Meet Our Faculty

Winter 2013

Dr. David Baguley (FREN102)

David Baguley has taught at BISC since 2009. He previously taught in the French Department of the University of Western Ontario, where he acted as Head of Department for a spell and is now Emeritus Professor. He was also the Professor of French (now Emeritus Professor) at Durham University (UK), where he acted as Head of Department and Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. He is the author of a number of books and critical editions, as well as numerous articles and reviews, mainly in the area of 19 ^th-Century French literature and history, including Napoleon III and His Regime: An Extravaganza, which was awarded the R.H. Gapper Book Prize in 2001. He has edited the Bulletin of the Emile Zola Society and is a member of the editorial board of a number of academic journals. He is also a member of  l’Ordre des Palmes académiques.

 

Dr. Alan Bloomfield (POLS110 & POLS263)

Alan grew up in Perth, Western Australia, and received a Bachelor of Arts (double-majoring in Politics and Ancient History) and a Bachelor of Law from the University of Western Australia. He worked as a lawyer for six years, and in 2005 he completed his Masters of Arts (International Relations) at the University of New South Wales.  He then moved to Canada and completed his PhD in 2011 at Queen’s University.  He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Bader International Study Centre, where he teaches first year politics, Middle Eastern politics and international security courses.  He will be leaving to take up a position at the University of New South Wales later in 2013.

Alan works in the field of International Relations: specifically, he is a strategic theorist and defence policy analyst. He is currently working on three research projects; a theoretically-informed investigation of recent changes in Australian strategic policy prompted by the rise of China; a consideration of the validity and impact of Samuel P. Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilizations’ thesis (2013 is the 20-year anniversary of its first articulation); and he is in the early stages of writing a book investigating India’s sometimes contradictory approach towards the ‘responsibility to protect’ doctrine (otherwise known as ‘R2P’), by which armed interventions in sovereign states to prevent human rights abuses are authorised or regulated.

 

Ms. Ruth M. Cereceda (SPAN112)

I have been at the Bader International Study Centre since September 2009, teaching the first-year course in Spanish as a Foreign Language and upper year courses on History of Contemporary Art. I studied Philology and Philosophy and Letters -Art History- at University of Oviedo, where I’m currently developing my PhD. My doctoral research focuses on the cultural exchanges occurred between Hispanic communities within the Atlantic Arch in the Contemporary period, and more specifically, in the work of artist Eduardo Sanz. Such research is part of a project shared by a number of Spanish and Latin American Governmental and Higher Education institutions to recuperate artistic and cultural Hispanic heritage, such as the Center for the Arts Cabo Mayor Lighthouse, in Spain.

As part of my research interests I have co-authored and translated catalogues for art exhibitions; I have participated in international conferences and published articles in specialized magazines like TRASDOS.

 

Dr. Theodore Gabriel (RELS131)

Dr Theodore Gabriel was born in Kerala State, India, and had his school education in Kerala.  He graduated with a first class in Mathematics major and English Literature minor from the University of Madras.  He took his BEd degree after training  in teaching English and Mathematics at the University of Kerala.  He has worked as a tutor in Mathematics at the Malabar Christian College, University of Kerala .   He later took an MA in Sociology and Anthropology from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, India .  Subsequently he joined the University of Aberdeen in 1981 to do his MLitt and Ph D degrees in Religious Studies, completing his MLitt specialising in the study of Primal Religions, and his Ph D on Hindu- Muslim relations in Kerala, focussing on the Mappila  Muslim community in Malabar, examining particularly the impact of Portuguese, British and Mysorean colonial governments in Kerala on Hindu- Muslim relations.   His Ph D thesis has been published by  The Edwin Mellen Press   in 1996.  

Theodore taught at the University of Gloucestershire from 1986 to 2000 as Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and continues there as Honorary Research Fellow in Religious Studies, and as part-time Assistant Professor at the Bader international Study Centre of  Queen’s University (Canada),teaching a course on World Religions.

Theodore has been the author of 8 monographs and edited books and numerous journal articles and chapters in books.  His latest publications are Islam and the Veil  (Continuum Books, 2012) and Playing god , ritual and belief in the Muttappan Cult of North Malabar(Equinox, 2010).  He is now engaged in compiling books on ‘Sufism in Britain’ and ‘Islam and Education’.  He is also conducting research on Christian- Muslim relations in Egypt with the view to publish a monograph on the subject.

 

Diana Gilchrist (MUSC287)

Diana Gilchrist has served as Musician in Residence at the BISC since 1997 and she teaches M287 (Opera) and M102 (Western Art Music). She approaches the study of classical music from multiple perspectives: social/cultural/historical, theoretical/analytical, functional/practical. Diana is a singer by profession and since founding Ottawa’s Opera Lyra and serving as its first Artistic Director, has performed around the world in opera and concert. She is currently enrolled in a research and creative practice Ph D at the University of Edinburgh in the area of emotion in music. Research interests include performativity, the functionality and aesthetics of music, some areas of neuroscience and music and performance practice in Mozart’s vocal music. In 2012 Diana presented papers at The Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London and at the Hearing, Seeing and Imagining: Music and the Visual Arts conference.

