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Leaders

Professor Nicola Ansell Professor Nicola Ansell
Email Professor Nicola Ansell Professor - Human Geography
Since I arrived at Brunel in 1999, my interests have focused on social and cultural change in the lives of young people in the Global South (particularly southern Africa). I have researched the impacts of AIDS on young people’s migration; how education sectors are adjusting to the needs of AIDS-affected young people; and the impacts of AIDS on young people’s current livelihoods and future food security. Recently, I have completed two research projects. The first examines the impacts of social cash transfers (for instance old age pensions and child grants) on generational relations in Malawi and Lesotho. The second investigates links between education and aspiration in remote rural areas of Lesotho, Laos and India. I have also authored a book on Children, youth and development (second edition published 2016) and launched an MA programme on Children, Youth and International Development. Social and cultural change in the lives of young people in the Global South (particularly in southern Africa); politics and impacts of global policy agendas (particularly in the areas of education, children’s rights and social protection); geographies of youth and childhood; scalar politics; participatory research. Teaching Responsibilities: Programme convenor: MA Children, Youth and International Development Module convenor: Understanding Childhood and Youth (PG) Researching Children, Childhood and Youth (PG) Applied Learning for Children, Youth and International Development (PG) Dissertation, Children, Youth and International Development (PG)
Professor Emma Wainwright Professor Emma Wainwright Emma is a Professor and interdisciplinary social scientist with a background in Human Geography. She is co-lead of the Human Geography: Space, Place and Society research group (with Nicola Ansell and Monica Degen) and the Education, Identities and Society research group (with Utsa Mukherjee). Emma studied Geography at the University of Aberdeen and, after completing her PGCE (Secondary) at the University of Edinburgh and a brief period of secondary teaching, was awarded a scholarship by the University of St Andrews to undertake her PhD in Social and Historical Geography. Prior to working at Brunel, Emma was a Research Executive in the Social Research Institute at MORI (now Ipsos MORI). Emma's research interests focus on the geographies of education, training and welfare, and social and educational inequalities. In particular her works explores higher education and student experience; social housing and resident engagement; family, parenting and home-school engagement; embodiment, body work and emotional labour. Emma's work engages low-income, marginalised and 'hard to reach' groups. Research has been funded through external grants awarded by the ESRC, the British Academy, the City of London Corporation, Barclays, the Froebel Trust, the Learning and Skills Council, and the Money Advice Service. Emma has successfully collaborated with various social housing providers across London and the South East including A2Dominion, Catalyst and East Thames (now L&Q) to deliver research and evaluation projects. The impact of this research was captured in a REF 21 case study. For six years, Emma was editor of the British Educational Research Journal (Jan 2018- Dec 2023). She has recently been external examiner at the University of Hertfordshire (BSc Geography), University of Newcastle (BSc Geography) and Cardiff University (MSc Education and MSc Childhood and Youth), and acts as a regular reviewer for various academic journals. In 2006 Emma was awarded the Newbigin Prize by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society for her paper published in the Scottish Geographical Journal. Recent work has been published in Area, Educational Review, Education 3-13 and Population, Space and Place. Emma has worked at Brunel for 20 years, nine years as part time. She currently works 4-days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). Qualifications PhD, Geography, University of St Andrews PGC in Higher Education, Brunel University London PGC in Secondary Education (Geography and Modern Studies), Moray House, University of Edinburgh MA (Hons) Geography (1st Class), University of Aberdeen Awards and Prizes BERA Conference Award for Best Paper in the Educational Policy and Educational Research SIG, 2023 BERA Conference Commendation for Best Paper in the Alternative Education SIG, 2021 Brunel Teach Award for Innovative Assessment, 2018 University's Student-Led Teaching Award for Outstanding Feedback, 2017 Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Newbigin Prize, 2006 Current research interests include: HE participation, student success, commuter students, student poverty Early years, play and inclusion Social housing, welfare provision, training and financial inclusion Embodied learning and professionalism Home-school engagement and policy enactment Engaging low-income families in research REF 21 Case Study based on resident engagement in education, training and welfare support REF21 Case Study - Education, Training and Welfare-to-Work Through a geographical lens, my research focuses on social and educational inequalities. In particular, my work explores: Higher education, student experience, widening access, poverty and precarity Family, parenting and home-school engagement Further education, lifelong learning and training for work Embodiment, body work and emotional labour Social housing and resident engagement Current teaching I currently teach on the following programmes: BA Education, Department of Education BSc Geography, Department of Social and Political Sciences Modules led: ED1705 Human Development ED2700 The Social Study of Children and Young People ED1802 Education and Society 1 ED2800 Education and Society 2 Focusing on Geography, Sociology, Social Policy and Research Methods I have previously taught on the following programmes: MA Children, Youth and International Development; MA Education; Doctorate of Eduction; BA and MA Social Work. Teaching awards: 2017 recipient of the University's Student-Led Teaching Award for Outstanding Feedback 2018 recipient of Brunel Teach Award for Innovative Assessment
Professor Monica Degen Professor Monica Degen
Email Professor Monica Degen College Creative Industries Lead / Professor
Dr Mónica Degen is Professor in Urban Studies in the Political and Social Sciences Department at Brunel University London. She completed her ESRC funded PhD in 2001 within the Sociology Department at Lancaster University under the supervision of Prof John Urry and Prof Bulent Diken. She then worked with Prof S Whatmore and Prof S Hinchliffe on the project ‘Habitable Cities’ at the Open University, before joining Brunel in 2004. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious British Academy Fellowship to research 'Timescapes of Urban Change'. She has held positions as visiting professor at Barcelona University, Gothenburg University and is currently a visiting professor at Lleida University in Spain. Her research examines the politics of space in cities through the prism of experiential urbanism, and is grounded in ethnographic approaches. She is particularly interested in understanding how urban change affects our senses of place and our interactions with others. Related to this, she explores how urban life and politics are underpinned by sensory, temporal and emotional dimensions, and how these shape power relations in urban culture, planning and governance. Her work has shaped strategies for the spatial design of public spaces in London and Barcelona, and influenced curatorial practices and activity planning for the New Museum of London, the Cologne City Museum and London’s Charterhouse. She has received numerous awards during her career for both impactful research and teaching most recently the Brunel University Community Impact Award 2023 for her work with Hillingdon Council to assess the uses and experiences of Uxbridge town centre and recommend suggestions for its regeneration: Reimagining Uxbridge High Street; and the Global Citizen Award 2020 and 2023 Student Led Awards for her commitment to challenge social injustice, promote inclusion and cultivate an empowering environment for students. Ongoing projects: 1) Researching the role that digital technologies play in reconfiguring our relationship to the city. The recently published book A New Urban Aesthetic: experiencing urban change digitally (Bloomsbury, 2022; co-authored with G. Rose, Oxford University) was shortlisted for the Jane Jacobs Urban Communications Award. The book examines how digital visualisations, such as the imagery used on Instagram and other phone apps or CGI’s for proposed architectural projects, are reconfiguring sensory urban experiences in powerful and differentiated ways, and are thus deeply transforming our everyday engagements with the city. 2) In the context of the Museum of London’s move to West Smithfield market, Mónica is investigating the socio-spatial impact that cultural institutions have on their surroundings. This has included a collaboration with the Museum of London (in 2018-2019) to research the transforming place identity of Smithfield market – the new location for the Museum of London. The findings (which can be viewed in the report Sensory Smithfield) have shaped the New Museum of London Interpretation Plan. Building on this, in June 2021 she organised an international symposium Museums, Places, Cultural Power with the Museum of London and Urban Lab UCL that brought together an international group of museum curators, academics and architects to discuss the complex dynamics between cultural organisations and the urban environment they are located in. 3) Developed from work with the Corporation of London and Hillingdon Council Monica is developing new work on analysing masterplanning practices with a particular emphasis on the role embodiment, experiences and emotions play in the conceptualisation and design of urban spaces. 4) Developing new methodological approaches to research qualitative sensory, temporal and emotional relations in the city such as sketching the senses, evocative interviews and social media analysis (as summarised in the Online Sensory Think-Kit ). Producing innovative online interactive dissemination to demonstrate sensory and temporal research findings (for example the Sensory Smithfield website). As a cultural urban sociologist my research is interdisciplinary. The key areas of research I cover are urban life and culture with a specific emphasis on the relationship between spatial politics and experiential urbanism. My work demonstrates how the management and organisation of urban experiences - the ‘urban aesthetic’ - is central to the redevelopment of urban environments. In my latest book A New Urban Aesthetic: experiencing urban change digitally that focuses on three international case studies of urban redevelopment Milton Keynes, London and Qatar, I argue that these processes are increasingly digitally mediated through CGI’s, social media and mobile phone apps, thus rearticulating people’s engagement with cities. Ultimately, I demonstrate that urban experiences are political, socially shaped, and underpin power relations between the manifold actors in the city, whether architects, planners, residents or visitors. Previous research projects have explored these themes from various perspectives, see details below. Experiencing the urban: atmospheres, temporality and the senses Between 2015-2017 I ran (PI) an international AHRC network: "Sensory Cities: researching, representing and curating sensory-emotional landscapes of urban environments"which brought together city museum curators, urban branding experts, activists and urban planners to develop new methodologies to capture the sense of place of cities and the ways in which urban environments are stratified by power relations (AHRC grant number AH/M006379/1). I have explored the importance of senses and time in how we experience urban environments through two projects. Firstly, between 2007 and 2009 the project Urban Aesthetics with Prof Gillian Rose explored new methods to research how people experience two very different town centres (Milton Keynes and Bedford), highlighting the role of memory in urban experiences (ESRC grant number RES-062-23-0223). In 2016 I was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellow examining “Timescapes of Urban Change” (BA grant number MD140041). I examined how different perceptions of time converge or conflict in urban regeneration processes across the structural and experiential level to produce a particular sense of place. Drawing on long term fieldwork of an urban regeneration process in el Raval, Barcelona, this research explored temporal features as a crucial dimension in shaping power relations in regeneration processes. Please access the research here: sensescitiescultures.com Museums, urban change and cultural power In 2021 I organised a 2-day international symposium Museums, Cities, Cultural Power (funding awarded by Brunel Research Seminar and Brunel Engagement Funding and match-funded by the Museum of London and UCL Urban Lab). This online symposium brought together international cultural and museum practitioners, academics, urbanists, architects and activists for a series of urgent discussions on the evolving power relationships between urban museums, their neighbourhoods and the people who inhabit them. More than 1000 people attended the symposium. A film, podcasts and a Urban Pampleteer have developed from this event. I have developed ongoing research around the changing sense of place of the Smithfield Market area as it becomes transformed through the City of London’s latest regeneration projects the 'Culture Mile' and the New Museum of London. Beginning in 2017, funded by Brunel Research Development and in collaboration with The Museum of London, I produced a report which informed the new museum’s design and curatorial content. The study analysed the changing identity of the Smithfield area, drawing on new digital and experiential methodologies quantified for the museum in a series of evocative digital maps, see: sensorysmithfield.com. Continuing this collaboration, in 2020 along with the Museum of London I was awarded an AHRC Collaborative Techne doctoral studentship “Changing Places: Evaluating the socio-cultural impact and experiential change of the new Museum of London in Smithfield” which is pursued by Tom Butler. Urban representations: Urban branding, social media and digital