Dr Liam Phelan

Biography

"My primary research interest is sustainability and how to achieve it. I have a long-standing engagement at the nexus of climate change, finance, human rights and ecological sustainability. More recently my research interests have evolved to focus on governance of the Earth system as a complex adaptive system comprising human-social and ecological elements, and its key characteristics, including thresholds, non-linear change, and capacity for surprise. My particular interest is the relationship between the Earth system and the global economy as a subsystem of the Earth system, and how to bring the global economy into alignment with the Earth system. I engage in critical research, i.e. research which seeks both to understand the world and to change it for the better. I aim to equip and encourage students to participate consciously, actively and effectively in wider society as highly functioning citizens. Connections between education, social justice and sustainability are a key interest for me. This is why I teach. Through my teaching I aim to support students to engage in their own active learning processes and facilitate in them an understanding of complex environmental sustainability issues. I pursue ‘deep approaches’ to learning, associated with outcomes described by students themselves as ‘understanding’, ‘seeing something in a different way’ and ‘changing as a person’; this represents significant ambition for teaching, beyond shallow learning such as ‘increasing one’s knowledge’, ‘memorising’ and ‘applying’. From this philosophical starting point I have developed an approach to teaching that conceptualises learning as a social and interactive activity. I believe online students’ sense of belonging to a learning community is absolutely essential to their success and joy in learning. For students in the online space, interactions are key to their development of a sense of community, and learners interactions, engagement and their sense of community may even constitute a virtuous spiral, i.e. a self-reinforcing process which supports achievement of learning goals. In my teaching practice I create a sense of community in cohorts of online Master students by emphasising students’ interaction with course content, peers and myself as lecturer. My background is in activism for social and ecological justice, and human rights. I have worked with civil society organisations including AID/WATCH and the Australia Tibet Council. In 2005 I was co-recipient of the international Free Spirit Award, created in 2003 to honour individuals working for the cause of Tibetan people. I have also served in several honorary roles with the International Tibet Support Network and with The Mercy Foundation, a philanthropic foundation with a social justice mission based in Sydney, Australia. "

Research Interest

Environmental Politics, Environmental Management, Political Theory and Political Philosophy