Simon Batterbury (University of Melbourne)

Personal website – nothing to do with the University

Simon Batterbury    Melbourne from Albert Park. Simon Batterbury 2006.

2004                Melbourne from Albert Park

simonpjb  "at" unimelb.edu.au

·        Homepage, research themes, teaching, links etc.

·        Publications of all sorts

·        Press on Batterbury family garden, Bath, UK

·        Westgarth transport proposals and debate Mar-April 2009. Community have successfully resisted adverse traffic changes in my suburb. Consultation deadline ends 14 Apr 09, have your say. 

·        Map IP Address This is where you are

Greetings!

 I work on the political ecology of natural resources, and international development issues, as a university scholar and occasional consultant and activist.

I’m Associate Professor in an interdisciplinary university department, University of Melbourne, Australia and also direct the University’s  Office for Environmental Programs, which offers interdisciplinary post-graduate degrees in the environmental field, and has c.210 students. It has its own blog site for events and ruminations.   

This site is presently oriented towards research and teaching interests, and also contains (under Publications) online versions almost everything I have written since 1993. I include an undergrad essay I wrote in 1984 in which I argued for the policy-relevance of geographical scholarship.

Melbourne is a strong research and teaching university dating back to the 1850s. Initially modelled on Oxford and part of the Australian "Ivy league", it is 2nd ranked in Australia and, the Times Higher says, in the top 40 or so worldwide.

Despite recent bushfires in the hinterland and a serious water crisis,  Melbourne is also one of the world's 'most liveable cities' according to the Economist's Intelligence Unit – cheaper, better planned, funky, and with a better climate than most of its northern-hemisphere equivalents.  Soon to approach 4m people, it has a strong environmental movement, many NGOs, a tram network, a bayside coast, opulent Victorian architecture, a multicultural community, large homegrown music scene, and the best coffee in the country.    

 The Department I am in has changed its name due to some university restructuring.

From 1 Jan 2008, we are the Department of Resource Management and Geography, in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment, which is gradually becoming an environmental hub at Melbourne.

In 2007 we were the School of Social and Environmental Enquiry but it got broken up. Until 2006 we had the best name – SAGES - the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies. This attracted me to Australia in 2004 from the Univ. of Arizona, since I teach across development studies, geography and environment (SAGES survives on Facebook!).

  Potential PhD students should apply via the Melbourne School of Land and Environment. I have a group working on environment & development, international development aid, and engaged research. Masters students for taught programs should apply to the Masters of Environment, OEP, where 'streams' can be chosen including 'development'. I also teach many Master of Development Studies students.            

In 2007-8 I was a James Martin Fellow at ECI, University of Oxford, UK in a unit focussing on climate change policy, and still have links there. I used to teach at the University of Arizona (USA), the London School of Economics (UK, where I co-directed the MA in Environment and Development), Brunel University (UK) and briefly at the University of Colorado (USA) and Roskilde University (Denmark).  Rather a lot of universities! I’ve also lived in francophone West Africa, where I still conduct research on environment and development issues, and I have a couple of similar research projects closer to home in the Pacific and East Timor.  In my neighbourhood, Northcote, I sit on environmental committees.     

Dr Simon Batterbury est géographe et spécialiste de la gestion des ressources naturelles et des politiques environnementales en Afrique (Burkina, Niger) et dans la zone Asie-Pacifique (Timor-Leste, Nouvelle-Calédonie). Né en Angleterre, docteur de la Clark University (Etats-Unis, 1997) sur le thème du développement rural au Burkina Faso, il est aujourd’hui Associate Professor à l’Université de Melbourne depuis 2004 (et a Université de Oxford en 2007/8). Entre-temps, il a travaillé à l’Université de Brunel à Londres, à la London School of Economics, et à l’Université d’Arizona (Etats-Unis). Auteur d’une quarantaine d’articles et de 6 «collections», il a reçu plusieurs « research grants ».

 

9 April 2009