffin, N. 1 Jun 2023, In: Critical Criminology
‘Go Home, Get a Job, and Pay Some Taxes to Replace a Bit of What You’ve Wasted’: Stigma Power and Solidarity in Response to Anti-Open-Cast Mining Activism in the Coalfields of Rural County Durham, UK, Brock, A., Stephenson, C., Stephens-Griffin, N., Wyatt, T. 1 Jun 2023, In: Sociological Research Online
“It’s Just Totally Lawless Out Here”: A rural green criminological exploration of foxhunting, policing, and ‘regulatory capture’, Graham, L., Wyatt, T., Stephens-Griffin, N. 8 Jul 2022, In: Criminological Encounters
'Nothing Has Changed...': A report from a survey of political activists targeted by undercover police in the UK., Stephens-Griffin, N. 13 Jun 2022

PGR Supervision

Lynne Graham No Justice, Just Us: A qualitative mixed methods ethnographic study of organised foxhunting and anti-hunt activism in England and Wales Start Date: 01/10/2019 End Date: 17/10/2025
Lynne Graham No Justice, Just Us: A qualitative mixed methods ethnographic study of organised foxhunting and anti-hunt activism in England and Wales Start Date: 01/10/2019 End Date: 22/02/2026