Emeritus Research Professor of African Ecology, University of the Witwatersrand Norman Owen-Smith was Research Professor in African Ecology at Wits University until his retirement, and continues to be actively involved in research in this field. His research focus has been particularly on the ecology of large mammalian herbivores and their interactions with vegetation in African savanna ecosystems.
Honorary Research Fellow in Italian Studies, Royal Holloway University of London Dr Stefano Jossa is Honorary Research Fellow at Royal Holloway University of London and teaches Italian Literature at the Universita` degli Studi di Palermo. He is the recipient of the BA/Leverhulme SRG for research on the Ridolfi collection at the Archives of Royal Holloway (2019-2021). His research specialises in the Italian Renaissance and the Italian national identity expressed through literature. He held Visiting Professorships at the Polytechnic (ETH) of Zurich (Switzerland - De Sanctis Chair, 2017), the University of Parma (Italy, 2017) and the University of Roma Tre (Italy, 2018). Among his main publications: (with L. Curreri), In balia di Dante e Pinocchio: Per una critica della cultura italiana (Rome: Mauvais Livres, 2022); (with J. E. Everson and A. Hiscock), Ariosto, the Orlando Furioso and English Culture (Oxford: OUP, 2019); La più bella del mondo: Perché amare la lingua italiana (Turin: Einaudi, 2018); (with G. Pieri), Chivalry, Academy and Cultural Dialogues: The Italian Contribution to European Modernity (Cambridge: Legenda, 2016); Un paese senza eroi: L’Italia da Jacopo Ortis a Montalbano (Rome: Laterza, 2013); (with Y. Plumley and G. Di Bacco), Intertextuality, Memory and Citation between Middle Ages and Renaissance (Exeter: Exeter University Press, 2011).
PhD Candidate, Quadram Institute Catherine Purse is a PhD student at the Quadram Institute, where her project investigates age related changes to the gut microbiome, the immune system, and the contribution of these changes to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease.
Senior Lecturer in Literature, University of Liverpool I joined the Institute of Irish Studies in 2019. Before moving to the University of Liverpool, I completed postgraduate studies in literature at New York University as a Fulbright scholar and at the University of Cambridge with the support of the AHRC. After finishing my PhD in 2015, I worked as a stipendiary and departmental lecturer at the University of Oxford. My research interests cover the period since 1800 and fall into two categories: theatre & performance history and Irish literature & culture. I published a book on the circus in Irish literature and culture, All on Show, with Cork University Press last year. I am now working on my second monograph, which explores how English comic opera became a colonial export in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. At the same time, I am working on an adaptation for live performance of Virginia Woolf's final novel Between the Acts and, with Dr Ataa Alsalloum of Liverpool's School of Architecture, an edited collection exploring aspects of intangible cultural heritage among migrant communities in the UK. I teach on a wide range of both Irish studies and English modules, and convene modules on writing for radio, migrant writing, and twentieth-century and contemporary Irish writing. Like my research, my teaching tends to be interdisciplinary, combining my interests in literary criticism, theatre and performance studies, and history, and I encourage students to develop their own practical skills through creative critical assessment. I am always on the look out for new ways to share my research with diverse audiences, both within and beyond the university. In 2008, I founded the production company Sidelong Glance: its mission is to turn academic research into widely accessible theatre, performance and documentary film. Sidelong Glance produced the short film series Whose History? for the Institute of Irish Studies at Liverpool in 2021; another of the company's productions, Wild Laughter, is a set text on undergraduate drama modules in English. In 2017, I was named an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker. Since then, I have written, presented and appeared on a number of BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 programmes. I have also written for various newspapers, magazines and blogs, including Vogue, the Irish Times and HuffPost UK. Within Liverpool's School of Histories, Languages and Cultures, I am the Deputy Academic Lead for Admissions and Widening Participation.
Associate Professor, Public Health, Griffith University With a background in environmental science, my career has focussed on researching the links between environmental change and human health and building capacity to understand and respond at local, national and global levels. I have been involved in research to solve public health problems, from pandemic risk communication in China, mosquito-borne diseases in Kenya and Bangladesh, coastal salinity and hypertension in Bangladesh, to disasters and climate change governance in China, Philippines and Indonesia. My leadership and expertise in climate and health has developed from working with WHO on climate and water, teaching climate and health content into university postgraduate and short courses (Bangladesh and Pakistan), master supervision (food security and climate, heat and health adaptation policy in India, hope and climate action in young Australians, digital uptake in heat sensitive populations of Australia) and HDR supervision (flood vulnerability in China, climate and infectious disease in Vietnam, climate and dengue fever in Bangladesh, climate-health adaptation policy in the Philippines, heat and worker health in garment factory workers, heat and early warning systems in older people). I lead the Climate and Health Collective, a Griffith group of multi-disciplinary researchers committed to collaboration to solve climate and health problems. This collective has led to large external research grants, WHO projects and numerous health related Climate Action Beacon projects. My research achievements are founded on quality HDR supervision, an extensive publication track record and a collaborative research leadership approach. I am committed to leading transdisciplinary research that improves the health of communities, focussing on climate and health impact and risk management research that aligns with Griffith’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025 high level goal of ‘providing research solutions to humankind’s greatest challenges’. I currently teach into Griffith’s Master of Public Health and Master of Global Public Health programs producing public health professions capable of addressing the many complex and diverse current and emerging health issues that we face as a global community.