imagery In 2019/20 I conducted further research into the use of social media, in particular Instagram, in the branding of the Culture Mile which is discussed in the book A New Urban Aesthetic: experiencing urban change digitally (Bloomsbury, 2022; co-authored with G. Rose, Oxford University) The project Architectural atmospheres, branding and the social (ESRC grant number RES-062-23-3305), which I began in 2011 (with Prof G. Rose and Dr Clare Melhuish), was a two-year ethnographic study of architectural studios exploring how digital visualization processes and technologies operate within the architecture and urban design profession, shape new kinds of architectural work practices and envision particular forms of future social life. As part of the project we curated a two week exhibition in August 2013 at the Building Centre, London as well as an international workshop: Visualising Atmospheres. Commissioned research: In 2023 Hillingdon Council comissioned Monica to develop a community consultation to analyse the uses, embodied experiences amd perceptions of Uxbridge Town Centre to inform a forthcoming masterplan. Over 1000 local residents and visitors were engaged through a variety of methods from focus groups, walking interviews, vox pop surveys to an interactive exhibition (co-organised with Daniel Gutierrez-Lleide University), see: Echoes of Uxbridge In 2022/23 as part of knowledge exchange research at the Corporation of London Monica conducted a pre-implementation survey of the daily uses and experiences in the Moorgate area, see: Moorgate/London Wall: Green Space Area Uses And Sense Of Place In 2021 Hillingdon Chamber of Commerce and funded by the GLA’s ‘Putting Your High Street on the Map’, comissioned a 6 week pilot study during the summer of 2021 to produce an experiential-emotional map of the current look and feel of Uxbridge High Street, see: Reimagining Uxbridge High Street In 2015, commissioned by the charity UTurn Women's Centre, I conducted a one year research project with Prof. Sue Buckingham about the everyday lives and needs of street sex-workers in Tower Hamlets, in order to find out how the third sector can provide appropriate services and facilities. Cities, space and urban culture Spatial power relations and urban life Gentrification processes Experiential urbanism, the senses and embodiment Creative industries, museums and cities Urban branding and social media I welcome applications from PhD students or post-doctoral students in any of these areas. Undergraduate Programmes Current Modules: SO1605 Global Sociology SO3604 Global Cities Postgraduate Programmes PhD training Programme Past Modules: SO2022 Sociology of Everyday Life CO5520 The Creative Industries SO2604 Fashion, the Creative Industries and Culture Administration Creative Industries Lead College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences Sociology, Media & Communications and Journalism Research Seminar Coordinator Career and Employment Coordinator

Full members

Dr Stuart Andrews Dr Stuart Andrews
Email Dr Stuart Andrews Senior Lecturer in Theatre
I am interested in the ways we understand, practise and manage the places around us. As a Co-director of Performing City Resilience, I work with emergency planners, culture directors, organisations, and companies to develop/implement creative strategies in response to local and global challenges. This collaborative work has led individuals, local authorities, companies and organisations to think in new ways about their work and to revise key policies and procedures, as demonstrated in New Orleans (USA). Critically, recent collaborative work led the Emergency Planning Society (international) to embed creativity in its core competencies. I have published internationally on arts, architecture, culture, emergency and resilience planning, performance, and place. Publications comprise books and academic articles, professional reporting and blog posts. Currently, I am working with Dr Patrick Duggan on two new monographs for Louisiana State University Press and Palgrave. At Brunel University London, I am engaged in interdisciplinary research and teaching on place, performance, and resilience. Within academic institutions, I have held leadership roles in research, learning and teaching, and associated areas at subject, department and/or school level. These have focused particularly on facilitating research and research impact development, designing and managing degree programmes, and growing international partnerships. I have examined written and 'practice as research' doctoral projects (both individual and collaborative submissions) exploring place and performance. There are two key strands to my research. Performance, Place and Resilience: I am a Co-Director of Performing City Resilience, an internationally focused research-led consultancy that develops creative practices of resilience and emergency planning in the UK and internationally. This is highly collaborative work, and Dr Patrick Duggan and I have been leading this project since 2017. Since 2020, we have been working on a UKRI-funded Rapid Response Covid-19 project exploring intersections between arts and resilience strategy in UK cities. On this project, we have worked closely wth UK local authoriites and the Emergency Planning Society, and have developed innovative invitations for pandemic response. Internationally, we have worked in New Orleans since 2018. Following an intial survey of arts and resilience practice in that year, we were invited to contribute to the development of the City’s five-year Hazard Mitigation Plan and the grassroots Cultural Masterplan in 2019. In June 2019, we delivered bespoke workshops for key city stakeholders including New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP) – together with departments across City Hall, the Arts Council of New Orleans, and the Music and Culture Coalition of New Orleans. As a direct result of our work, NOHSEP are engaged on ‘a long-term path of embedding arts and cultural practices in our strategic planning’. Performing Place: Architecture and Environment: In 2019, I published Performing Home (Routledge), the first book to consider performances of home in domestic dwellings. This book speaks to research and practice in installation, performance and architecture, and looks directly at practices of enquiring into, making, adapting, mobilising, and being resident in domestic dwellings. It considers artists’ responses to place and to the possibilities, but also difficulties, of practising home. That same year, Matthew Wagner and I published The Dramaturgy of the Door (Routledge), the first book length study of the performance of the door – a key architectural element. In this, we explore the importance of doors in stage and place-based practice, and thereby issues of borders, thresholds, bodies, environments and practices of access and limit (project funded by British Academy/Leverhulme). Additionally, I have published a range of essays identifying ways in which ideas and practices from performance can help identify, reflect on and address urgent contemporary challenges. In particular, I reflect on new ways of responding to the effects of climate change. Performing City Resilience (emergency planning, hazard mitigation and resilience strategy) Performing Place: Architecture and Environment My teaching is grounded in my current and recent research into performance, place, and resilience, including my experience of working with partner organisations and collaborators. Alonside teaching that unpacks specific topics from this research, I invite students to identify methodologies and practices that will support their work in and beyond their degree. In teaching from my research area, I engage students in processes of identifying and developing their own individual research and professional interests as they progress on their degree.
Dr Yohai Hakak Dr Yohai Hakak
Email Dr Yohai Hakak Senior Lecturer in Social Work
Dr Yohai Hakak joined Brunel in September 2014. Dr. Hakak's practice experience is in mental health social work. His areas of research interests are migration, embodiment, parenting, risk-perception, youth, religion, gender and mental health and the connection of these areas with social work. Dr Hakak published in these areas numerous articles. His last manuscript titled Haredi Masculinities between the Yeshiva, the Army, Work and Politics: The Sage, the Warrior and the Entrepreneur was an ethnographic study of Jewish Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) young men in Israel. It was published by Brill in 2016. The outcomes of Yohai’s academic work included also several award-winning documentary films. Yohai is interested in supervising students in the following areas and in relation to social work: Migration Embodiment Religious minorities Masculine identities Mental health Risk and its perception Mixed couples Yohai's current areas of research interest are: Embodiment in Academic and Professional Practice | Brunel University London The migration of professionals Mixed families Religious minorities Mental health State power
Dr Luke Heslop Dr Luke Heslop
Email Dr Luke Heslop Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Global Challenges
I trained in anthropology at the University of Edinburgh (PhD 2015) and was a Fellow at the London School of Economics prior to joining Brunel as a Lecturer in Anthropology. I have worked for many years in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and my research is centred on current trends in development and anthropology around markets, kinship, infrastructure, work and labour. My ethnographic work engages with the lived experience of macro-economic and political change and global challenges in emerging economies. I specialise in trade, mobility, and the social life of work in South Asia. More recently my research focus has been on the financialisation of Development, transforming modes of Aid, and the relationship between entrepreneurship and advice. I am Co-host and Producer of the hit podcast series The Migration Menu. Office hours by appointment. Email luke.heslop@brunel.ac.uk to make an appointment. Mercantile Kinship My doctoral research traced the lives entrepreneurial families in a bustling market town in central Sri Lanka as they started and developed various businesses, built new homes, married, and campaigned for political office. Publications that stemmed from this research speak to the anthropology of money and economic sociology, kinship, class, and intergenerational relationships, as well as to a burgeoning anthropological interest in politics and protest. I am currently preparing a monograph about life, work, and social change among the trading families I have known since 2003. The monograph builds upon a body of anthropological literature on the production of kinship, class, and politics in Sri Lanka against the backdrop of a broader set of social transformations that have shaped Sri Lanka’s tumultuous post-colonial modernity; notably the war and development, economic and agrarian change, and Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism. Roads, infrastructure and connectivity 2015-2017: I worked on the ERC-funded project ‘Roads and the politics of thought: Ethnographic approaches to infrastructure in South Asia’. My research explores the development of connective infrastructure – roads, bridges, and inter-island causeways – and its social and environmental effects on the Maldives archipelago and beyond. This project encompasses a number of South Asian sites and is grounded in conceptions of the state’s responsibility for national development and modernity through planned connectivity between cities and towns from the Himālaya to the Indian Ocean. From this project I have published material on infrastructure financing, road building on coralline ecologies, archipelagic connectivity and Indian Ocean mobility. For more information on this project see: International Development and ecosystems of advice Ethnographic Solutions to Inequalities in South Asian Advice Ecosystems takes a closer look at the evolving 'landscapes of advice' in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and using the insights gained, aims to work with our partners to build ideas that can inform more effective and inclusive modes of advising. The project aims to better understand these processes to facilitate knowledge exchange from the ground-level of business advice ecosystems and co-produce a resource ‘toolkit’ for recipients and practitioners to address inequalities within advice delivery. By mapping and studying advice ecosystems alongside our partners in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, we intend to channel the untapped potential of practitioner-academic partnerships into capacity-building actions on the ground, leading to better advice relationships for people who need them the most. South Asia in West London I am currently developing a new research agenda which explores life and work for South Asian diasporas in West London. Drawing on the expertise within the South Asia Studies Research Group at Brunel, the focus on South Asia in West London cuts across three broad areas of research: Food and nutrition (this will build on our work on the anthropology of food and health in India, with the intention of including Brunel scholars in Life Sciences working on nutrition) Education and employment (this already includes separate strands on work being done in Anthropology, Geography, History, and Education) Business and Entrepreneurship (this draws on work being done in Anthropology, in History, and at the Business School) As part of this project I am producing a podcast series: Launch of The Migration Menu This project is being supported by a small grant from the Institute for Communities and Society. Sri Lanka The Maldives The Indian Ocean Modules Convening I currently convene the compulsory second year module, Practising Anthropology. I co-convene: Research Methods in Anthropology (UG - with Prof James Staples) ; Ethnographic Research Methods (PG - with Dr Andrew Beatty); Strategic Communications (PG - With Anita Howarth and Billur Ozgul). Addtional teaching: I am currently contributing teaching to the following UG and PG modules modules: Facing the Unfamilliar: Ethnographic Field work encounters (UG); South Asia - Societies and Development (PG); Religion and Power in South Asian History (PG); Anthropology of International Development (PG). Programme Development I am Co-Director of the new postgraduate programme: MSc Global South Asia Studies - please email luke.heslop@brunel.ac.uk or james.staples@brunel.ac.uk for application information.
