Associate Professor of English, University at Buffalo I am an associate professor of English at SUNY-Buffalo, where I research the eighteenth-century Anglophone world. I received my PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. My academic writing has appeared in Critical Inquiry, ELH, PMLA, Eighteenth-Century Studies, The Eighteenth Century, Philological Quarterly, and various critical collections. I have also written essays for The Washington Post, The Boston Review, Avidly, and Book Post. My new book, The Northeast Corridor, is coming out from the University of Chicago Press in April 2024. It’s about trains, and how they make the places that make us. I am currently writing a monograph, Rights of Way: A Literary Approach to Infrastructure, which finds the conceptual origins of our built world in early modern debates over the legality of passage. I have delivered invited talks from this project at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and the University of Iowa. My first book, The Wreckage of Intentions: Projects in British Culture, 1660-1730 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017) investigated the origins of projects, concrete yet incomplete efforts to advance British society in a period defined by revolutions of finance and agriculture, the rise of experimental science, and the establishment of constitutional monarchy. I am currently co-editing with Jo Guldi, a special issue of Eighteenth-Century Studies, on infrastructure. I am also co-editing with Danielle Spratt a critical collection, Histories of Science, to be published by the University of Virginia Press.
Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University Dr Fechner is passionate about helping reduce suffering for all sentient beings and ensuring that present and future generations can enjoy the beauty of our planet. He designs and experimentally tests interventions to encourage consumers to behave in more environmentally sustainable ways, such as eat more plant-based focused meals and engage in koala conservation activities. Doctor of Philosophy, Griffith University Graduate Diploma in Business Research Studies, Griffith University Master of Marketing, The University of Sydney Bachelor of Business Administration, FOM University of Applied Sciences and Management, Germany
Lecturer in Criminology, University of Surrey Dr. Dimitris Akrivos joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer in Criminology. His research interests lie mainly at the intersection between criminology, law and cultural studies with a particular focus on violent crime, sexual deviance and mental health (as well as their representations in news and fictional media). His current research looks at the social harm associated with stereotypical gender portrayals in advertising, the press and other popular media. He is the lead editor of Crime, Deviance and Popular Culture: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Dimitris completed his PhD in Criminology at City University London in 2015. He also holds an MA in Criminology (City University London), an MA in Crime Fiction (University of East Anglia) and a Degree in Law (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens). He has previously lectured at the University of Essex, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Bedfordshire. He was involved as a data researcher in the Reading the Riots project developed by The Guardian and the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Associate Professor in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship, University of Leeds Deema Refai is an Associate Professor in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at the University of Leeds and is currently Joint Editor in Chief of The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Deema’s research focus is developed around constrained entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in the refugee and rural contexts, where she has led research projects funded by the British Academy, AHRC and others. Through her work, Deema has developed strong collaborations, particularly in Jordan and the UK, and has been involved in various activities, panels and discussions around issues relevant to refugees. Her work has been published in high-ranked international peer-reviewed journals and presented in a number of national and international conferences.
Professor of Geography, Macalester College As an urban social geographer, I am particularly interested in ways that social, political, legal, and economic processes influence city life and landscapes, as well as the ways that people and organizations create meaningful places and landscapes through participation in such processes. I am also a qualitative researcher. I pursue this interest through interview and observation research that investigates the constructed and contested nature of city life. I developed an interest in qualitative methods while completing my undergraduate degree in Anthropology. And I later honed these interests in my graduate work, pursuing advanced degrees in geography (MA at SUNY Buffalo and Ph.D. at the University of Colorado at Boulder). I continue to specialize in qualitative research and its use in mixed-methods research. My scholarship focuses on the themes of access and exile and relates specifically to the roles of city planning and public policy in shaping urban development. Two questions are at the core of my scholarly inquiries: How does the way societies shape and use space contribute to the marginalization of particular social groups? How can spaces be produced in ways that serve goals of social justice and equity? My research engages these questions by exploring the interactions between the built environment and social inequality and support efforts to promote more just, equitable, and inclusive cities. I am especially interested in supporting community-engaged projects. I have advanced my scholarly interests through three main projects: (1) understanding citizenship formation under welfare state restructuring in the United States. (2) investigating the ways in which urban planning and design fields contribute to social justice in cities. I have focused this inquiry on a project examining the geographies of the New Urbanism planning movement, which advocates for creating compact, mixed-use, and mixed-income neighborhoods. I have been following the ways in which social equity concerns are integrated into different instances of the movement in North America, Sweden, and South Africa. (3) supporting the creation of inclusive public spaces through public scholarship. Many of my efforts in this vein are available through A Field Guide to Public Spaces, which is focused on the Twin Cities Region of Minnesota. In addition, I have been working with public engagement artist Amanda Lovelee to create digital resources that enable members of the public to learn about and reflect upon how differently situated people interact with Lake Phalen Regional Park, a well-used public park in St. Paul, MN that attracts a diverse mix of communities from across the broader metropolitan region. Our goal is to catalyze conversation and action that supports the development of public parks as places where everybody feels they belong. My scholarship and teaching are deeply intertwined. My scholarship directly informs the courses that I teach. And I make a point of bringing my research into relevant courses. This helps me stay current, relevant, and enthusiastic about what I teach. Furthermore, I am always keen to involve students directly in research through course-based civic engagement and action research projects, hiring students to assist me in collecting data for my own scholarship and advising students in independent projects.
1851 Research Fellow, University of Bristol & Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester, University of Manchester Dr Dean Lomax is an internationally recognised, multi-award-winning palaeontologist, author and presenter. He travels across the world excavating and researching dinosaurs and other ancient animals, discovering and naming new species and regularly appears on TV as an expert and presenter, notably co-hosting the primetime TV series Dinosaur Britain. He is the author of multiple books and many academic papers, is a leading authority on ichthyosaurs, and won a gold medal for science communication at the Houses of Parliament. Dean earned his PhD at The University of Manchester where he is currently an Honorary Research Fellow and is also an 1851 Research Fellow at The University of Bristol. — In 2021, he led the excavation of the 'Rutland Sea Dragon', the most complete skeleton of a large prehistoric reptile ever found in the UK. Watch his TED talk about this sensational discovery.
