Emerson is ARC Research Fellow at the Institute for Infrastructure in Society, ANU Crawford School of Public Policy. He researches social risk, environmental and natural resource politics, and social movements. He completed his PhD at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra where he studied environmental discourses surrounding Philippine mining disasters. He obtained an MA in International Public Policy at the University of Tsukuba and a BA in Journalism cum laude at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He published works on Philippine mining disasters, social movements under former President Rodrigo Duterte, and sovereign wealth funds for Philippine offshore energy resources.