Professor Kate Hoskins Professor Kate Hoskins
Email Professor Kate Hoskins Professor of Education
Kate is a Professor in Education with a focus on policy. Her research interests rest on the intersections between education and social policy, identity and inequalities in relation to early years, further and higher education. Her current funded Froebel Trust project with Professor Emma Wainwright, Dr Utsa Mukherjee and Dr Yuwei Xu examines how low income families engage with Froebelian principles. She has published extensively on inequalities in ECEC, with a focus on the role of policy in exacerbating these. Kate's most recent research on social mobility with Professor Bernard Barker examines the role of the family in intra and inter-generational social movement. They take a unique genealogical approach to researching social mobility, using a university chemistry department as a case study to explore participants’ motives for pursuing a STEM undergraduate degree and the influences that have shaped them. Kate has recently completed a British Academy funded research project with Professor Marie-Pierre Moreau and Dr Ellen McHugh to examine the precarious transitions undertaken by doctoral researchers negotiating the shift to an academic post. Kate is a Co-Editor of the British Educational Research Journal (BERJ). Education policy, early years, social mobility, identities, inequalities and social justice. My expertise lies in three areas of research: a) comparative social and education policy, b) equalities and c) social justice. I am particularly interested in the intersection of these areas in early years settings, further and higher education. In a number of projects with Early Years practitioners I have explored their constructions and perceptions of their professional identities with a focus on their education pathways and training experiences. Projects funded by the Froebel Trust have involved life history interviews with Early Years Teachers. This work has provided policy recommendations for the early years sector with a focus on improving social justice and addressing equality issues for women working with young children who are a marginalized group. I have a long-standing interest (theoretically and empirically) with critical, comparative social and education policy analysis that started when I was a member of the ‘Policy enactments in the secondary school’ (RES-062-23-1484) ESRC project (Ball and Maguire) for four years. This policy study compared the teaching and enactment of mathematics, science and English as well as behaviour and personalisation in four secondary schools, analysing the difference in enactments in each school. We spent a great deal of time working from the data to construct a theoretically robust account of policy enactment, which I have subsequently exported to my own projects on social mobility and early years. My scholarship on social mobility policy has culminated in analysis of school-based policies in England aimed at improving intragenerational progression. My work has provided methodological innovation through advancing a genealogical, qualitative approach to examine individual, group and family employment trajectories, and making sense of these in terms of stratified occupations over time and across generations. My publications in this area combine and connect arguments for social mobility within a critical comparative policy analysis frame that recognises the differences between local, regional and national labour markets. I convene and teach a year 3 BA Education module 'Growing up in 21st Century Britain' and a year 1 study block 'Education and Society'. I supervise BA and MA Education students on a range of topics related to education studies. I teach on the EdDoc programme and contribute sessions on, for example, policy analysis and policy report writing. I supervise PhD students on topics including education policy analysis, identities, inequalities and higher education.
Dr Katerina Paramana Dr Katerina Paramana
Email Dr Katerina Paramana Senior Lecturer in Theatre
Dr. Katerina Paramana (Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor) is an artist-scholar, Research Lead for Theatre, PGR Director for the CBASS Global Lives Research Centre, Lead of the CBASS Performance, Cultures and Politics Research Group, and Lead of the Arts and Humanities' Research Peer-Mentoring Scheme for Academic Staff. In broad terms, Katerina's interdisciplinary research is concerned with the socio-political and ethical dimensions of contemporary performance. It brings into conversation performance (both theory and artistic practice), political economy, critical theory, philosophy, and cultural and social theory. Her current research focuses on the relationship between performance and political economy. She is interested in how bodies affect and are affected by political economies at micro and macro levels and in the ethico-political challenges that contemporary performance practices propose to the political economies in which they are created and presented. Her Routledge monograph Contemporary Performance and Political Economy: Oikonomia as a New Ethico-Political Paradigm is in press and available to pre-order, and has been lauded by international leaders in the field. Katerina has received funding for her theoretical and practice-based research from AHRC (the Arts and Humanities Research Council), the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, The British Society of Aesthetics, Santander Universities, Gasworks Gallery/Pedro Lagoa, and the Hellenic Centre of the International Institute of Theatre, as well BRIEF, Research Seminar Series, and BRIL Research Awards from Brunel University of London. For example, in 2022 - 2023, Katerina curated and organised the research seminar series 'Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics, and Well-Being in the 21st Century', for which she received a Research Seminar Series Award from Brunel University, and, in 2023, she was shortlisted for a Research Impact Award. In 2021, she received the BRIL Research Award ('Brunel Research Interdisciplinary Lab') for an interdisciplinary collaborative project with Brunel colleagues, while in 2019 she was awarded the BRIEF Research Award (‘BRUNEL RESEARCH INITIATIVE AND ENTERPRISE FUND’) as PI of a research project on political economy and performance. Her books Performance, Dance and Political Economy: Bodies at the End of the World (2021, Paramana and Gonzalez) and Art and Dance in Dialogue: Body, Space, Object (2020, Whatley, Sarah, Racz, Imogen, Paramana, Katerina, and Crawley, Marie-Louise) were published with Bloomsbury Academic and Palgrave Macmillan respectively. Her research has also been published with refereed academic journals including Performance Research, Contemporary Theatre Review, GPS: Global Performance Studies, Dance Research, and Filozofski Vestnik. She was an Associate Researcher with Performance Matters, a four-year AHRC-funded creative research project and collaboration between University of Roehampton, London, Goldsmiths, University of London, and the Live Art Development Agency, investigating the cultural value of performance (directed by Adrian Heathfield, Gavin Butt, and Lois Keidan). Katerina also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, and from 2015-2018 she was a Participating Artist of Sadler’s Wells Summer University, which was led by Jonathan Burrows and Eva Martinez. Katerina has international leadership experience in research and education. She is founding editor of the journal section 'Political Economy and the Arts' at Lateral, the refereed journal of the Cultural Studies Association, USA (2022 - present); the issue Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics and Well-Being is in press for Lateral journal's Fall 2024 13(2) issue. She is also founding book series co-editor of the interdisciplinary Book Series Dance in Dialogue (Bloomsbury Academic, four books). She is an assessor on the techne Peer Review College (AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership) and is on the Editorial Board of Body, Space, & Technology journal. She has also served on the Board of Directors of Performance Studies International (PSi) and on the Executive Committee of the Society for Dance Research. She serves on Performance Studies International (PSi's) Advisory Committee on Antiracism and Anticolonialism, which she co-founded. She is also an Onassis Scholars' Association Member and Mentor, has examined PhD projects in UK and Europe, and is a member of consultation, research award, programme design and (re)validation, promotion, and tenure committees internationally. Katerina's international performance practice draws on theatre, the visuals arts, and dance and takes the form of performance, installation-, and lecture-performance. Through its consideration of the relationship between image, body, time, context, and the encounter with the spectator, her work explores the political, philosophical, social, and ethical dimensions and potentials of performance. It has been presented in theatres, studios, and galleries in the UK, US, and Europe, in venues such as Gasworks Gallery, The White Building, ]performance s p a c e [, Laban Theatre, The Place, and Toynbee Studios in London; the Institute of Design at Stanford University; the Kultuhuset in Stockholm; Galeria Boavista in Lisbon; and the Michael Cacoyannis Theatre in Athens. Katerina has also collaborated as a performer with various companies and artists in the UK and the US (e.g. Tino Sehgal, Ivana Müller, The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein, Bojana Cvejic and Christine De Smedt, Janez Janša, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Nejla Yatkin, Deviated Theatre, Lea Anderson, Simon Vincenzi, and Risa Jaroslow). She has performed at venues including the Barbican Theatre, National Theatre Studio, Tate Modern, Southbank Centre, Laban Theatre, and Siobhan Davies Studios in London; the Michael Cacoyannis Theatre and Duncan Dance Research Centre in Athens; the Kennedy Centre, Kogod Theatre, Greenberg Theatre, Kay Theatre, GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, Dance Place, and the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.; the Chicago Cultural Centre and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Centre in Chicago; and the Lincoln Centre in NYC. The above research and industry experiences inform Katerina's teaching of both theory and practice, as well as her module and programme design and delivery. She has fifteen years' experience teaching practical workshops, seminars, and lectures across theatre, performance, live art, dance, critical theory, and philosophy on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes (see 'Teaching Activities'). She has also supervised to completion BA, MA, and PhD dissertations, examined PhD projects in the UK and Europe, and delivered seminars and workshops for the techne AHRC Doctoral Training Programme. Prior to Brunel, where she has been designing, leading, and teaching modules since 2016, Katerina taught and supervised UGs, PGTs, and PGRs at, among others, Birkbeck, University of London, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Coventry University, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and University of Roehampton, London. She has been part of programme design and (re)validation