 

Dr. Brian Holdstock (COMM373)

Dr Brian Holdstock’s areas of expertise are in operational management based on 20 years employment as managing director of a medium sized subcontractor in the engineering sector supplying surface treatments such as electro plating.

Brian completed his PhD at the University of Brighton in 1998 having became interested in surface treatment as an element of the management of new product development which is the subject of his doctoral research.  Brian’s earlier qualifications are ONC Mechanical Engineering, HNC Electronic Engineering, PG Diploma in Management Studies and PG Diploma in Business Research Methods.

Brian teaches at the University of Brighton on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes teaching business strategy, financial analysis and management accounting.  He has been teaching commerce courses at BISC since 2004 leading courses which include Management Control, International Business Strategy and, most recently, International Business Negotiation.

Professional organisations in which he has been active include the  Chartered Institute of Marketing (Fellow and former Sussex branch president), Chartered Management Institute (Fellow) and the International Foundation for Action Learning (Director).  Brian has also been a school governor, a member of British MENSA, and is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is a trustee director and Company Secretary of the Historic Vehicle Research Institute.

 

Barbara Holler (DEVS100)

Barbara is originally from Germany but studied and worked in Canada for several years. After completing her undergraduate and graduate studies with an MA in IDS and Anthropology from Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, N.S., Barbara worked as a Research Associate in social policy and evaluation research for SRDC, Ottawa, focusing mainly on qualitative research within the context of large-scale, long-term demonstration projects across Canada.

This work then led her to accept a place as a DPhil candidate in Social Anthropology, at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK to design a research project engaging more critically with cross-cultural conceptions of poverty, social exclusion  and gender, exploring ethnographically the constraints and opportunities that lone mothers on welfare face. With introductions of social policy initiatives implemented through a variety of welfare reforms, contradictions inherent in the context of the poverty ‘experience’, along with pressures of consumer capitalism and the political hegemony which denies the right to valued objects and brand named purchases by an undeserving poor, becoming the focus of her research.

Barbara argues that policy is a central concept and instrumental in the organization of contemporary societies across the globe and encroaches on all areas of life. Consequently it is virtually impossible to ignore or escape its influence and her research explores how policies work and why do they sometimes fail to function as intended?

While she passed her viva voce in August 2012, Barbara is engaged in collaborative research efforts within her field site and beyond, including the collection of life-stories of residents in working-class neighbourhoods and a variety of photographic initiatives regarding the lived experience and perceptions of poverty, both positive and negative. Since joining BISC in the fall of 2012, Barbara designed and run DEVS 100 'Canada and the Third World.' She will also run the upper-level GNDS 330 'Gender and the Global South' in the summer 2013

 

Dr. Brian Hunter (PHYSP15)

I was raised in Vancouver and attended UBC earning a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Chemistry.From there, I went to the University of Western Ontario for a Ph.D. and on to University College (London) for a post-doctoral Research Fellowship.  I spent most of my first career in the Chemistry Department at Queen's and, toward the end of my career, I was cross-appointed to Chemical Engineering.  My research dealt with applications of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to a wide variety of problems ranging from microbial metabolism, to polymer dynamics, and on to Mineralogy.

Most of my teaching was to Engineering students; General Chemistry to First Year and Physical Chemistry, Spectroscopy, and Microcomputer Interfacing to the Engineering Chemists.  This involvement with the Engineering students also meant that most of my administrative responsibilities were in Applied Science as well.

I took early retirement from Queen's a few years ago.  For four years, I was the Program Director for the Shad Valley Program at Queen's.  Shad Valley is a month-long residential program for High School students that deals with Science, Technology, and Business.  For the first two years, we ran the program at Herstmonceux and it has continued in Kingston.

I have also renewed a life-long interest in Astronomy.  My interst in Astronomy has also lead to teaching the Astronomy course at the Castle since 2004.  I first visited the Castle in 1970 when it was still active as the Royal Greenwich Observatory. The jump from being a Chemist to a Physicist is not as large as you might think.  The boundaries between scientific disciplines are not well-defined and I have always worked on the physical side of Chemistry.

 

Dr. Robert Hyland (FILM106 & FILM336)

My film scholarship began in Canada where I studied Film and English Literature at the University of Western Ontario.  I then went to Japan for a year, where I discovered a love of Japanese cinema.  On my return to Canada I pursued a Masters in cinema, focussing on the work of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa.  My PhD was undertaken here in the UK, at the University of Kent where I researched a history of the Vengeacne Seeking Woman in Japanese cinema.  Subsequent to earning my PhD, I have taught film in Taiwan at MingDao University, where I researched new Taiwanese cinema and in Japan again at both Nagoya City University and Kanda University of International Studies.  My research interests are wide and varied, and I have presented and published papers on digital cinema, Asian Horror Extreme cinema in the anthology Horror to the Extreme, and articles in the journals Asian Cinema and Cineaction!  I am currently working on an article for an anthology on conflict cinema, and an article on cultural hybridity in the films of the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

 

John Keefe (DRAM181 & INTS324)

John has been an academic, theatre director (The Salzburg Dance of Death (Brecht), Tis’ Pity She’s a Whore (Ford), The Revengers Tragedy (Tourneur), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare), performance dramaturg (Tara Arts, Trestle Mask Theatre, Theater Die Raben) and consultant since 1979.  He studied Literature and Philosophy at University of Warwick, and gained an MA in Theatre and Drama Arts at University of Leeds.

