Peter Cox’s first degree was in independent studies at the University of Lancaster, UK, which involved an interdisciplinary study of Christian anarchist and peace movements. After working in the bicycle business he returned to academia as a Gladstone Fellow at the University of Chester where he completed his PhD in 2002, studying Gandhian models of social change and their intersection with green politics and action. He is a senior lecturer in sociology at Chester where, among others, he teaches courses on social change and social movements and on the politics of sustainability. For the past 10 years, his research has focused largely on the sociology and politics of cycling as a facet of mobilities study. His tenure as a visiting scholar at RCC is enabled by a Leverhulme International Academic Fellowship aimed at "developing interdisciplinary research into bicycling and the environment."

Peter returned to the Rachel Carson Center as a Landhaus Fellow in 2023.