committees internationally. Katerina is Fellow of the Higher Education Adacemy (FHEA) and holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance from University of Roehampton, London, an MA in Choreography from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, a BA in Theatre, and a BA in Dance from University of Maryland, College Park (US). Her PhD studies were funded by the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation. In broad terms, Katerina's interdisciplinary research is concerned with the socio-political and ethical dimensions of contemporary performance. It brings into conversation performance, political economy, critical theory, philosophy, and cultural and social theory. Her current research focuses on the relationship between performance and political economy. She is interested in how bodies affect and are affected by political economies at micro and macro levels and in the ethico-political challenges that contemporary performance practices propose to the political economies in which they are created and presented. Her Routledge monograph Contemporary Performance and Political Economy: Oikonomia as a New Ethico-Political Paradigm is in press and available to pre-order, and has been lauded by international leaders in the field. Katerina has received funding for her theoretical and practice-based research from AHRC (the Arts and Humanities Research Council), the Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, The British Society of Aesthetics, Santander Universities, Gasworks Gallery/Pedro Lagoa, and the Hellenic Centre of the International Institute of Theatre, as well BRIEF, BRIL, and Research Seminar Series Awards from Brunel University of London. For example, in 2022 - 2023, Katerina curated and organised the research seminar series 'Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics, and Well-Being in the 21st Century', for which she received a Research Seminar Series Award from Brunel University, and, in 2023, she was shortlisted for a Research Impact Award. In 2021, she received the 'BRIL' Research Award ('Brunel Research Interdisciplinary Lab') for an interdisciplinary collaborative project with Brunel colleagues, while in 2019 she was awarded the BRIEF Research Award (BRUNEL RESEARCH INITIATIVE AND ENTERPRISE FUND’) as PI of a research project on political economy and performance. Her books Performance, Dance and Political Economy: Bodies at the End of the World (2021, Paramana and Gonzalez) and Art and Dance in Dialogue: Body, Space, Object (2020, Whatley, Sarah, Racz, Imogen, Paramana, Katerina, and Crawley, Marie-Louise) were published with Bloomsbury Academic and Palgrave Macmillan respectively. Her research has also been published with refereed academic journals including Performance Research, Contemporary Theatre Review, GPS: Global Performance Studies, Dance Research, and Filozofski Vestnik. She was an Associate Researcher with Performance Matters, an AHRC-funded creative research project and collaboration between University of Roehampton, London, Goldsmiths, University of London, and the Live Art Development Agency, investigating the cultural value of performance (directed by Adrian Heathfield, Gavin Butt, and Lois Keidan). Katerina also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, and from 2015-2018 she was a Participating Artist of Sadler’s Wells Summer University, which was led by Jonathan Burrows and Eva Martinez. Katerina has international leadership experience in research and education. She is founding editor of the section 'Political Economy and the Arts' at Lateral, the refereed journal of the Cultural Studies Association, USA (2022 - present); the issue Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics and Well-Being is in press for Lateral journal's Fall 2024 13(2) issue. She is also founding book series co-editor of the interdisciplinary Book Series Dance in Dialogue (Bloomsbury Academic, four books). She is an assessor on the techne Peer Review College (AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership) and is on the Editorial Board of Body, Space, & Technology journal. She has also served on the Board of Directors of Performance Studies International (PSi) and on the Executive Committee of the Society for Dance Research. She serves on Performance Studies International (PSi's) Advisory Committee on Antiracism and Anticolonialism, which she co-founded. She is also an Onassis Scholars' Association Member and Mentor, has examined PhD projects in UK and Europe, and is a member of consultation, research award, programme revalidation, promotion, and tenure committees internationally. Katerina's internationally presented practice-based research draws on theatre, the visuals arts, and dance and takes the form of performance, installation-, and lecture-performance. Through its consideration of the relationship between image, body, time, context, and the encounter with the spectator, her work explores the political, philosophical, social, and ethical dimensions and potentials of performance. It has been presented in theatres, studios, and galleries in the UK, US, and Europe, in venues such as Gasworks Gallery, The White Building, ]performance s p a c e [, Laban Theatre, The Place, and Toynbee Studios in London; the Institute of Design at Stanford University; the Kultuhuset in Stockholm; Galeria Boavista in Lisbon; and the Michael Cacoyannis Theatre in Athens. Her practice, which is in dialogue with her theoretical research, is also informed by her experience collaborating as a performer with various companies and artists in the UK and the US (e.g. Tino Sehgal, Ivana Müller, The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein, Bojana Cvejic and Christine De Smedt, Janez Janša, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Nejla Yatkin, Deviated Theatre, Lea Anderson, Simon Vincenzi, and Risa Jaroslow). She has performed at venues including the Barbican Theatre, National Theatre Studio, Tate Modern, Southbank Centre, Laban Theatre, and Siobhan Davies Studios in London; the Michael Cacoyannis Theatre and Duncan Dance Research Centre in Athens; the Kennedy Centre, Kogod Theatre, Greenberg Theatre, Kay Theatre, GALA Theatre at Tivoli Square, Dance Place, and the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C.; the Chicago Cultural Centre and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Centre in Chicago; and the Lincoln Centre in NYC. PUBLICATIONS (for full texts visit my Academia.edu page) Books (Monograph In Press and available to pre-order; 2025) Paramana, Katerina. Contemporary Performance and Political Economy: Oikonomia as a New Ethico-Political Paradigm. Routledge. 2021. Paramana, Katerina and Gonzalez, Anita. Performance, Dance and Political Economy: Bodies at the End of the World. Bloomsbury Academic. 2020. Whatley, Sarah, Racz, Imogen, Paramana, Katerina, and Crawley, Marie-Louise. Art and Dance in Dialogue: Body, Space, Object. Palgrave Macmillan. Book Series Founding Series Co-Editor of the Interdisciplinary Book Series Dance in Dialogue. Bloomsbury Academic (four books). Journals Edited Founding Editor of the 'Political Economy and the Arts' Section, Lateral, The Cultural Studies Association Journal. 2024 (In Press) Paramana, Katerina (ed.) Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics and Well-Being, Political Economy and the Arts section, Lateral, the Journal of the Cultural Studies Association, 13(2). Refereed Journal Articles and Chapters See 'Selected Publications' tab. PRACTICE-BASED OUTPUTS a) DVDs Available at the British Library and the Live Art Developement Agency's Study Room: Talking with Strangers: What is Violence?, Performance Matters – Potentials of Performance, (2012) The White Building, London. Martyro, Performance Matters – Trashing Performance –Trash Salon: How to do things with waste?, (2011) Toynbee Studios, London. b) Performance Presentations (Selected) (In preparation) Martyro Exploded (working title). 2015 Now What?, Michael Cacoyannis Theatre, Athens, Greece. Co-created with Elena Koukoli. Performed by Stella Dimitrakopoulou, Elena Koukoli, and Katerina Paramana. 2014 IDEA: THIS IS GOOD, Gasworks Gallery, London (Part of the archive of destruction by Pedro Lagoa). 2013 Video Performances co-created with Kathleya Afanador, Antje Hildebrandt, Elena Koukoli, and Ligia Zuccarello Rizzo (as part of Toothache Duets, by Eirini Kartsaki and Louise Douse) ]performance s p a c e [, London. 2013 Talking about Economy/ies, Performance Studies International (PSi#19),Studio 2, Building 550, Stanford University, US.Co-created with Gigi Argyropoulou. 2012 Talking with Strangers: What is Violence?, Galeria Boavista, Lisbon, Portugal. 2012 Talking with Strangers: What is Violence?, Potentials of Performance, part of Performance Matters, The White Building, London.– 2011 Muddle, muddle toil and trouble: Disorder and potentiality – A Lecture- Performance. Part of PANDEMIC, Bank Street Arts, Sheffield, U.K.Performed by Stella Dimitrakopoulou, Antje Hildebrandt, Eirini Kartsaki, and Katerina Paramana. 2011 Martyro, Trash Salon, Performance Matters Symposium, Toynbee Studios, London.Performed by Katerina Paramana. 2011 Metrology, Stockholm Fringe Fest 2011, Kultuhuset, Stockholm.Performed by Antje Hildebrandt and Katerina Paramana. 2011 Muddle, muddle toil and trouble: Disorder and potentiality – A Lecture- Performance.Jubilee Building, University of Roehampton, London.Performed by Antje Hildebrandt, Eirini Kartsaki, Elena Koukoli, and Katerina Paramana. 2011 Muddle, muddle toil and trouble: Disorder and potentiality – A Lecture- Performance.‘Communi(cati)on of Crisis’ Symposium, Nafpaktos, Greece. Organised by the Institute for Live Arts Research under the auspices of Athens University and Municipality of Nafpaktos.Performed by Elena Koukoli, Nana Sachini, Eirini Kartsaki, and Katerina Paramana. 2011 Metrology, Jubilee Theatre, University of Roehampton, London.Performed by Antje Hildebrandt and Stella Dimitrakopoulou. 2011 Metrology, C4CC (Centre for Creative Collaboration), LondonPart of Making & UnmakingText Across Performance Practices and Theories. Funded by Beyond Text, an AHRC ProgrammePerformed by Antje Hildebrandt and Stella Dimitrakopoulou. 2011 Metrology, Part of Resolution!, The Robin Howard Dance Theatre,The Place, London.Performed by Antje Hildebrandt and Stella Dimitrakopoulou. 2010 E Pulvere Lux Et Vis, 125 Magazine, Photoshoot Choreographer, Sept. 2010 Art Issue (16), p. 212-219, London. Photography Dan Swallow, Art Director Martin Yates.( 2009 Tea Party, Deptford X Festival, London. Co-created and performed with Michelle Lynch, Antje Hildebrandt, and Laura Blackley. In collaboration with Artmongers. 2009 The Adult Waltz Starving Loretta Home, Studio Theatre, Laban, London. 2009 Subjectile, Co-created and performed with Kathleya Afanador, Laban, London. Concept and Design Alex Rainford-Roberts. 2009 Three, Studio Theatre, Laban, London. 2006 ‘Aint’I a Woman’, Co-created with Stacy Wilson, Dance Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Centre, MD, US. 2006 Hang Pictures on the Air, Dance Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Centre, MD, US. Performed by Katerina Paramana. 2006 Distance, Laboratory Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Centre, MD, US. 2005 From the Real to the Surreal, Dance Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Centre, MD, US. Performed by Yoko Feinman and JR Russ. Creative Text Online Publications Paramana, Katerina. 