About the Researchers
Professor Bronwen Morgan joined UNSW Law School in October 2012, having taught at the University of Bristol, UK for seven years as Professor of Socio-legal Studies. Prior to Bristol, she taught at the University of Oxford in association with both St Hilda’s College and Wadham College, and a very long time ago, she taught at the University of Sydney Law School.
Her research has long focused on transformations of the regulatory state in both national-comparative and transnational contexts but more recently, she's become particularly interested in the interaction between regulation and rights, especially in the context of social activism and claims for social and economic human rights. These lines of interest can be seen in her two most recent projects: one on the rise of the regulatory state in the developing world, and another on access to urban water services in comparative perspective. Jarra Hicks commenced her PhD entitled 'Community Energy as Alliance Network: a comparative analysis of Australian projects' in 2014. Her research will analyse the regional development benefits and issues associated community-owned renewable energy. Jarra is a co-director of the Community Power Agency, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to building the sector in Australia.
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Dr. Declan Kuch joined the Law faculty in 2013 as Research Fellow on the project 'Between Social Enterprise and Social Movement: Responses to Environmental Change at the Intersection of Rights and Regulation.' His research focuses on public engagement with science and technology, most recently on techno-political issues with climate change such as emissions measurement, accounting and renewable energy. Previously, he worked as a Research Academic on a large social science project at the University of Newcastle, examining public awareness of and engagement with low carbon energy technologies.
Declan has also been active in climate change policy, blogging for Larvatus Prodeo and acting as Policy Director to the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. He is a 2014 International Social Science Council World Social Science Fellow. His book 'The Rise and Fall of Carbon Emissions Trading' will be published with Palgrave Macmillan's Climate Energy and Environment Series in 2015. Caroline Bird is an independent researcher doing the UK comparative element of the project. Her background and research interests are in environmental sustainability and the inter-disciplinary, cross-sectoral approaches necessary for the future. She recently carried out a research and knowledge exchange project for the University of Bristol working with local community energy groups to explore how they ‘maintain momentum’ after seed funding and how intermediaries can help to make the connections between policy and community activism.
From 2009-2012, she worked as a Research Fellow in the WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments at the University of the West of England, Bristol bringing together academics and practitioners in planning and public health to help develop healthy, sustainable cities in the UK and Europe through research, consultancy and training. She completed her MSc in Integrated Environmental Studies at the University of Southampton in 1999 and then worked in local government environmental policy. Even longer ago she was a Civil Engineer working on infrastructure construction projects. |