Dr Libby Lester

School of English, Journalism & European Languages

Libby, coordinator of the Journalism, Media and Communications program, teaches and researches in the area of environmental politics and the media. She has also worked as a journalist for 15 years, writing news and features on politics, the environment and social affairs for a number of Australian newspapers and magazines, including the Age, the Herald and Good Weekend. Her book, Giving Ground: Media and Environmental Conflict in Tasmania, is in press.

Research Interests: Libby's main research interests are in the changing roles and dynamics of the news media in political and environmental conflict.

Current projects: Libby has two IRGS funded projects underway: 'Celebrity, Politics and the News' and 'Media and Environmental Conflict: A Pilot Comparative Study'. 

Dr Elle Leane

School of English, Journalism & European Languages

Elle teaches in the English program, and has particular interests in the representation of Antarctica in literature, and the relationship between literature and science. Her first degree was in physics, and her first monograph Reading Popular Physics (Ashgate 2007) focuses on the language of science popularisations. She has published in a diverse range of journals, including the Review of English Studies, Ariel, Theatre Notebook, Science Fiction Studies and Polar Record.

Elle's interest in the Antarctic developed when she began teaching at the University of Tasmania in 2000. Recently, she was awarded an Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship, which enabled her to travel to Antarctica on the expedition ship Aurora Australis. Her current research into representations of Antarctica is supported by an ARC Discovery Grant. From 2005, she has been contributing to the new Bachelor of Antarctic Studies at the University.

Research Interests: Elle's main research interests are in textual representations of Antarctica and the culture of Antarctic communities, the relationship between literature and science, science popularisation, and science fiction.

Current Projects: Antarctic Imaginations; The Culture of Antarctic Communities; Antarctic Bibliography.

Dr Aidan Davison

School of Geography and Environmental Studies

Aidan is a post-doctoral fellow on the ARC Discovery-Project 'Encounters with Urban Nature in Australia', and Lecturer in Human Geography and Environmental Studies. He is a member of the Board of Management of Sustainable Living Tasmania (Tasmanian Environment Centre) and a member of the Institute of Australian Geographers, the Ecopolitics Association of Australia, the International Society for Environmental Ethics, the International Society for Philosophy and Technology, and the National Tertiary Education Union.

Research Interests: Aidan's interdisciplinary research interests arise at intersections of the themes of democracy, nature, technology and sustainability, and focus on questions of environmental management and values, international development and everyday life. He is currently undertaking a qualitative enquiry into the significance of urban experience of nature within Australian environmental social movements. Aidan has a passion for teaching and is a member of the school's Teaching and Learning Committee. He has published on issues of life-long learning and educational philosophy.

Research Areas: Political Economy of Place and Environment; Environmental Planning and Management; Sustainable Communities.

Current and Supervised Project/s: Private Property Information Provision; Urban Ecology and Garden Ethics; Collaborative Forest Management: a case study of Model Forests; Is Environmental Management Consistent with Environmental Values?

A list of NCN members can be found here.