Justin Buchler studies elections, political parties and Congress. He has written extensively on the nature of competitive elections and their place in democracy. His 2011 book, Hiring and Firing Public Officials: Rethinking the Purpose of Elections (Oxford University Press), argues that competitive elections are paradoxically unhealthy for democracy because they are not analogous to competitive markets. Rather, they are poor ways of hiring and firing people. Tossing a coin to decide whether or not to fire an employee is a bad way to operate, for a business or a country. Professor Buchler’s articles on electoral competition include “The Social Sub-optimality of Competitive Elections,” in Public Choice, which won the Gordon Tullock Prize for 2007. Currently, Professor Buchler’s research addresses the use of spatial theory to study elections, the asymmetric nature of partisan conflict, and the burden it places on journalism. Professor Buchler currently blogs at theunmutual.blogspot.com
I am an art theorist, educator, researcher and presenter, based in Newcastle, Australia. I grew up in Wales and moved to Australia in 1990 to study art at the University of Sydney. I graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts Honours Class 1 in 1994, and in 2000 was awarded a PhD in Art History and Theory from the University of New South Wales. I regularly contribute to The Conversation, as well as publish academic research. In 2015, I published 'Double War: Shaun Gladwell, visual culture and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq', Thames & Hudson. Since 1997, I've taught art history at universities in Australia and Hong Kong, and I'm currently a Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of Newcastle, Australia. I've won multiple awards for my teaching and I direct the StudioCrasher video project.
Dr. Elizabeth Basha, a graduate of both Pacific and MIT, joined the Pacific faculty in Fall 2010. Professor Basha recently received a National Science Foundation (NSF) award for a project in collaboration with the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The three-year grant will investigate the use of aerial robotics to wirelessly transfer power to maintain sensor network systems. This project builds the power transfer system, develops algorithms for selecting nodes to recharge on both the UAV and sensor network side, and extends power management solutions on the sensor networks.UAV - Bridge This research introduces novel recharging systems and algorithms to supplement existing systems and lead to autonomous, sustainable energy management on sensor networks. Applications such as bridge fault detection that rely on sensor networks operating away from buildings often lack energy for long-term monitoring. In these scenarios, traditional recharging methods (e.g. solar panels) are unavailable or cannot provide sufficient energy (e.g. at night). Dr. Basha has also created a new graduate course in robotics that began in Spring 2013, along with an undergraduate version that launched in Spring 2014. This three-year grant has also supported our Masters Program with MSES students contributing to the research as well as completing thesis on this project. Interested undergraduate students have also been able to contribute to the research on this project.
Dr Anastasia Nesvetailova (MA Manchester, PhD Aberystwyth) joined City in September 2007. Her main research and teaching interests lie in the area of International Political Economy (IPE), finance and financial crises, globalisation and governance. Her first monograph, Fragile Finance: Debt, Speculation and Crisis in the Age of Global Credit (2007, Palgrave), develops a Minskyan analysis of financial fragility and crises in the late 1990s. Her second monograph, Financial Alchemy in Crisis: The Great Liquidity Illusion (2010, Pluto) focuses on the elusive concept of 'liquidity' in global finance, and specifically, in the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. Dr Nesvetailova is currently working on the political economy of financial innovation, liquidity and international financial governance.
PhD Candidate, Research Assistant, Sessional Tutor and Assistant Lecturer at the University of South Australia. Master of Architecture and Master of Sustainable Design from the University of South Australia; Global Voices Australian youth delegate to World Trade Organisation 2014; Rymill House Travel Scholarship recipient and presenter at Australian Heritage Week 2015.
Anthony Asher is an actuary well known for his interest in ethics in professional life, particularly the social impact of actuarial work. On the one hand this has led to product development, where benefits (and underlying investments) match the particular needs of the bereaved, the disabled and the elderly. On the other hand it has led to questions of professional education and regulation that support the development of judgement and justice. His current research includes investigation of the products and financial advice needed by retirees as their intellectual powers decline, and a virtue theory approach to risk culture and overregulation.
