Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Qualifications

• PhD (Environment and Geography), Macquarie University, 15/04/2011
• Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education, University of Newcastle, 31/12/2009
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of New South Wales, 31/12/1996

Research

Research keywords

• Climate change
• Complex adaptive systems
• Insurance
• Neo-Gramscian political economy
• Online teaching & learning
• Sustainability

Research expertise

In brief

Expertise: Earth system thresholds; climate change; finance (especially insurance); complexity theory; critical political economy; interdisciplinary research methodologies; and and pedagogy of online education, especially fostering online students sense of belonging to learning communities. Skills: researching complex sustainability problems by drawing from the physical & social sciences; conceptual development; qualitative research methods.

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Research interests

My primary research interest is sustainability and how to achieve it. I have a long-standing engagement at the nexus of climate change, finance, human rights and ecological sustainability. More recently my research interests have evolved to focus on governance of the Earth system as a complex adaptive system comprising human-social and ecological elements, and its key characteristics, including thresholds, non-linear change, and capacity for surprise. My particular interest is the relationship between the Earth system and the global economy as a subsystem of the Earth system, and how to bring the global economy into alignment with the Earth system. I engage in critical research, i.e. research which seeks both to understand the world and to change it for the better.

I have also developed a 'second discipline' in online teaching and learning. My current research interest in this area is online students' sense of belonging to learning communities: how this aligns with constructivist understandings of learning, how this supports students' achievement and enjoyment of learning, and how to foster students' sense of belonging.

Theory and conceptual development

I have worked extensively with complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory, particularly as applied to social-ecological systems, i.e. the Earth system, the global economy, or virtually any other subsystem of the Earth system. CAS theory can serve well as an anchoring theoretical perspective for interdisciplinary Earth system research: one that can engage with cross-scale interaction (e.g. climate change as an expression of interaction between the global economy and the Earth system). I have combined CAS theory with neo-Gramscian political economy and also with diverse economies theory in order to addressing seemingly intractable sustainability questions. I also have working familiarity with climate and Earth system science.

Methodology

I seek to apply interdisciplinary methodologies in my research. While not necessary for all research, interdisciplinary methodologies are often an ideal choice for complex sustainability questions. I am most familiar with transdisciplinary methodologies (i.e. drawing on diverse disciplines from the very earliest stage of defining the research problem), which I used in PhD studies. I enjoy collaborating with colleagues with shared interests and complimentary expertise in order to pursue sustainability research.

PhD

Awarded 2011, Macquarie University, Sydney. In Environment & Geography. The PhD’s title is The relationship between anthropogenic climate change and the insurance system: Imperatives, options, and reflections on theory. The PhD is a transdisciplinary study of the relationship between climate change, the global economy and insurance. The research draws primarily on complexity theory, critical political economy and climate and Earth system science to (i) ask what climate change means for insurance, (ii) ask if and how the insurance system might be geared to effective and just mitigation of climate change, and (iii) reflect on the use of theory in this research towards further theory development.

Languages

• Invented Languages

Fields of Research

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Fellow - Earth System Governance Network

Administrative

Administrative expertise

In my role as Teaching and Learning Coordinator I am leading GradSchool's work aimed at supporting teaching excellence across all of the University's online postgraduate coursework programs.

Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Environmental Studies

Teaching expertise

Since 2012 I am Teaching and Learning Coordinator with GradSchool, the unit which administers all of the University's online postgraduate courswork programs.

I have served in Course Coordinator, Lecturer and Tutor roles since 2004 teaching Environmental Studies, Development Studies and Geography in the Discipline of Geography and Environmental Studies. In 2007-8, together with colleagues, I rewrote two courses, ENVS6525 Sustainability & Ecosystem Health and ENVS6530 Environmental Management.

In 2011 I was honoured with the Newcastle University Postgraduate Students' Association Online Teacher of the Year Award. That year I was also awarded a Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence.

I have published journal articles and presented conference papers on the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in the area of online students sense of belonging to learning communities.

I completed a Graduate Certificate in the Practice of Tertiary Teaching in 2009 and am currently completing a Master of Leadership and Management in Education.