Dashiell Anderson

Profile

I am a PhD candidate in Economics and a teaching assistant in Geography at the University of Leeds. My academic background is interdisciplinary in economics, geography, English literature, and law. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Travelling through the western U.S., I developed an interest in the cultural, economic, political, and social divides that exist between rural and urban people. During my undergraduate years at the University of Utah I became interested in cultural geography, social theory, and political economy. I developed these interests further during my M.A. in Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where I began to apply my interdisciplinary interests to rigorous debates in the political economy of rural-urban divides. Before moving to Leeds to start my PhD, I completed a second masters in Comparative Law, Economics, and Finance at the International University College of Turin in Turin, Italy. During this time, I was able to both expand and refine my interdisciplinary toolset in understanding the intersection of capitalism and space that remains central to my research and teaching at the University of Leeds.

You can find my personal academic website here, and my CV here

Research interests

I am interested in a variety of topics pertaining to economic geography, cultural geography, and political economy. My PhD thesis focuses on constructing a theory of rural labour exploitation and rural wage determination in high capital accumulation countries, with particular attention given to the US and the UK. Critically engaging with relevant academic literature in economics, geography, sociology, political science, and cultural theory, I critically examine the persistence of rural-urban wage differentials tied to the historical and geographical tendencies of capital accumulation.

After my PhD, I intend to continue developing a rigorous theoretical framework that can be used to conceptualize the role of rural labour at different levels of capitalist development. My goal is ultimately to develop a manuscript that challenges conventional thinking about rural labour and rurality more generally, and which offers a constructive analytical framework to explore the persistence of rural-urban divides through capitalist urbanization and the fragmentary tendencies of capital accumulation.

You can find my Leeds University Business School research profile page here

Qualifications

• Ph.D., Economics, University of Leeds, 2022-Present
• L.L.M., Comparative Law, Economics, and Finance, International University College of Turin, 2022
• M.A., Economics, New School for Social Research, 2021
• B.S., Economics, University of Utah, 2019
• Honors B.A., English, University of Utah, 2019

Student education

I have been a teaching assistant (demonstrator) on several modules in the School of Geography, mainly leading seminar sessions and designing summative assessments. My teaching expertise is in economic geography, political economy, cultural geography, urbanization, and human geography. I have also taught and am well-versed in political geographies, theories of populism, global geopolitics, and literary criticism. My desire is to continue teaching after my PhD, as I consider pedagogy to be central to my academic identity and the social usefulness of academia.

I have been a teaching assistant (demonstrator) on the following undergraduate modules:

“Political and Development Geographies” (Spring 2026)

“Global Geopolitics, Migration, and Uneven Development” (Spring 2026)

”Creating Alternative Futures” (Spring 2026)

”The Making of the Modern City” (Spring 2026/25)

”Geographies of Economies” (Autumn 2025)

”Planet Under Threat” (Autumn 2025)

”Contested Cities” (Autumn 2025/24)