Robert A. Saunders is a leading scholar of popular geopolitics, as well as an internationally-recognized researcher in the field of nation branding. His geographic areas of focus include Russia, Ukraine, the post-socialist states of the Caucasus and Central Asia, and Nordic Europe. His research explores the impact of popular culture and mass media on geopolitics, nationalism, and religious identity, as well as the relationship between world politics and environmental issues. His articles have appeared in
Millennium, Geopolitics, Political Geography, Politics, Social & Cultural Geography, cultural geographies, Nations and Nationalism, Slavic Review, and
Europe-Asia Studies, as well as other journals. A Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, Politics, and Geography at Farmingdale State College - SUNY, he teaches courses on International Relations and cultural geography. Professor Saunders holds a Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers University and degrees in History from Stony Brook University and the University of Florida.
Based on his extensive work on Kazakhstan's feud with the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Harper's labeled him the 'world's leading Boratologist'. His 2008 book on the subject is entitled The Many Faces of Sacha Baron Cohen: Politics, Parody, and the Battle over Borat. Building on this research, Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm (Routledge, 2017) explores the tension between Western pop-culture representations of the fifteen former Soviet republics and their own attempts at image management. His co-edited volume Popular Geopolitics: Plotting an Evolving Interdiscipline (Routledge, 2018) reflects on and expands the scope of this research agenda. Professor Saunders' latest book is Geopolitics, Northern Europe, and Nordic Noir: What Television Series Tell Us About World Politics, which was published by Routledge's Popular Culture and World Politics series in 2021. His more recent scholarly thrust examines representations of the Anthropocene Epoch in popular culture, and how such visualisations influence (geo)political visions, codes, practices, and orders at the planetary level.
In 2016, Professor Saunders received the prestigious SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, a system-wide accolade for sustained scholarship . In 2023, he became the first member of the Farmingdale faculty to be awarded the title of Distinguished Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees. This rank is conferred only upon faculty who have achieved international prominence and a distinguished reputation within the individual's chosen field via significant contributions to research and scholarship. Professor Saunders has held visiting researcher positions at the University of Leeds, Aarhus University, Malmö University, and the University of Glasgow. He is a member of the editorial board of Academic Quarter/Akademisk kvarter and an Affiliate Partner of the Centre for Transnational Media Research at Aarhus University.
Based on his extensive work on Kazakhstan's feud with the British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, Harper's labeled him the 'world's leading Boratologist'. His 2008 book on the subject is entitled The Many Faces of Sacha Baron Cohen: Politics, Parody, and the Battle over Borat. Building on this research, Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm (Routledge, 2017) explores the tension between Western pop-culture representations of the fifteen former Soviet republics and their own attempts at image management. His co-edited volume Popular Geopolitics: Plotting an Evolving Interdiscipline (Routledge, 2018) reflects on and expands the scope of this research agenda. Professor Saunders' latest book is Geopolitics, Northern Europe, and Nordic Noir: What Television Series Tell Us About World Politics, which was published by Routledge's Popular Culture and World Politics series in 2021. His more recent scholarly thrust examines representations of the Anthropocene Epoch in popular culture, and how such visualisations influence (geo)political visions, codes, practices, and orders at the planetary level.
In 2016, Professor Saunders received the prestigious SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, a system-wide accolade for sustained scholarship . In 2023, he became the first member of the Farmingdale faculty to be awarded the title of Distinguished Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees. This rank is conferred only upon faculty who have achieved international prominence and a distinguished reputation within the individual's chosen field via significant contributions to research and scholarship. Professor Saunders has held visiting researcher positions at the University of Leeds, Aarhus University, Malmö University, and the University of Glasgow. He is a member of the editorial board of Academic Quarter/Akademisk kvarter and an Affiliate Partner of the Centre for Transnational Media Research at Aarhus University.
Courses Taught
Terrorism and the Modern World, Cultural Geography, Comparative Religions/Cultures, Politics and Popular Culture, Geopolitics, Politics of the Middle East, Globalization & SustainabilityEducation
- Ph.D., Global Affairs, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 2005
- M.A., History, Stony Brook University, 1997
- B.A., History, University of Florida, 1994 – Magna cum Laude
Publications
- Robert Saunders, The Resonant Slop Machine: Public Diplomacy and Strategic Narratives in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 2025, 1-10.
