Research Associate at the Centre for Family Research, University of Cambridge As a Research Associate at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, I conduct and coordinate studies that focus on family relationships and psychological well-being. My research has focused on families created through assisted reproductive technologies, such as sperm donation, egg donation, and surrogacy. I have explored how parents explain their use of donor eggs, sperm or surrogates, to their young children. I have also examined how children think and feel about their families. More recently, my research has focused on the breakdown of family relationships, sometimes referred to as family estrangement. This relatively common phenomenon has received little research attention. The aim of my research is to expand upon what we know about the causes, processes and consequences of relationship breakdown between family members, and to explore how estrangement affects and influences psychological well-being. I am committed to conducting high quality research on families that is of use to policy makers, practitioners, and families themselves. There is a lot to gain from moving beyond assumptions and studying families as they actually are.
Regius Professor of Political Science, University of Essex Professor David Sanders is the UK’s first Regius Professor of Political Science. He co-edited the top UK political science journal, the British Journal of Political Science, between 1990 and 2008. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and received a Special Recognition Award from the Political Studies Association in 2012. From 2000-2012 he was a Principal Investigator for the British Election Study. His current areas of research include political participation; election forecasting; the politics of the UK public sector; and measuring and assessing European citizenship.
Professor of Public Ethics, Centre For Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics (CAPPE), Charles Sturt University Until early 2008 Clive Hamilton was the Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Australia’s leading progressive think tank, which he founded in 1993. Prior to that he taught at the ANU and was a federal public servant. He has held a number of visiting academic positions, including at Sciences Po, Yale University and the University of Oxford. He is currently a member of the Climate Change Authority. In 2009 he was the Australian Greens candidate in the Higgins by-election. Clive is the author of a number of best-selling books, including Growth Fetish, Affluenza (with Richard Denniss), and Requiem for a Species: Why we resist the truth about climate change. His most recent book is Earthmasters: The dawn of the age of climate engineering (Yale University Press, 2013).
Senior Lecturer, Finance, Curtin University Lee Smales is a senior lecturer in Curtin University's School of Economics & Finance. Before joining Curtin, Lee was an associate lecturer with University of New South Wales where he also completed his PhD in finance. Prior to embarking on his academic career, Lee spent 8 years working for a major U.S. investment bank trading foreign-exchange and interest rate derivatives. Lee’s research interests are closely aligned with this prior career and focus on financial markets, and in particular the market response to news-events and the impact of prevailing sentiment and microstructure on this reaction. Lee has published in leading journals including the Journal of Banking & Finance, Journal of Financial Research, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Accounting & Finance, The Economic Record, and the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money. Lee has won awards for research (CBS New Researcher of the Year, 2013) and teaching (CBS New Teacher of the Year, 2014) and is also a CFA Charterholder.
Research Fellow in Faith and Peaceful Relations, Coventry University Prior to joining the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University in 2015 Dr Chris Shannahan was Lecturer in Religion and Theology at the University of Manchester (2013-2015). His Doctorate (2008, University of Birmingham) developed the first critical analysis of urban theology in the UK and led to work as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Urban Theology and then a Teaching Fellow in Religion and Society at the University of Birmingham (2009-2012) where he developed a major ethnographic project working alongside unemployed young men on a large Birmingham housing estate. His first monograph, 'Voices from the Borderland' (2010) was described as a ‘ground-breaking’ example of cross-cultural urban theology and is a set text at Universities and Theological Colleges in the UK, the USA and Australia. His second monograph, 'A Theology of Community Organizing' (2013) provided the first systematic theological analysis of broad-based community organising. His research also utilises Hip-Hop culture as a discourse of meaning, as seen in his 2012 partnership with the street artist Mohammed ‘aerosol’ Ali on his ‘Bromford Dreams – Graffiti Spiritualities’ action research project. Chris Shannahan's research arises from more than 20 years grassroots experience as the head of Religious Education in a large East London Secondary school; a youth worker in the East End of London and Trenchtown, Jamaica; a Methodist Minister in inner-city London and Birmingham and a community organiser. This diverse background informs and influences his commitment to researching, teaching and writing for progressive social change.
DPhil. Candidate in Cybersecurity, University of Oxford Kristopher Wilson is a DPhil candidate in Cybersecurity(Law) at the University of Oxford, and a Sessional Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law and Internet Law at the University of Reading. His current research involves evaluating the utility of the Computer Misuse Act in adequately responding to the developing nature of the use of computers in criminal activity. Prior to this he was an Associate Lecturer and Academic Advisor at Yunggorendi First Nations Centre at Flinders University, teaching Introduction to Indigenous Studies, advising Indigenous Law and Business Students, and working in school and community outreach programs. He was also a Sessional Tutor at Flinders Law School working in the topics Introduction to Public Law, and Legal Research and Writing. Kristopher undertook his LLB(Hons) at Flinders University, and his LLM at the University of New South Wales. Outside of Academia, Kristopher has worked with the South Australian Law Society's Indigenous Young Lawyers Mentoring Program, worked on various research projects with the South Australian Attorney General's Department, and continues to work as a mentor with 'The Aspiration Initiative' program.
