PhD Candidate in International Relations, University of Kent Julian de Medeiros is a PhD candidate and Assistant Lecturer in Politics & IR at the University of Kent. He is Editor and Columnist at 'Independent Turkey'. His writing appears frequently in Open Democracy. Julian writes about paranoid politicians, (fictitious) conspiracies, and Turkish/Brazilian Politics. He is currently finishing a book (I.B. Tauris 2017) explaining why politicians benefit from conspiracy. The book analyzes the Gezi Protests and argues that, contrary to popular belief, politicians are the real champions of conspiracy theory.
Lecturer in Applied Geomorphology (Geography), University of Sussex John Barlow completed his BSc (hons) and MES at Wilfrid Laurier University. His honours and masters theses focused on mass movements along the Niagara Escarpment in Ontario. John received his PhD from the University of Calgary for research into the automated detection of rapid mass movements using digital data. Upon completion of his doctoral research, John did post doctoral work at both the University of Saskatchewan and Durham University. He joined the University of Sussex as Lecturer in Applied Geomorphology in 2011.
Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra Jen Webb is Distinguished Professor of Creative Practice, and Director of the Centre for Creative and Cultural Research in the Faculty of Arts and Design. Her current research includes an ARC-funded investigation of creative practice (using poetry as a case study), and an ARC-funded investigation of outcomes for graduates of creative arts degrees.
PhD Linguistics (Forensic Speech Science), University of York I am currently working towards a PhD at the University of York. My main research interests are in Forensic Speech Science, Phonetics and Language Variation and Change. My current research focuses on threats as language crimes, and how different aspects of voice may cause listener's to infer greater or lesser levels of threat in a speaker.
Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University Jeanette joined Macquarie in 2009 as a CoRE joint appointment between the Philosophy Department and the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science. After completing her PhD in 1994 she spent a further ten years in the Philosophy Department at Monash as Lecturer/Senior Lecturer. From 2004 - 2008 she was Principal Research Fellow in The Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the Australian National University and also at Charles Sturt University (2008-9).
Director of Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Professor Johan Schot joined the University of Sussex as the Director of SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit - in January 2014. He is a Professor in the History of Technology and Sustainability Transitions Studies. His research is wide ranging but has always focused on integrating social science and historical perspectives for a better understanding of the nature and governance of radical socio-technical change. Prior to coming to Sussex, he held academic posts at the Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Twente, Netherlands. Under Johan’s directorship, SPRU is embarking on an ambitious, new strategy to expand and build on its impressive track record across research, teaching, impact and engagement. The strategy, designed in the lead-up to the 50th anniversary in 2016, will draw on SPRU’s extensive activities and capture the best thinking within and beyond SPRU. As part of this new strategy, Johan and SPRU colleagues aim to develop a new innovation theory which will address the current crisis of capitalism and a number of key challenges our world is facing: inequality, climate change, the democratic deficit, and the need to develop new system of provision for security, food, water, energy, healthcare and mobility. Necessarily the program will theorize the nature, scale and scope of long-term transformative change, and ways of providing directionality to economic growth. The new theory will synthesize insights from economics of innovation, science & technology studies, history of technology, and other relevant fields. Johan is in an excellent position to nurture the development of such a programme in SPRU. His work has always been at the junction of various academic fields and disciplines. In 2009, Johan Schot was elected to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) for the genuine interdisciplinarity of his work. He has been heavily involved in the development of innovative new concepts and interpretations, and has co-produced highly cited and influential academic contributions. In 2002 he was awarded a VICI grant by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). This is a personal award for top-scholars comparable with the ERC Advance Investigator Grant. His ability to create and pioneer large scale, creative, academic collaborations has helped to transform policy practices, broaden academic understandings, and develop new innovative outputs in the form of programmes, book series and networks. Johan has always been keen to support and invest in PhD students and early career scholars. He was the founder and director of several doctoral programmes as well as a string of summer schools and master classes. A passionate teacher, Johan has been heavily involved in designing and developing undergraduate and graduate programmes that incorporate social science and humanities perspectives into the education of future business leaders, policy makers, engineers and scientist.
