Dr Liam Phelan

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 aim to equip and encourage students to participate consciously, actively and effectively in wider society as highly functioning citizens. Connections between education, social justice and sustainability are a key interest for me. This is why I teach.

Through my teaching I aim to support students to engage in their own active learning processes and facilitate in them an understanding of complex environmental sustainability issues. I pursue ‘deep approaches’ to learning, associated with outcomes described by students themselves as ‘understanding’, ‘seeing something in a different way’ and ‘changing as a person’; this represents significant ambition for teaching, beyond shallow learning such as ‘increasing one’s knowledge’, ‘memorising’ and ‘applying’. From this philosophical starting point I have developed an approach to teaching that conceptualises learning as a social and interactive activity. I believe online students’ sense of belonging to a learning community is absolutely essential to their success and joy in learning. For students in the online space, interactions are key to their development of a sense of community, and learners interactions, engagement and their sense of community may even constitute a virtuous spiral, i.e. a self-reinforcing process which supports achievement of learning goals. In my teaching practice I create a sense of community in cohorts of online Master students by emphasising students’ interaction with course content, peers and myself as lecturer. My background is in activism for social and ecological justice, and human rights. I have worked with civil society organisations including AID/WATCH and the Australia Tibet Council. In 2005 I was co-recipient of the international Free Spirit Award, created in 2003 to honour individuals working for the cause of Tibetan people. I have also served in several honorary roles with the International Tibet Support Network and with The Mercy Foundation, a philanthropic foundation with a social justice mission based in Sydney, Australia.

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. ****************** 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.

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.

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.