- Robert A. Saunders, Posthuman Geopolitical Culture(s): Decentering the State in the Anthropocene Epoch in A. Rose and S. Fishel (Eds.), Environmentalism After Humanism, Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2025), pp. 47-76.
- Robert Saunders, Landscapes in the Frame: Anthropocene Screens, Critical Studies in Television, 19(3) 2024, 273-291.
- Robert Saunders, A See Change? The Problematic (Visual) Politics of Screening the Anthropocene, Critical Studies in Television, 19(3) 2024, 292-313.
- Robert Saunders, The Wilderness in B. Warf (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Cham: Springer (2024).
- Robert Saunders, Genealogical Journeys, Geographical Imagination, and (Popular) Geopolitics in Who Do You Think You Are?, Social and Cultural Geography, 25(5) 2024, 698-717.
- Robert Saunders, (Em)placing the Popular in Cultural Geography, Social and Cultural Geography, 25(5) 2024, 685-697.
- Robert SaundersGuest Editor, ed., Social & Cultural Geography: (Em)placing the Popular in Cultural Geography, 25(5) 2024.
- Robert SaundersGuest Editor, ed., Critical Studies in Television: Televisual Landscapes in the Era of Climate Crises, 19(3) 2024.
- Robert Saunders, Imagination, Geopolitics, and the Anthropocene, Geopolitics, 29(2) 2024, 1072-1076.
- Robert Saunders, Black + Brown ≠ Green: The Absent Presence of the Anthropocene in Wakanda Forever, Political Geography, 2024.
- Robert Saunders, Ukraine at War: Reflections on Popular Culture as a Geopolitical Battlespace, Czech Journal of International Relations, 59(1) 2024, 23-57.
- Robert Saunders, Screening Arctic Landscapes in Nordic Television Drama: Anthropocenic Imaginaries, Ecological Crises, National Identities in C. Goldie, D. White and J. Peck (Eds.), Disturbed Ecologies: Photography, Geopolitics, and the Northern Landscape in the Era of Environmental Crisis, Bielefield, Germany: Transcript Verlag (2023), pp. 257-281.
- Robert Saunders, Ghostbusting in the Late Anthropocene: The 1980s, (Un)Conscious Climate Culture, and Our Holocene Afterlives, Academic Quarter, 25 2022, 64-78.
- Robert Saunders, Latvia’s Labietis: Modern Craft Brewing Across the Pagan-Christian Threshold in N. Phillips, R. O’Neill and J. Geck (Eds.), Beer and Brewing in Medieval Culture and Contemporary Medievalism, London: Palgrave (2022), pp. 181-204.
- Robert A. Saunders, Out of Time/In Place: Norwegianness, 'Immigration,' and Spatial Belonging in Beforeigners, cultural geographies, 2022.
- Robert Saunders, Geopolitics, Northern Europe, and Nordic Noir: What Television Series Tell Us About World Politics, London and New York: Routledge (2020).
- Robert Saunders, Popular Geopolitics and Nation Branding in the Post-Soviet Realm, London and New York: Routledge (2020).
- Robert SaundersGuest Editor, ed., Nordicom Review: Dark Screens: The Geopolitics of Nordic Television Drama, 41(s1) 2020.
- Robert Saunders(Ed.), , Popular Geopolitics: Plotting an Evolving Interdiscipline (co-edited with Vlad Strukov), London and New York: Routledge (2020).
- Robert A. Saunders, Historical Dictionary of the Russian Federation, 2nd ed. (Revised Edition), : Scarecrow Press (2019).
Awards & Honors
- Honorary Fellow of the Leeds Russian Centre (University of Leeds), 2017.
- Affiliate Partner of the Centre for Transnational Media Research (Aarhus University), 2019.
- Visiting researcher at Institute of Urban Research, Malmo University, Sweden, December 1, 2019 - December 31, 2019.
- Visiting affiliate researcher at the University of Glasgow, September 1, 2025 - December 5, 2025.
