Robert Butler

Dr Robert Butler is a scholar and journalist writing about culture & climate change. Most recently: "In Case of Emergency" (Southbank Centre, 2026). He was drama critic of the Independent on Sunday (1995-2000) and online editor and "Going Green" columnist for The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine (2007-2014). He has written five short books about the creative and collaborative process of staging productions at the National Theatre (2000-2006) and edited the Methuen Student Edition of Michael Frayn's "Copenhagen" (2003). He was the co-editor (with Professor Joe Smith and Professor Renata Tyszczuk) of three publications about culture and climate change in the Culture and Climate series: "Recordings" (2011), "Narratives" (2014) and "Scenarios" (2019). His interviews with Philip Pullman, Rowan Williams and Nicholas Hytner appear in "Darkness Illuminated" (2004, ed. Lyn Haill). He has a PhD in Geography from The Open University. His thesis focussed on the necessity of imagining a relational sense of place in the Anthropocene (2020). Twitter: @robert__butler