THE PEOPLE
Some of the artists, researchers, and educators who have contributed to the project
Tokyo, 2014
Pilot study for States and Territories
Blown glass, 35 x 35 cm
Tokyo, 2014
David Rousell is the principal investigator for the States and Territories project, as funded by an Austalian Postgraduate Award and the VC's Sustainability Fund. David is Research Fellow in the Biosocial Research Laboratory in the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University. He currently works with a team of interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners in the development of experimental research initiatives spanning the arts, humanities, and sciences. David’s recent research and artistic practice has focused on creating multi-sensory and immersive cartographies of learning environments that are responsive to the changing material conditions of contemporary life. David has exhibited his artwork in galleries, museums, and public spaces around the world, and his research has been published in a number of international journals and books. He is currently co-editing a book section entitled ‘Ecological Aesthetics and the Learning Environment’ for the forthcoming International Research Handbook on Childhood|Nature (Springer).
Dr. Alessandro Pellison has been a contributor to the States and Territories project in the areas of ecological law and environmental philosophy. Alessandro completed his LLB/LLM in Law in Italy specializing in comparative law and legal anthropology. His thesis comprised a field research project on pre-Colombian family protocols in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador. Alessandro has been involved in Indigenous rights since his university years, when he established a research group with which he participated in and supported the drafting of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva. His PhD thesis, conducted at the University of Wollongong and completed in 2011 focused on native title and legal pluralism in the Illawarra. In 2010, Alessandro began to explore the emerging discourse on rights of nature, Wild Law and Earth Jurisprudence. Alessandro’s main areas of research are legal anthropology, legal theory, comparative law, sovereignty, Indigenous rights, ecological jurisprudence and international environmental law.
Professor Bill Boyd has been a contributor to the States and Territories project in the areas of ecology and environmental management. Bill is Professor of Geography at SCU and the Chair of his University’s Human Research Ethics Committee. He is a multi- and trans-disciplinary scholar – a geographer, archaeologist, landscape scientist and educationalist, with scholarly interests in long-term environmental change, human-landscape interactions, environmental and cultural heritage management, and higher education.
He draws on both the geosciences and the humanities to inform his teaching and research. He brings a geographer’s eye to his teaching in the fields of environmental management, social engagement with environment, and cultural heritage. He has worked throughout Australasia and Southeast Asia for the last three decades. As a geoscientist, he works in the fields of Quaternary geology and geoarchaeology, examining how ancient people interacted with, and modified, their environments, and how the landscapes of this region evolved over the long term. He uses microfossil analysis, geomorphology and sedimentology to reconstruct histories of vegetation, the physical environment, sea levels and human impacts, and analyses his findings using models of system resilience.
Ben Roche has been instrumental in the commissioning and approval process for the States and Territories project. Ben is the Director of Engagement at Southern Cross University. In this position he has responsibility for a suite of portfolios that focus on connecting SCU’s research and teaching strengths with the sustainable development needs of its communities. He provides leadership and advice to drive engagement strategies and cultivate key relationships and networks to realise the University’s strategic priorities whilst optimising community benefit, impact and exchange. As a human geographer, Ben is passionate about participatory approaches to sustainable development and the role that education and engagement can play in creating resilience, capacity and well-being in communities. He has taught, researched and practised in the areas of community-based learning, participatory planning, sustainable development and community engagement. Ben continues to provide advice to a range of organisations and governments on strategic approaches to education, engagement and development.