Meet your tutors
Congratulations on getting an offer to study with us! We hope we'll get to meet you soon. In the meantime, we wanted to give you a chance to learn more about our core lecturers.
Phil Roberts is a lecturer in international development, based in Politics. Eleanor Jew is a lecturer in environment and development, based in Environment and Geography.
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Phil Roberts
My own experience challenged the conventional wisdom
As a Politics undergraduate, I was largely taught that economic ‘boom and bust’ was a thing of the past, and that modern political challenges were more around fair distribution of wealth.
After graduating, I moved to South America. My experience living in Brazil for a year in 2007 fundamentally reshaped my views, and left me asking some uncomfortable questions. Why did poverty and wealth still exist side by side? How had mainstream economic theory failed to predict the Global Financial Crisis?
In an effort to uncover the answers, I took a PhD in Political Economy. By studying rural labour struggles in Brazil, I learned how amassing wealth creates persistent poverty, how conflict and crisis are fundamental to capitalist economies, and how effective political organisation is crucial for building a better world.
Because my own experience challenged the conventional wisdom, I am passionate about teaching you how to interrogate problems in the world around you, and to show you how to think for yourself, instead of following common belief.
Eleanor Jew
We need to work together across disciplines and divides
My original passion was wildlife conservation, and it quickly became apparent to me that people are a really important part of successful schemes. This led me to research projects that consider both the natural and human environments.
To overcome the global challenges facing us today, we need to work together across disciplines and divides, and to understand and accommodate different perspectives and needs. I am delighted to be teaching on this interdisciplinary course, where we provide you with the skills you’ll need to solve these challenges - today, and in the future!