2013. (Re)definition of the term ‘solidarity’. PSi Manifesto Lexicon. Gigi Argyropoulou, Konstantina Georgelou, Efrosini Protopapa, Danae Theodoridou and Steriani Tsintziloni (eds.). Paramana, Katerina. 2012. (Re)definitions of the terms ‘reading’, ‘co-authoring’ and ‘witness’. PSi Manifesto Lexicon. Gigi Argyropoulou, Konstantina Georgelou, Efrosini Protopapa, Danae Theodoridou and Steriani Tsintziloni (eds.). Recent Invited Talks 2024 Invited Talk for the Organisation of Dance Professionals Symposium, Athens, Greece (SEXOXO). 2022 Invited Talk for the Brunel-wide Mentoring Network Launch. 2022 Invited Talk for the Organisation of Dance Professionals Symposium, Athens, Greece (SEXOXO). 2021 Invited Talk: invited by the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH) and TWIXTlab (Athens, GR) to deliver talk on artistic research in dance titled ‘The Production of Knowledge through Dance Research Outside(?) the Academy’. Research Projects & Related Activities (2022-23) Curated and organised the Research Seminar Series 'Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics, and Well-Being in the 21st Century'. (2021-22) Co-I, BRIL Research Award ('Brunel Research Interdisciplinary Lab') for the interdisciplinary collaborative project 'The Social, Ecological, Political, and Cultural Implications of Extinction'. (2019-22) PI, BRIEF Research Award Project (‘BRUNEL RESEARCH INITIATIVE AND ENTERPRISE FUND’), Performance and Political Economy, Brunel University of London. (2015-18) Participating Artist, Sadler’s Wells Summer University. Directed by Jonathan Burrows in collaboration with Eva Martinez, Sadler’s Wells, London. (2015) Participating Artist, Performing Arts Forum (PAF) with Jonathan Burrows, Jan Ritsema, Mårten Spångberg, and Bojana Cvejic. Siobhan Davies Studios, London. (2010-13) Associate Researcher with Performance Matters, an AHRC-funded Programme. A four-year creative research project and collaboration between University of Roehampton, London, Goldsmiths, University of London and the Live Arts Development Agency investigating the cultural value of performance. Directed by Professor Adrian Heathfield, Dr Gavin Butt and Lois Keidan. Board Memberships & Assessment Panels (2020-present) PSi Advisory Committee on Antiracism and Anticolonialism (2018-present) AHRC Techne Doctoral Training Partnership, Peer Review College Member, Performing Arts Subject Group. (2018-present) Editorial Board, Body, Space & Technology (BST) Journal (2016-2019) Board of Directors, Performance Studies International (PSi) (2016-2018) Executive Committee, Society for Dance Research (SDR) Editorial Roles (2022-present) Founding Journal Section Editor, 'Political Economy and the Arts' at Lateral, the journal of the Cultural Studies Association. Founding Book Series Co-Editor, Interdisciplinary Book Series Dance in Dialogue, Bloomsbury Academic (four books). (2018-present) Editorial Board, Body, Space & Technology (BST) journal. (2016-2019) General Editor, Performance Studies International, PSi Manifesto Lexicon. (2015-16) Review Editor, Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices (2013-14) Guest Editor, ‘Solidarity and/in Performance: Rethinking Definitions & Exploring Potentialities’ activate e-journal, 3(1). (2010-13) Editorial Committee Member, activate e-journal. Peer-Reviewer Rowman & Littlefield Press Arts Journal (ISSN 2076-0752) Bloomsbury Academic Routledge GPS: Global Performance Studies journal Dance Research Journal Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and GPS: Global Performance Studies journal Joint issue Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theatre and Performance journal Airea, Arts and Interdisciplinary Research Journal, Edinburgh College of Art Body, Space & Technology (BST) Journal Event Organisation (selected) (2022-23) Curated and organised the international Research Seminar Series 'Performance and Political Economy: Bodies, Politics, and Well-Being in the 21st Century'. (2022) Co-organiser of the international conference 'Extinction: Implications from the Microbial to the Planetary (ExIMP). (2017) Co-organiser of the international Conference ‘Dialogues on Dance, Philosophy, and Performance in the Contemporary Neoliberal Moment’. (2016) Co-organizer of the international Body, Space, Object Symposium, Coventry University. (2016) Working Group Convenor and Panel Chair, ‘The production of the Social in Contemporary Performance’, Body, Space, Object Symposium, Coventry University. (2013) Curation & organisation of the symposium ‘Rethinking Economies’, University of Roehampton, London. Co-curated and co-organised with Gigi Argyropoulou. Presentations by Professor Nicholas Ridout, Dr Sophie Nield, Dr Eve Katsouraki, and Tim Jeeves. Funded by Roehampton University’s Centre for Performance and Creative Exchange. (2011) Co-curator of the festival ‘Performing Text / Reading Performance’ (PANDEMIC), Bank Street Arts Gallery, Sheffield, U.K. Contemporary: Performance, Theatre, Choreography/Post-Dance Live Art Political Economy Performance, Critical, Political, Social, and Cultural Theory Ethics and Social Justice Spectatorship and Participation Affect and Collectivity Capitalism, Biopolitics, Neoliberalism Bodies, Politics, and Well-being Continental Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Indigenous Philosophies Practice-as-Research Racial Capitalism, Migration, Homelessness Katerina's research and industry experiences inform her teaching of both theory and practice, as well as her module and programme design and delivery. She has fifteen years' experience teaching practical workshops, seminars, and lectures across theatre, performance, live art, dance, critical theory, and philosophy on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. (See below for examples of teaching experience). She has also supervised to completion BA, MA, and PhD dissertations, examined PhD projects in the UK and Europe, and delivered seminars and workshops for the techne AHRC Doctoral Training Programme. Prior to Brunel, where she has been designing, leading, and teaching modules since 2016, Katerina taught and supervised UGs, PGTs, and PGRs at, among others, Birkbeck, University of London, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Coventry University, Trinity Laban Conservatoire, and University of Roehampton, London. She has been part of programme design and (re)validation committees internationally. She is Fellow of the Higher Education Adacemy (FHEA). Teaching Areas: Katerina has fifteen years' experience teaching theory and practice across contemporary theatre, performance, live art, and dance at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, for example: a) Practical Workshop Teaching Experience: Devising / Theatre Making / Experimental Performance Practices / Live Art Performance Laboratory Site Specific / Solo / Autobiographical / Socially Engaged Performance Performing in Experimental Theatre and Performance Work Acting Practice-as-Research Directing Physical Theatre Choreography b) Lecture-Seminar Teaching Experience: Theatre Theory Performance Studies Critical Theory Race, Class, Gender, Sexuality and Performance Research Methods Performance Philosophy / Continental Philosophy Performance and Political Economy Performance and Ethics Performance and Social Justice Performance and Political/Social Engagement c) UG, PGT, and PGR Project Supervision Experience: Undergraduate Written and Practical projects to completion MA Practice-Based and Fully-Written Projects to Completion PhD Practice-Based and Fully-Written Projects to Completion Successfully Developed with PhD applicants their AHRC Techne Funding Proposal Delivered AHRC Techne Seminars for Cross-University PGRs
Dr Shona Koren Paterson Dr Shona Koren Paterson
Email Dr Shona Koren Paterson Director of Global Lives Research Centre / Senior Lecturer
Building on an academic transdisciplinary background in Natural Sciences (Marine Biology, Resource Management) and Social Sciences (Climate Adaptation, Social Justice, Environmental Policy), Shona’s guiding focus remains the generation and translation of defensible research informed by the needs of society and co-created with the intended beneficiaries. Her research is motivated by international frameworks such as the UN 2030 Agenda, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the COP21 Paris Agreement. She has spent her working career building partnerships and knowledge exchange networks with local communities and stakeholders to achieve mutually beneficial social and ecological goals. With a special interest in marginalised communities and social justice and equity, Shona’s recent research has focused on global flood risk and resilience, climate risk assessments, adaptation and adaptive capacity in urbanising coastal areas. Embracing a transdisciplinary approach, Shona works at the interface of science-policy as well as effective and fit-for-audience communication of data and knowledge to ensure increased impactful discourse around risk. She has research experience in the Caribbean, USA, UK and Ireland, as well as a global perspective through involvement with Future Earth and its associated global research project Future Earth Coasts. Shona seeks to engage with a range of emerging global challenges through collaboration and co-production of knowledge by employing a transdisciplinary and applied bridging of science, social science, the arts and humanities at local, national, and international scales. Co-production enables science and research to have greater impact on sustainable development outcomes. Shona works to facilitate iterative and collaborative processes involving diverse types of expertise, knowledges and actors to co-produce context-specific pathways towards sustainable futures. There is a real and urgent need to understand and tackle intractable global challenges in the face of constantly shifting biophysical and social realities. Shona’s work, with a range of partners across the globe, embraces this need, recognising that sustainability and equitable development, as illustrated by the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), requires transformative social and economic pathways co-created with intended beneficiary communities. The overall achievement of the SDGs depends not only upon responsible economic development administered through the lens of environmental sustainability, but perhaps more significantly, through enhanced social inclusion and resilience building at all scales. At Brunel, Shona is the Director of the Centre for Global Lives, the co-lead of the Equitable Development and Resilience Research Group as well as a member of the Centre for Flood Risk and Resilience. Examples of on-going research projects include the ESKE project and Catching a Wave and the co-curation of an unwavering immersive virtual installation on Long COVID in partnership with artists and scientitsts through the New York Gallery/Forum Relational Space. She is also a partner in the UKRI Maximizing Climate Adaptation Hub lead by Kings College London. The MACC Hub aims to inform a national climate change adaptation plan by addressing current barriers around public awareness, policy, legislation and climate data that might be hindering the UK’s ability to adapt to global warming.
