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, philosophy, 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 Marxian 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 Marxian 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 dynamic role of rural labour at different levels of capital accumulation. 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 of rural labour exploitation using a Marxian political economy framework. I also intend to explore the persistence of rural-urban divides through a historical account of capitalist urbanization and the fragmentary tendencies of capital accumulation.

You can find my 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 on several modules in the geography department, mainly leading seminar discussions and occasionally giving lectures. My teaching expertise is in economic geography, political economy, and the spatial logic of capital accumulation. I am also well-versed in academic literature involving cultural geographies, labour geographies, critical human geographies, 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/will be a teaching assistant on the following modules:

Creating Alternative Futures (undergraduate course), Spring 2026

Geographies of Economies (undergraduate course), Autumn 2025

Contested Cities (undergraduate course), Autumn 2024 and Autumn 2025

Making of the Modern City (undergraduate course), Spring 2025 and Spring 2026