Simon Batterbury (Associate Professor, University of Melbourne)

http://simonbatterbury.net/simon.jpgPersonal website – nothing to do with the University

    simonpjb  "at" unimelb.edu.au                                   

Short cv .pdf

Publications of all sorts

Blog

Research students past and present. Potential PhD students look here

To-do list 2014 (eeks)

Old Homepage, research themes, teaching, links etc.

·         Thoughts on academic radicalism and open access publishing

·         Press on Batterbury family garden, Bath, UK

·         Bike Helmets – Australia and New Zealand doesn't need them to be compulsory for adults. Helmets data

Favourite Quotes

"It's no use trying to be clever--we are all clever here; just try to be kind--a little kind". F.J. Foakes Jackson (a Cambridge academic, talking to a new arrival at the University, early 1900s)

"Generally it is our failures that civilise us. Triumph confirms us in our habits". Clive James. 1980. Unreliable Memoirs. Picador. p65

 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 originally from the UK but have spent many years in other places, notably Australia, the USA, West Africa and continental Europe.

This site is oriented towards research and teaching interests, and also contains (under Publications) online versions almost everything I have written since 1993.

I’m Associate Professor in an interdisciplinary university department, University of Melbourne, Australia and also from 2008-12 I directed the University’s  Office for Environmental Programs, which offers interdisciplinary taught post-graduate degrees in the environmental field. It has its own blog site for events and ruminations and has been widely recognized for its innovative teaching model.

Melbourne is a strong research and teaching university dating back to the 1850s. Initially modelled on   Oxford and part of the Australian "Ivy league" (Group of 8), it is high in all the rankings.

http://simonbatterbury.net/melbournesky.jpgDespite environmental challenges,  Melbourne is also one of the world's 'most liveable cities' according  to assessments - better planned, interesting/alternative, 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.  It is expensive by North American standards.

The Department I am in, Department of Resource Management and Geography, has changed its name due to university restructuring. It is currently in the Faculty of Science and there is no official web yet. From 2008-2014, we were in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment, which was axed. Until 2006 we had the best name – SAGES - the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies in the Faculty of Arts. 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 I have a large group working on environment & development, international development, political ecology topics and engaged research. I am supposed to have a max of 7, often have up to 11. Masters students for taught programs should apply to the Masters of Environment, OEP, where 'streams' can be chosen including 'development' and 'conservation'. I also teach many Master of Development Studies students. I occasionally have honours students in geography (Honours is an undergrad 4th year with a 15,000 wd. thesis in Australia)           

In 2007-8 I was a James Martin Fellow at ECI, University of Oxford, UK in a unit focussing on climate change policy. I used to teach at the University of Arizona (USA), the London School of Economics (UK, where I co-managed the MSc 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 and worry about bicycle infrastructure.     

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 (Nouvelle-Calédonie, Timor-Leste). 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 soixantaine d’articles et de 6 «collections», il a reçu plusieurs « research grants ».

 

1 Jul  2014