Professor Dorothy Yen Professor Dorothy Yen
Email Professor Dorothy Yen Professor in Marketing
Professor Dorothy A. Yen is a Professor in Marketing. Leading the Marketing Division at Brunel Business School, Brunel University London, I take a consumer-centric approach to understand and discuss marketing, branding, and tourism matters. I study how culture affects human behaviour, in both B2B and B2C domains. In particualr, I looks at cross-cultural business relationships, with a particular focus on understanding how cultural-specific factors affect business relationships and collaborations. I also study consumer acculturation, tourist, sojourners and migrants' consumption practices as well as social media activities in relation to their cultural identity. During the Covid-19 pandemic, I explored how migrants in the UK attempted to cope with the life-threatening disease while dealing with institutional uncertainty and a hostile host environment. My proposal on branding Wales as the land of dragons and legends triggered numerous discussions and debates, following my giving evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee and interview by BBC Radio Wales. I am a member of the Marketing and Corporate Brand Research Group at Brunel Business School and the research centre of Substantiality and Entrepreneurship. I run office hours on Wednesdays from 2pm to 4pm. Students can also email me to book an appointment at a mutually convenient time. This can be either on campus or via Microsoft TEAM upon mutual agreement. I'm working on the following projects and welcome collaborations: Happy to Chat Older adults as ageing consumers, healthy ageing practices and wellbeing Promoting Wales to international tourists as a global tourist destination Migrants as ethnic consumers, their identity, acculturation and their role in the host societies. Educating children as agentic consumers to reduce food waste Research group(s) Marketing and Corporate Brand Management Research Group (MCBM) Happy to Chat My research centres on the convergence of well-being and conscientious consumption practices, embodying my vision of a world where individuals celebrate their diversity in harmony, thriving through cooperation, while preserving the environment and transcending cultural, ethnic, and ideological boundaries. Adopting the principles of societal marketing, my work offers insights into the pivotal role of consumers in shaping a future that champions environmental consciousness and social responsibility. I believe that individuals hold the power to drive positive societal transformation through their daily consumption choices and behaviours. My research is inherently interdisciplinary, and I actively collaborate with charitable organisations, businesses, and policymakers. By bridging the divide between academia and practical application, I strive to translate my research findings into tangible strategies that effect meaningful change and societal impact. My work is featured in reputable publications including the British Journal of Management, Annals of Tourism Research, International Marketing Review, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, among others. Dorothy applies an interactive learning and teaching approach during her lectures and seminars to better engage students with the knowledge. Using team-based learning and promotes practice-leading, she encourages students to discuss their ideas and examples with her as well as with their peers so that together they can co-create a positive learning experience. Dorothy teaches Principles of Marketing to MBA students. In this module, MBA students have the opportunity to work with real case studies, developing and presenting a marketing plan to the selected organisation or business of their choice. They will be able to exchange ideas, give suggetsions and receive feedback from the owner of the organisation or business.
Dr Andrew Fox Dr Andrew Fox
Email Dr Andrew Fox Vice Dean (Education)/ Senior Lecturer (Education) in Project & Infrastructure Management
I am a Chartered Civil Engineer with more than 30years of professional experience, split almost equally between working in industry and working in academia. My industry career started in the UK water industry, but included projects in the highways and housing sectors. I then ventured overseas and engaged in a number of infrastructure development and post-disaster recovery projects in Africa, the Caribbean and Eastern Mediterranean regions. I have worked at a variety of levels, often managing interdisciplinary design and construction teams. My first academic post was at Coventry University, where I was engaged to teach engineering principles to Disaster Management students. I then moved to the University of Plymouth, where I taught construction and disaster management principles to engineering students. I completed my PhD in 2014, which explored the potential value of social capital as means to enhance community resilience to flood risk. My wider research has focussed on a range of issues related disaster and construction management. I have led several educational projects with strong industry-academia collaborative elements and my academic roles have included admissions and programme management. Since joining the team at Brunel University, I have taken on the role of Director for Flood and Coastal Engineering programmes. This a suite of three programme (MSc, BSc and FdSc) all of which are sponsored by the Environment Agency and are co-delivered by the University and HR Wallingford. GENERAL DETAILS Qualifications PhD PGCert Human Geography 2014 T&L in HE 2002 CEng Chartered Engineer 1993 MEng Civil Engineering 1988 Prof Memberships Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE), Association of Project Management (MAPM) Project Management Institute (MPMI) RECENT EMPLOYMENT HISTORY Aug 20 – current Senior Lecturer in Project and Infrastructure Management BRUNEL UNIVERSITY LONDON Roles undertaken include Director of Flood and Coastal Engineering programmes Aug 07 – Jul 20 Lecturer (Education)– Civil Engineering Management UNIVERSITY of plymouth, UK Roles undertaken included Programme Manager for BSc and Degree Apprenticeship programmes; Postgraduate and Undergraduate Admissions Tutor Civil Engineering courses, Leading modules in construction management, project management, contract management, engineering business management and interdisciplinary design projects. Coordinator of the Engineering and Society Research Group. Member of Management Committee for Sustainable Earth Institute and Pedagogic Research Sep 01 – Aug 07 Senior Lecturer – Engineering Management/ Disaster Management COVENTRY UNIVERSITY, UK Undergraduate and postgraduate teaching on Civil Engineering and Disaster Management programmes, Leading modules in Applied Mechanical, Hydraulics, Water Management, Organisational Management, Project Management. Member of the Applied Research Centre for Human Security (ARCHS), leading educational development projects in Kenya and Admissions Tutor for Civil Engineering & Disaster Management programmes. Jun 00 – Sept 01 Director APF PROJECT MANAGEMENT LTD., UK Company leadership, project tendering, customer relations, sales and marketing for projects in Turkey, Turkey based agent for five UK steel fabrication companies and one Australian modular housing company. Oct 99 – May 00 Programme Director Mercy Corps europe/scottish european aid, Turkey Developing project proposals, fund-raising, report writing, financial management, programme coordination for Post-Earthquake emergency relief programme. Responsibility for spearheading consortium of six international charity organisations and managing donor relations in Turkey, EU, Scotland, England, USA, Canada, Ireland and Germany . Apr 98–Sept 99 Deputy Country Manager/Project Engineer BROWN AND ROOT LTD, MONTSERRAT, BWI Contract management, financial auditing, programme development, dispute resolution, report writing, design supervision and development planning for Emergency Reconstruction Programme following volcanic eruptions. Managing International projects involving – Montserrat, Antigua, Puerto Rico, USA, UK and Australia Oct 96–Feb 98 Divisional Director (Acting)/Project Manager GOVERNMENT OF SEYCHELLES, SEYCHELLES Departmental management, budget planning, project appraisal, project design, tender management, contract management, Inter-Governmental loans negotiation, Chair of Technical Advisory committee on the Construction Industry within the Ministry for Community Development, Housing Project Management department. Other positions held Apr 16 – current External Examiner – Civil Engineering Programmes BOLTON UNIVERSITY Examining BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering in Bolton, Raz Al Khaimah, UAE and Sri Lanka. Oct 14 – Oct 17 Trustee RedR – INTERNATIONAL DISASTER RELIEF CHARITY, UK Jan 13 – Aug 16 External Examiner – Civil Engineering Programmes COVENTRY UNIVERSITY, UK Examining BEng and MEng (Hons) Civil Engineering programmes on Coventry campus. June 96–Oct 96 Project Manager - steel fabrication projects BM FABRICATIONS LTD, FERNDALE, WALES Jan 96–June 96 Contracts Manager - specialist concrete repair contracts TSUNAMI CONSTRUCTION LTD, ABERGAVENNY, WALES 95–96 Site Agent - bridge refurbishment project THYSSEN CONSTRUCTION LTD, SANSEA, WALES 91–95 Senior Engineer - water supply and sanitation turnkey projects BIWATER TREATMENT LTD, CARDIFF, WALES 90–91 Graduate (Design) Engineer - land reclamation and housing projects DHV, CARDIFF, WALES 88–90 Site Engineer - water supply and sanitation engineering projects BIWATER CONSTRUCTION LTD, VARIOUS SITES, UK 85–86 Trainee Engineer - highways projects CORNWALL COUNTY COUNCIL GRANTS & CONTRACTS Principal-Investigator (UoP Team), European Social Fund (ESF) Project, Innovation in Higher Level Skills in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Dec 2018 – Dec 2021, Value £2.4M Lead Investigator, University of Plymouth, GCRF Research Grant, Developing capacity to design and distribute potable water supply technology in East Africa, Aug 2018 – Jul 2020, Value £56K Lead Investigator, School of Engineering Small Research Grant, A multi-sectoral engineering research network to aid development in Buturi, Tanzania, July 2018 – July 2019, Value £2.5k Lead Investigator, School of Engineering Small Research Grant, Post-Earthquake Structural Assessment and Management (PE-SAM), May-Dec 2017, Value £2k Co-Investigator, 4No. European Social Fund (ESF) Projects, Focussing on Hidden Talent and Strategic Employer Engagement in Devon and Somerset , Apr 2017 – Apr 2019, Value £1.2M Lead-Investigator, RAEng Frontiers of Engineering for Development, FoESF\1617\227, Water for Africa: Leveraging local Innovations through Organisational Networks (Water-LION), Mar – Dec 2017, Value £20k Co-Investigator, RAEng Frontiers of Engineering for Development, FoESF\1617\212, Post-Earthquake Structural Health Monitoring System (PM-SMS), Mar – Dec 2017, Value £20k Co-Investigator, National Trust, Cotehele Intertidal Habitat Creation Feasibility Study, Mar-Aug 2017, Value £35k Co-Investigator, EU Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE), RESET- Reliability and Safety Engineering and Technology for large maritime engineering systems, Jun 2016 – Jun 2020, Value €1.2M Project Leader, South west Water, Sewers and Sewer Design, 4 day training course, Jun-Oct 2015, Value £30k Project Leader, South west Water, Civil Engineering Specification for the Water Industry, 2 day training course, Jan-Apr 2015, Value £10k Principal Investigator, RAEng: Enhancing the opportunities derived from large cohorts of engineering students, Ref: FPo16 MAR2011, Apr 2011-Mar 2012, Value £10k Co-investigator, EU-FP7: Innovative coastal technologies for safer European coasts in a changing climate (THESEUS), Dec 2009 – Nov 2012, Value €386k (Project Total: €6.53m), Co-investigator, EAP: A practical methodology for globalising the engineering curriculum through teaching, Jun-Sept 2010, Value £3k PUBLICATIONS Books/Chapters in books Fox A. (2008) The Implications of the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004 for Engineers, in Bosher L (Ed) Hazards and the Built Environment: Attaining Built-in Resilience, Taylor & Francis, London, pp. 282-299 Fox A. (2008) Issues in Flood Risk Management, in Babat SMJ (Ed) Enduring Geohazards in the Caribbean, University of the West Indies Press, pp 192-205 Alexander D, Davidson C.H., Fox A, Johnson C & Lizzaralde G (eds) (2007) Post-Disaster Reconstruction: Meeting Stakeholder Interests, Proceedings of a Conference held at the Scuola di Sanita Militare, Florence, Italy, 17-19 May 2006, Firenze University Press Fox A. (ed.) (2004) Proceedings for the 2nd International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction: Planning for Reconstruction, Coventry, April 2004, Coventry University Press Articles Alencastro J, Fuertes A, Fox A and De Wilde P (2019) The impact of quality on energy performance of buildings: Quality management in social housing developments, Energy Procedia, Vol. 158, pp. 4357-4362 M. Horrillo-Caraballo, D. E. Reeve, D. Simmonds, S. Pan, A. Fox, R. Thompson, S. Hoggart, S. H. Kwan, D. Greaves (2013) "Application of a source-pathway-receptor-consequence (S-P-R-C) methodology to the Teign Estuary, UK", Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No 65, pp.1939-44 Sarhan, S and Fox, A (2013) ‘Barriers to Implementing Lean Construction in the UK Construction Industry’, The Built & Human Environment Review, Volume 6, online at: www.tbher.org Sarhan, S and Fox, A (2013) ‘Performance measurement in the UK construction industry and its role in supporting the application of lean construction concepts’, Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building, 13 (1) 23-35 Knott G & Fox A (2010) “A model for sustainable risk management”, Resilience, Issue. 