Associate professor in Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Food production is at the same time central to humanity and intimately connected with many of the serious challenges to global climate and ecologies. My research interests concern how ideas and practices regarding today's sustainability challenges in food production and natural resource management are negotiated and turned into practice, and in particular how marginalised groups are affected. While the biodiversity crisis and the climate crisis are both real and urgent to address, we must explore how the burden for needed changes is distributed, between the global North and South, within countries and local communities, and between humans and the environment. Asking these questions is key to my research. Geographically most of my research is located in Africa (esp. Uganda & South Africa) where I study how agricultural and natural resource policies and wider development agendas affect African smallholders.
Associate Professor in Geochemistry, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington I am a geomorphologist and geochemist that specializes in measuring change at Earth's surface. Much of my work has revolved around quantifying how quickly rock can be turned into soil and subsequently how quickly that soil is eroded away. I use cosmogenic nuclides as an analytical tool for determining rates and dates at Earth's surface.
Associate Professor, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney Associate Professor Karen Scott is Head of Sydney Medical Program's Evaluation Unit. Karen conducts medical education research, including program evaluation, student learning, teacher beliefs, elearning and the culture of healthcare settings. She also researches digital health literacy to understand how parents and young people use and assess health information on the internet and social media. She codesigns educational resources with young people so they can learn to identify trustworthy online health information. Karen is Editor of the journal, Focus on Health Professional Education.
Associate Professor and the Deputy Programme Director of Digital Humanities in the Department of Information Studies, UCL Dr Kaitlyn Regehr is an Associate Professor and the Deputy Programme Director of Digital Humanities in the Department of Information Studies. Her research is focused on the cultural impacts of social media, particularly on children and youth. Her work has informed legislation on children’s safety online, most recently feeding into the Online Safety Act and the new Cyberflashing legislation, which advocates for the safeguarding of young people against image based harassment online. She has provided consultation in the House of Lords, and Members of Parliament, the Metropolitan Police, Scottish Government, Prevent on the digital echo-chamber effect and the indoctrination of young people into online extremism. She also consults for Education Scotland and Schools across England on digital citizenship education. Recently, she lead as PI on the “Safer Scrolling Report” in partnership with Association of School and College Leaders, which highlights how the affordances of social media platforms, actively amplify and direct harmful content to young people. The report generated much media attention, featuring in over 300 including the front page of the Guardian, and fuelled high-profile parents movements (including Smartphone Free Childhood). In response, the Shadow Education Minister, has pledged to implement some of the report’s recommendations across the national curriculum.
Professor, School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Leeds Beckett University Professor Kate Dashper is the Director of Research Degrees in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management. Her research applies a critical sociological lens to examine practices of work and leisure, particularly focusing on gender issues and interspecies encounters. Kate is an internationally recognised researcher for her work in human-animal studies. Through her research on equestrian sport and leisure, Kate examines how humans and nonhumans work and play together, and the interspecies relationships that can develop through joint action and interaction. Her research considers the potential contributions that multispecies perspectives can make to understanding events, tourism and hospitality practices and organisations. She is author of the 2017 monograph Human-animal Relationships in Equestrian Sport and Leisure (Routledge) and co-editor of the first book on multispecies events, Humans, horses and Event Management (CABI, 2021). Kate’s other main area of expertise is gender, and she has conducted research and consultancy projects within both the events and equestrian industries, evaluating gender equality initiatives in organisations and exploring the gendered experiences of women and men within professional and leisure contexts. She is editor of Sport, Gender and Mega-events (Emerald, 2021).
Lecturer in Television Theory, University of Westminster Kate has a background in sociology, media and cultural studies and gender and sexuality studies. Her research is concerned with queer, feminist engagements with popular culture and celebrity, with a particular focus on television. Recent research explores LGBTQ+ lives and representations; queer fan cultures; social media; gender, sexuality and celebrity; television and society/social change. Kate holds a BA in Drama and Theatre Studies (2006, Royal Holloway, University of London), an MA in Gender and Women's Studies and English (2008, Lancaster University), and an MA in Sociological Research (2010, Lancaster University). Her PhD research (2014, Lancaster University) combined television studies, fan studies, feminist and queer theory. Between 2011 and 2017, Kate taught at Lancaster University across Gender Studies, Media Studies and Sociology. Joining the University of Westminster in 2018, Kate teaches television and media theory on BA Television Production, BA Film and MA Film, Television and Moving Image, specialising in teaching on media and representation; contemporary television culture; and audiences. In 2020, Kate's book Lesbians On Television: New Queer Visibility and The Lesbian Normal was published by Intellect. The twenty-first century has seen LGBTQ+ rights emerge at the forefront of public discourse and national politics in ways that would once have been hard to imagine. Focusing on the small screens of Europe and North America, Lesbians on Television maps the contemporary shifts in lesbian visibility within popular media and, from this, extracts a figure of the new 'lesbian normal' that both helps and hinders those it represents. This book offers a unique and layered account of the complex dynamics in the modern moment of social change, drawing together critical social and cultural theory as well empirical research, which includes interviews and multi-platform media analyses. Lesbians on Television is available Open Access here. Kate's current research has two central strands: - The politics of televisual nostalgia and - Contemporary representations, rights and social shifts around queer/LGBTQ+ families. Kate would welcome PhD applications on topic including: LGBTQ+ representation/queer media; gender and media; media and social issues/change; audiences/fandoms; social media and activism/social change; youth media; television studies on themes including: nostalgia; youthification; representation; EDI on and off screen.
