Jacob McLean
Jacob McLean is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Sociology at the University of Victoria and a Research Fellow at the Parkland Institute in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta. His research examines the politics of decarbonization, populism, and the far right. His postdoctoral project investigates Alberta separatism and its relationship to the oil and gas industry and Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party.
This research builds on his doctoral dissertation, Carbon Convoys: Extractive Populism and the Canadian Far Right, which traced the emergence and diffusion of the convoy as a tactic of pro-fossil-fuel and right-wing populist protest in Canada, including the 2022 ‘Freedom’ Convoy. He holds a PhD in Environmental Studies from York University and was a 2026 Fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study.
McLean is also a member of the Zetkin Collective, a group of scholars and activists working on the political ecology of the far right. The collective’s book, The Great Driving Right Show: Cars, Crisis, and the Rise of Fossil Fascism, was published by Verso in 2026.
Publications
Zetkin Collective. 2026. The Great Driving Right Show: Cars, Crisis, and the Rise of Fossil Fascism. London: Verso.
Laxer, Emily, and Jacob McLean. 2026. "The 'People's Chamber'? Populism and Social Movement Politics in Alberta's Sovereignty Debate." Journal of Canadian Studies 60(1): 133-161.
McLean, Jacob, Emily Laxer, and Efe Peker. 2024. "Taking Alberta Back: Faith, Fuel, and Freedom on the Canadian Far Right." Religions 15(10): article 1250.
McLean, Jacob. 2023. "Low Class Oil Trash and the Politico-Aesthetics of the Fossilized Proletariat." Canadian Literature 251: 97-118.
Butet-Roch, Laurence, Jacob McLean, Laura Tanguay, and Isaac Thornley. Forthcoming. "Dear Comrades: Letters on Extraction and the Crimes of Occupation." In The End of Extraction as We Know It? Learning from Extractive Resistance for Sustainable Futures, edited by Erynne Gilpin, Amy Janzwood, and Sarah Marie Wiebe. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.
McLean, Jacob. 2024. "United They Roll? How Canadian Fossil Capital Subsidizes the Far Right." In Political Ecologies of the Far Right: Fanning the Flames, edited by Irma Kinga Allen, Kristoffer Ekberg, Ståle Holgersen, and Andreas Malm, 80-98. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Callison, William, George Edwards, Ståle Holgersen, Alexandra McFadden, Jacob McLean, and Tatjana Söding. 2024. "Afterword - Extinguishing the Flames: A Call for Future Research and Action on Far-Right Ecologies." In Political Ecologies of the Far Right: Fanning the Flames, edited by Irma Kinga Allen, Kristoffer Ekberg, Ståle Holgersen, and Andreas Malm, 251-259. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Laxer, Emily, Rémi Vivès, and Jacob McLean. 2025. "'Common Sense' Is Back!: Who Is Using It, How, and What Does It Reveal About Populist Discourse in Canadian Federal Politics?" Canada Watch, Fall 2025.
Vivès, Rémi, Jacob McLean, and Emily Laxer. 2025. "'Fire the Gatekeepers!': Measuring 'Contagion Effects' in the Spread of Anti-Elite Discourse among Canadian Federal MPs." Canada Watch, Fall 2025.
McLean, Jacob, and Emily Laxer. 2025. "The Alberta Sovereignty Act and Albertan Political Culture: A New Direction, or More of the Same?" Canada Watch, Fall 2025.
Callison, William, George Edwards, Jacob McLean, and Tatjana Söding. 2025. "Morbid Symptoms: Defining a New Phase of Denial." The Break-Down 1 (Spring).
McLean, Jacob, and other members of the Zetkin Collective (interviewees). 2025. "Kollektivität und Antifaschismus in Zeiten der Klimakrise: Ein Gespräch mit dem Zetkin Collective." In Das Ende rechter Räume: Zu Territorialisierungen der radikalen Rechten, by Autor*innenkollektiv Terra-R, 173-184. Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot.
Callison, William, George Edwards, Jacob McLean, and Tatjana Söding. 2024. "The Great Driving Right Show." Salvage 14 (Spring/Summer).