62, pp38-42 Fox A. (2005), Flood hazard planning: Lessons from Bewdley, Alert, p 7 Fox A. (2004), In the face of disaster, Water and Environment Magazine (9) No 16, pp 8-9 Fox A. (2002), A framework to improve resilience planning for urban communities, Security Monitor (1) No 5, pp 8-10 Fox A. (2001), Provision for the Aftermath: Lessons Learned, Waterlines (19) No 3, pp 9-12 Reports Fox A. (2014) Communities, institutions and flood risk, mobilizing social capital to improve community resilience, PhD Thesis, Plymouth University Fox A. (2005) Summary – Managing the Restoration of Infrastructure and Services – Iraq and Boscastle, Hazards Forum Fox A. (2005) A synopsis – Human aspects of Disaster, Home and Away Seminar, EPS Conference papers and presentations Bakthavatchaalam VP, Miles M, Fox A., De Lourdes Machado-Taylor M & Gingele J (2019) Impact of cultural factors on the academic research productivity in India, 8th Annual PedRIO Conference, 12th April, Plymouth, UK Miles A, Dorr C and Fox A, (2018) How can academia help to make industry more resilient to the risks associated with Brexit? A Marketplace presentation at the Sustainable Earth 2018 Conference, 28-29 June, Plymouth, UK Miles A, Dorr C and Fox A, (2018) Linking employers to the Research Teaching Nexus, 16th Annual Vice-Chancellor's Teaching and Learning Conference 2018, 14th June, Plymouth, UK Fox A, Hilonga A, Kiluva V, Makhanu S and Prathap J (2018) Leveraging University-centred networks to support innovation and enterprise in Africa, 7th Annual PedRIO Conference, 20th April, Plymouth, UK Wilkins R, Fox A, Razaghi-Kashani N, Rabuya I and Cabilo M (2018) Community engagement in the assessment of buildings damaged by earthquakes, A poster presentation at PedRIO, Effective Community Engagement Event - Monday 22nd January 2018, Plymouth, UK Fox A (2018) Water LION – The Genesis and Prospects, Water for Africa: Leveraging local Innovations through Organisation Networks (Water-LION) – End of Project Workshop, 26th February, Kakamega, Kenya Wilkins R, Fox A and Rabuya I (2017) Designing a post-earthquake structural health monitoring system, A Marketplace presentation at the Sustainable Earth 2017 Conference, 29-30 June, Plymouth, UK Fox A, Hilonga A, Kiluva V and Makhanu S (2017) Water for Africa: Leveraging local Innovations through Organisation Networks (Water-LION), A Marketplace presentation at the Sustainable Earth 2017 Conference, 29-30 June, Plymouth, UK Alencastro J, Fuertes A, Fox A and De Wilde P (2017) The impact of quality on energy performance of buildings: Quality management in social housing developments, 9th International Conference on Applied Energy, ICAE2017, 21-24 August 2017, Cardiff, UK Alsofyani S, Fox A and Miles M (2016) New culturally engaged practices of law and regulation to improve the construction environment in Saudi Arabia, 7th International conference on the constructed environment, Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, 25-26 May, Krakow, Poland, Razaghi-Kashani N, Fox A and Easterbrook D (2016) Post-earthquake Disaster Management and Structural Assessment, Proceedings of the 6th International Disaster and Risk Conference (IDRC), Integrative Risk Management - towards resilient cities 28 August - 01 September 2016, Davos, Switzerland, pp. 321-324 Razaghi-Kashani N, Fox A and Easterbrook D (2016) Adding value to an integrated risk management system by effectively incorporating post-earthquake structural assessment, 7th International Conference on Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM), Disasters and Development: Towards a Risk Aware Society, 1 - 3 October 2016, Isfahan-Iran Fox A. (2014) “Communities, institutions and flood risk, mobilizing social capital to improve community resilience”, Third international science and policy conference on the resilience of social & ecological systems, 4-8 May, Montpellier, France Fox A. (2014) “The challenge of harnessing social networks to enhance community resilience to coastal flood risk”, ICE South West seminar Coastal Defences: Meeting the Challenges, 4th April, Plymouth, UK Sarhan S, Fox A (2012) "Trends and challenges to the development of a lean culture among UK construction organizations", IGLC 20 - San Diego, California, 17-22 July Fox, J. M. Horrillo-Caraballo, D. E. Reeve, S. H. Kwan, D. Simmonds, S. Pan, D. Greaves. (2012) "Coastal defence evaluation: a SPRC approach", ICCE2012, 33rd International Conference on Coastal Engineering, Santander, Spain, 1-6 July Horrillo-Caraballo, S. Pan, D. E. Reeve, D. Simmonds, D. Greaves, A. Fox. (2012) "Modelling extreme wave events (present and future scenarios) in southwest England", ICCE2012, 33rd International Conference on Coastal Engineering, Santander, Spain, 1-6 July Bakthavatchaalam V.P, Fox A. & Sherif K (2011), “Overcoming failures in placements of people from parent companies to a foreign subsidiary organisation”, in Proceedings of the 5th International ICMIE Conference on ‘Change Management in a Dynamic Environment’, Politehnica University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania, 20-21 Oct, pp 338-345 Fox A & Carter A (2011) “Enhancing opportunities derived from large cohorts of engineering students”, Presented at the Annual Conference for the Society of the Advancement of Simulation and Gaming in Education and Training (SAGSET) on “Successful simulations and technology enhanced learning”, University of Derby, 21st July 2011 Fox A. (2011) “Resilience in Engineering Organisations”, One-day International Workshop on “Advances in Engineering Practices for Achieving Manufacturing Excellence”, AERAME ‘11, Karpagam University, Coimbatore, India, 12 April 2011 Fox A. (2011) “Engineering Organisations and Organisational Resilience”, One-day International Workshop on “Innovative Engineering Research Practices in Manufacturing Organisations”, IEREMO ‘11, Karpagam College of Engineering, Coimbatore, India, 11 April 2011 Fox A. (2011) “A Philosophy for Indian Engineering”, Keynote Address at 1st International Conference on Engineering, Science and Technology, ICEST 2011, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Engineering College, Parambalur, India, 7-8 April 2011 Fox A. (2011) “Resilient Organisations”, One-day International Workshop on “Mindset of a Champion”, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Engineering College, Parambalur, India, 6 April 2011 Fox A. (2010) "Integrating philosophy into the education of engineers: some lessons from the UK", fPET-2010 Forum on Philosophy, Engineering & Technology, Colorado School of Mines, USA, 9-10 May, pp84-85 Njie E.F, Kora M, Jallow S & Fox A (2010) "Promoting social equity for disabled people in Gambia", Engineering Social Justice and Peace (ESJP) Conference 2010, RSA, London, 4-6 August 2010 Sherif K., Fox A and Bakthavatchaalam V.P. (2009) "Human Resource Management and International Recruitment Strategies: An Indian Case Study", presented at the 2nd International Conference on “Doing Business in India”, 17-18 December 2009, IFIM Business School, Bangalore, India Bakthavatchaalam V.P, and Fox A, (2009), “Human Resource Management in Indian Industries: Motivating Businesses to Sustain Economic Development into the Future”, presented at the International Conference on ‘Management Beyond Recession, RICON 2009’, Rai Business School, New Delhi, India Sherif K & Fox A (2009) “Influences and Barriers Facing the Adoption of Total Quality Management in the Libyan Construction Industry” 5th Nordic Conference on Construction Economics and Organisation, vol. 2, Reykjavík University, Iceland, 10-12 June, pp 80-88 Fox A. (2006) An international strategy for Environmental Health, CIEH Annual Conference and Exhibition, 5-7 September 2006, Bournemouth, UK Fox A. (2006) Project Managing Disasters, Association of Project Management Seminar, 12th July 2006, Coventry, UK Fox A. (2004) Planning for Post-Disaster Recovery: The long-term examined, International Disaster & Emergency Readiness Forum, Moreton-in-Marsh, Oct 2004 Fox A. (2004) Efforts to improve disaster management capacity in Africa, TIEMS virtual conference - Disaster Management in Africa, Online Fox A. (2004) Responses to Hazards, Premier Student Conference, London, Mar 2004 Fox A. (2004) Civil Contingency – The Engineer’s Role, Institution of Civil Engineers Annual Presidential Conference: Engineering for the 21st Century, Cambridge University, Cambridge Fox A. (2004) Planning for improved resilience, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Post-Disaster reconstruction: Planning for Reconstruction, Coventry University, sec7 –pp32 to 42 Fox A., Johnson C, Lizzaralde G (2003), A framework for improving the sustainability of housing initiatives to reduce the risk of disasters, Proceedings of the International Civil Engineering Conference on Sustainable Development in the 21st Century, JKUAT University, Nairobi, Kenya, pp 399-404 Fox A. (2002) Montserrat – A case study in the application of multiple methods to meet a post-disaster housing shortage, 1St International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction, University of Montreal, Canada Fox A. & Davies J (2003) Civil Engineering with Disaster Studies, LTSN – Engineering, Midlands meeting, Coventry, UK Fox A. (2003) RedR Experiences, Institution of Civil Engineers, Graduates and Students Midlands Branch meeting, Coventry, UK Fox A. (2002) Resilience by Design: Planning & the Built Environment, Emergency Planning Society, Southern branch meeting, Reading, UK OTHER EXHIBITION, CONFERENCE AND PERFORMANCE ROLES Co-Chair – 1st International Conference on Engineering, Science and Technology, ICEST 2011, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Engineering College, Parambalur, India, 7-8 April 2011 Scientific Panel Member - 5th International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction, i-Rec, GREF, CIB TG63, Ahmedabad, July 2010 India Scientific Committee Member - Building Abroad Conference, i-Rec, CIB, W92, CIB TG63 and CIB W107, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada, October, 2008 Scientific Panel Member - 4th International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction, i-Rec, CIB TG63, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2008 Co-organiser – 3rd International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction, Managing Stakeholder Interests, i-Rec, University of Florence, Florence, Italy, May 2006 Organiser – Working towards a Philosophy of Engineering, Higher Education Academy, HEA, Engineering Subject Centre, Loughborough, January, 2006 Co-organiser – Home and Away, Emergency Planning Society, Human Aspects Group Annual Seminar, University of Coventry, April 2005 Co-organiser – 2nd International Conference on Post-Disaster Reconstruction: Planning for Reconstruction, I-Rec, University of Coventry, April 2004 RESEARCH STUDENT SUPERVISION PhDs – Sherif, K (2010), Total Quality Management in the Construction Industry of Libya Bakthavatchaalam, V (2019), Motivational Factor in Indian Higher Education Engineering Academics Alencastro, J (2019), Quality management systems to improve building energy performance Alsofyani, S (2021), Construction contracts, disputes and the Arbitration process in Saudi Arabia Razaghi-Kashani, N (on-going), Post-earthquake structural assessment in Iran MRes – Roberts (2004), Ebalu (2005), Ferdinand (2005), Guha (2006), Oladosu (2006)
