Lecturer, School of History, University of St Andrews I am a social and cultural historian specialising in twentieth-century British history. I pioneered the social and cultural history of social dancing in Britain and my most recent monograph was the first history of dance halls in Britain. Going to the Palais: A Social and Cultural History of Dancing and Dance Halls in Britain, 1918-60 (OUP, 2015) won widespread critical acclaim from reviewers and is due to be re-issued in paperback in 2020. I also wrote Music for the People: Popular Music and Dance in Interwar Britain (OUP, 2002) (awarded proxime accessit to the Whitfield Prize by the Royal Historical Society) the first academic history of the British popular music industry in the 1920s and 1930s. I also co-edited Classes, Cultures and Politics: Essays on British History for Ross McKibbin (2011), also published by OUP. I am currently working on a second history of popular music in interwar Britain and on anti-Soviet propaganda in twentieth century British popular culture. My next book publication will be a global history of the interwar dance craze which I am working on with Klaus Nathaus of the University of Oslo. Reviews: Going to the Palais A 'monumental book...The depth of research, sources, and critical reflection... marks it out as a classic.' Keith Gildart, Journal of Modern History 'a landmark study ... Going to the Palais stands as an exemplary work of social and cultural history' - Peter Bailey, American Historical Review 'In its range of topics, density of assembled evidence and consistent, subtlety of argument, this book is set to become the definitive account of dance halls in 20th century Britain.' - Jeffrey Richards, History Today
Lecturer in Conservation Science, Monash University I'm a conservation ecologist, researching how to improve the effectiveness of conservation management and policy for threatened species and ecosystems. I specialise in evidence-based conservation, knowledge exchange, cost-effectiveness analyses, and decision-support tools.
Director of the Center for Texas Music History, Texas State University Jason Mellard is a Director of the Center for Texas Music History and Assistant Professor of Practice in History at Texas State University. He is the author of Progressive Country: How the 1970s Transformed the Texan in Popular Culture and contributor to the books Pickers and Poets: The Ruthlessly Poetic Singer-Songwriters of Texas, It Can Be This Way Always: Images of the Kerrville Folk Festival, and Daddy-O's Book of Big Ass art on the Texas artist Bob Wade. He co The Journal of Texas Music History and composes the weekly radio program This Week in Texas Music History.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Psychology, University of Cambridge I am a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, where I work on misinformation, vaccine hesitancy and online extremist recruitment. My PhD dissertation (2020) examined information warfare in eastern Ukraine after the Euromaidan revolution. I am currently writing two books: The Psychology of Misinformation; and Information, Influence and War in Ukraine.
Professor of Philosophy, UMass Lowell John Kaag is Donahue Professor of Ethics and the Arts at UMass Lowell and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He is the author of the forthcoming Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living (Princeton, June) and Hiking with Nietzsche, which was an NYT Editor Choice and NPR Best Book.
Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, The University of Texas at Austin J. W. Traphagan is an anthropologist and professor emeritus of Religious Studies and in the Program in Human Dimensions of Organizations at the University of Texas at Austin and a visiting professor at Waseda University in Tokyo. He’s published nine books and numerous articles in scientific journals. His two most recent books are the ethnographic mystery novel The Blood of Gutoku and his anthropological memoir Embracing Uncertainty: Future Jazz, That 13th Century Buddhist Monk, and the Invention of Cultures.
