I AM A CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST with twenty years of international research and teaching experience on just and sustainable cities, food systems and social change. Originally from Australia, I have worked across the world and am now based in the UK. My work explores the socio-cultural contexts, ethics, politics and sustainability potential of diverse social food economies in cities.

With more than half the global population now living in cities, cities often represent sites of pollution, uncertainty and disaster. I argue that cities also represent novel sites of opportunity, innovation, solidarity, resource mobilisation and change. This website also seeks to showcase and express the diversity of topics and approaches required for living together in an increasingly proximate more-than-human world.

AS A RESEARCHER, I have conducted ethnographies on food waste, urban beekeeping, non-monetised alternative food economies, and food sharing practices in Australia, Venezuela, Ireland, Spain and Norway. This research contributes to new understandings of urban nature, conservation, design and healthy, just and resilient cities. I have also led state-of-the-art national papers on climate change adaptation, health and food systems.

AS AN AUTHOR, I have published more than 40 academic texts, including one monograph and three edited books.

AS AN EDITOR, I have reviewed numerous articles for academic journals, and edited three academic books from idea conceptualisation through to copy editing, indexing and promotion.

AS A LECTURER, I seek to convey these teachings to others in an informative and engaging way. Moving into the study of urban nature, I engage with innovative methodologies – including participatory design, multi-species ethnography and sensorial approaches – to acknowledge essential aspects of the more-than-human city.

AS A CONSULTANT, I bring these insights, experiences and skills together to deliver thoroughly researched, inclusive and applicable approaches to further urban sustainability objectives. While I’ve provided expert advice to many students, researchers, local governments, the media and the general public over the years, recently I’ve taken this on professionally, acting as an expert advisor and evaluator for leading international funding programs.

I was recently asked to express my current interests and skills. To share with you, they include:

• just and sustainable cities – interested in expanding current approaches to a more systematic and holistic approach, ie. to bring in policy, sectors, spaces and participants
• food policy – integrated, urban/city-regional approaches for advancing just and sustainable transitions
• urban natures – citizen engagement with, design interventions, cross-cultural conceptualisations of
• interdisciplinarity – work across anthropology, geography, (planetary) health, design
• multi-sectoral – academia, policy and citizen engagement
• international – keen to bring in perspectives from other parts of the world; have worked in Australia, Venezuela, Ireland, Spain, Norway, the UK
• project/event management in all of the above – managed work packages in two international projects, contributed to multi-sited ethnographies in others, and have synthesised research across above on climate change mitigation, health and food

The second question I was asked was to give an indication of areas of research I’d like to develop, and/or possibly collaborate on. This includes:

• all of the above – developing interdisciplinary projects based on aspects relating to either food and/or nature in just and sustainable cities
• interested in novel methodologies, particularly drawing on environmental humanities and the arts to develop new qualitative approaches
• interested in emerging, creative and democratic forms of map-making
• my work often explores alternative economies as a landscape of hope and making visible ‘wasted’ urban features/opportunities
• interested in how we – including the more-than-human – can ‘live with’ increasingly proximate places in urban worlds 
• more specific other projects include living on local waterways, urban beekeeping, and urban-rural linkages through food sharing practices
• When I have time, I am interested in collaborations such as co-supervising, teaching/guest lectures, grant writing and I find it very hard to say no to book projects 🙂

If these or related topics inspire or intrigue you, please feel free to get in touch. My contact details are below.