Professor John Roberts Professor John Roberts
Email Professor John Roberts Professor - Sociology and Communications
I completed my PhD at Cardiff University in 2000 on urban space and free speech. I’ve studied and taught at various universities including Essex, Lancaster, Leeds, and Manchester universities. I joined Brunel in 2004. Qualifications: PhD Sociology (Cardiff) MA Sociology (Essex) BA Sociology (Lancaster) PG Cert Research (Cardiff) PG Cert Teaching and Learning (Brunel) My research interests can be divided into the following areas: the relationship between the public parks, monuments, urban space, and free speech; critical social theory along with its application to empirical research; everyday experiences of social and political activism; the relationship between digital technology and labour and work. I am currently involved in various projects: Digital Labour I have an ongoing research interest in how technology is changing the world of labour and work. For example, I have just completed a new monograph on social class and digital before and during the pandemic. Free Speech Struggles at Hyde Park from 1945 up until 2017 Through primary historical data, this project explores the relationship and struggles in and around free speech between the state, political and social activists, and regulars and audience members at Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park in London, 1945 to 2017. Among the the issues explored will be the sociology of free speech, the changing spatial governance of public space, Hyde Park and free speech from Keynesian welfare regulation to neoliberal regulation, socio-legal discourse on free speech at Hyde Park, policing free speech during this period, the performance of free speech, and the architectural and spatial design of Speakers' Corner. This project is funded by a Leverhulme Fellowship. Marble Arch: An Urban Monument in Search of a Civic Identity Currently, there is no systematic study in the UK that explores the relationship between monuments, free expression, and urban civic spaces across modern history. Focusing on the famous Marble Arch monument in central London and its encompassing spaces of Park Lane, the north-east corner of Hyde Park, Edgeware Road, and Oxford Street, this project is the first to fill this scholarly gap. The project explores through time how civic spaces have changed in and around Marble Arch from when it was first situated in its current location in 1851 to how plans are currently being developed to design new civic and free speech spaces in these areas. Everyday Experiences of Political and Social Activism Another interest of mine concerns the changing nature of social and political activism. For example, with a colleague, Dr Joseph Ibrahim, I will be carrying out a qualitative study on people's everyday experiences of being active in the 'movement party', Momentum. I am currently also co-convenor of the Political Studies Association specialist group/research network on social and political movements. Suburban Parks, Heritage, and Voluntary Activity in a Post-Covid Landscape This project explores the changing governance strategies of suburban public parks in a post-covid environment and new post-covid strategies to attract volunteers to help run heritage events in suburban parks in this landscape, and how these can strengthen health and well-being strategies in suburban communities. This project also examines how recent and public concerns about cuts to park budgets have affected these respective suburban parks especially in terms of their volunteering strategies on heritage projects. The project will aim to see whether suburban parks face distinctive challenges in a post-covid age in these areas, which are different to urban parks. Public sphere, urban space, and free speech Digital media Global political economy Social theory Undergraduate Programmes Module convenor Key Ideas in Sociology (Yr 1) Digital Cultures (Yr 3) Postgraduate Programmes Module convenor Politics and Digital Cultures Administration UG Programme Convenor (Sociology and Communications) Exams Officer Department NSS Working Group Dpartment REF Working Group
Dr Magali Peyrefitte Dr Magali Peyrefitte
Email Dr Magali Peyrefitte Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Deviance
Dr Magali Peyrefitte completed a PhD in Sociology (ESRC 1+3) from the University of Nottingham in 2011. After having worked at Middlesex University as a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in the Department of Criminology and Sociology, she joined Brunel University in August 2019. With expertise in the social sciences at the cross-road between urban sociology and urban criminology and in addressing questions regarding home, housing and communities, Dr Magali Peyrefitte is interested in issues of social harm and social justice in the city. In recent years, her more recent research projects have been focusing on the socio-economic and cultural changes that are transforming the suburbs of London. Overall, her work has been focusing on the multi-faceted aspects of gentrification and regeneration in London- in Soho as well as in the suburban boroughs of Barnet, Harrow and Brent - and their impact on local communities. She has also paid particular attention to the question of Social Value and the role of the VCSE sector in urban regeneration projects. She has worked on a number of research projects using visual and creative methods to collect and to find alternative and artful ways of disseminating her research in order to engage a wide range of audiences notably using photography to do so. For instance, she organised a portrait exhibition as part of a project on women in suburbia in France: ( Finally, her teaching is directly informed by her research interests while also being committed to teaching focused research. She has subsequently been working on a pedagogic scholarship published in international peer-reviewed journals and built around evaluations and reflections of her teaching. (sub)urban sociology and criminology Regeneration and Gentrification Home, Housing and Communities in cities Social Value Social Harm and Social justice Visual and Creative Methods of Research I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). I am the Module Convenor for Crime and Deviance in Society (CY2601), Home, Housing and Social Harm (CY3610) and co-convenor for Urban Regeneration and Inequalities (GY2604)
Dr Rohini Rai Dr Rohini Rai
Email Dr Rohini Rai Lecturer in Sociology of Race
I am a sociologist of race & ethnicity, and am a Lecturer in the Sociology of Race at the Department of Social and Political Sciences in Brunel. My areas of research and teaching interest include 'race', ethnicity and racialization; global racisms; postcolonial and decolonial theories; Global South urbanisms; and the Himalaya and North East India. I completed my PhD from the University of Manchester in 2019. My PhD thesis titled, 'Northeastern Delhi: 'Race', space and identity in a postcolonial, globalising city' explores and examines racialization and racism in contemporary India, in relation to ethnic and indigenous minorities who are migrants from India's Northeastern and Himalayan borderlands in the city of Delhi. Prior to joining Brunel in December 2021, I was a Research Associate at the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), University of Manchester, of which I am still an associate member. At CoDE, I was a part of an ESRC-funded research project exploring ethnic inequalties in UK Higher Education, where my research particularly focussed on the current 'Decolonial turn' in the disciplines of British history and geography. I welcome supervising/tutoring students who are interested in similar topics. 'race', ethnicity and racialization; global racisms; postcolonial and decolonial theories; Global South urbanisms; and the Himalaya and North East India. I currently teach the following modules: Racism, Identity and Difference. Becoming a Critical Scholar (Skills II).
Dr Utsa Mukherjee Dr Utsa Mukherjee
Email Dr Utsa Mukherjee Senior Lecturer in Education
I am a Senior Lecturer in Education at Brunel University London. I am also the Director of Equality and Diversity in the Department. Prior to joining Brunel, I held various academic positions at University of Southampton, Birkbeck University of London and University of Roehampton. My research spans the disciplines of Sociology and Social Geography, with inter-connected research interests in the study of childhood and youth, social inequality, leisure and migration. My work across these thematic areas is guided by a commitment to social justice. I am interested in exploring and theorising the way social inequalities are reproduced across time and place, and the way structural inequalities mediate the lived experiences of minoritized subjects (such as racialised minority children in the UK and sexual minority youth in India). My first monograph Race, Class, Parenting and Children’s Leisure (Bristol University Press, 2023) was the runner-up of the British Sociological Association's Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2024. My solo-edited volume Childhoods & Leisure was published in 2023 by Palgrave Macmillan. My next edited volume Debating Childhood Masculinities is due to come out in September 2024 from Emerald. I am the Associate Editor of two peer-reviewed international journals: Journal of Family Studies and Schole: A Journal for Recreation & Leisure Studies Education. I am also the Book Review editor of Sociological Forum and Children & Society. I am an editorial board member of the following peer-reviewed journals: British Journal of Sociology British Journal of Sociology of Education Sociology Compass Children & Society Sociological Forum Leisure Studies World Leisure Journal I am a Trustee of Academy of Social Sciences (the UK's national academy of academics, practitioners and learned societies in social science). I sit on the executive committee of Leisure Studies Association and I am currently an executive committee member cum Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Officer of the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers). Within Brunel, I am a member of the Education, Identities and Society (EIS) research group within the Department of Education as well of the pan-university Centre for Global Lives and Centre for Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse (CHWL). Utsa's research interests broadly centre around the following axes: Children's everyday lives with a particular focus on generational order, parenting strategies, and children's agency Intersection of race and class within parenting ideologies and family practices Reproduction of social inequalities in the context of leisure Critical race theory approaches to the study of childhood and parenting South Asia and global South Asian diaspora Critical sexuality studies Sociology of Childhood Sociology of Education Race, Ethnicity and Racism Social Class Migration and Transnationalism Leisure Studies I teach on a number of study blocks/modules across the BA Education programme and currently lead the following study blocks: ED1706 Education & Society ED1707 Study Skills and Methods of Enquiry ED3700 Education in Different Contexts
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