John has been at the BISC since 2002 and teaches courses on principles of theatre history -theory-practice-dramaturgy, sites & spaces of theatre, and principles of acting.  He has been involved in both the INTER2005 and INTER2009 conferences on international education at the BISC, published articles in Performing Ethos, Art History and Criticism, and Literary London, among other journals and edited collections. The co-written monograph and reader Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction and Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader were both published by Routledge in 2007.  Articles on the ‘film spectator’ and on ‘new dramaturgy’ are presently in progress and John is presently registered for a PhD by Prior Publication at Kingston University, London.

 

Dr. Kalliopi Kyriakopoulou (POLS338)

I have been with the Bader International Study Centre since September 2007, teaching various first-year and upper-year courses on Politics. In the current academic year I am teaching the upper-year courses on Political Behaviour: Strategy, Campaigns and Communication as well as on European Integration.

I studied Philosophy at the University of Athens, Greece and I continued with postgraduate studies in Politics and Government at the University of Kent, UK, from where I gained my PhD in 2006.

My research agenda explores the political nature of the Internet and focuses on the examination of new media as driving forces for citizen mobilization and participation. I am currently working on the representation of the European crisis in the media. My work has appeared in the edited book ‘Presence and Behaviour: Black and Minority Ethnic MPs in the UK-An Exploratory Study’ published in June 2010, and in the journal Human Affairs, published in Spring 2011.

 

Daphne Lawson (ARTH117 & ARTH322)

Daphne Lawson has been teaching the art history programme at the BISC since it opened in 1994. Since that first semester she has been instrumental in developing a new concept of teaching art history courses in front of the primary sources in art galleries, museums and architectural sites and it is still the way her courses are taught now. She also co-developed and taught the original interdisciplinary British Studies courses introduced at the Castle in 2000. She did her undergraduate degree in art history at Birkbeck College, London University and her post graduate M.A. by research and thesis from University of Kent. This was centred on her special area of interest in late nineteenth century French painting, and was on Degas and his Images of Private and Public Spectacle. This interface between visual imagery and performance was of particular interest to Daphne because her first career was as an actress. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 1971 and spent the next ten years in television, theatre and film before changing careers to become an art historian when she had a family. Daphne is currently working on a Chapter on Van Gogh for an Edinburgh University Press book entitled The Bible and the Arts due to be published in 2013.

 

Valerio Lintner (ECON112)

I teach introductory Economics at Bader International Study Centre.  I have also been an Economics professor at London universities for a number of years.  I studied for my BA and MA at Reading University, before working for a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence.  My research interests are the political economy of European integration, as well as contemporary Italy and economic philosophy.  I have written a number of books in these fields for publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Prentice-Hall and Routledge, as well as regular other publications, including articles in refereed journals.

 

Dr. Eric B. Litwack (PHIL111 & INTS306)

I started lecturing at the BISC in 1999, and allowing for two years in Canada as a business ethics consultant, I have been here since then. I am also the Study Skills Advisor at the BISC.  In both my philosophy and my IDIS courses, I seek to combine conceptual and practical aspects, and the BISC programme has been a fertile ground for this work. There is an extraordinarily high degree of commitment to quality education here, and this is a value that I very much share. The proximity of the institution to some of the greatest cultural centres of Europe is a major plus here for field studies, as are the sense of community and dedication of those who work here.

As a scholar I have published on a variety of philosophical problems, including topics in the philosophy of value and culture, ethics, and political philosophy. In 2009, I published a book, Wittgenstein and Value: The Quest for Meaning with Continuum. I have held a fellowship at the University of London’s Institute for Advanced Legal Studies, and in 2010 I was a Visiting Professor at Nagoya City University, our partner institution in Japan.

 

Dr. Peter Lowe (ENGL100 & ENGL272)

I have been at the Bader International Study Centre since September 2006, teaching the first-year survey course in English Literature and upper year courses on the work of Shakespeare and the literature of the twentieth century. I studied English at De Montfort University and at the University of Durham and gained my PhD in 2002. My doctoral research explored the extent to which T. S. Eliot’s Christian faith shaped his response to the work of Percy Shelley, and the dissertation was published by Cambria Press in 2006 under the title Christian Romanticism. My work has appeared in the Journal of Modern Literature, The Cambridge Quarterly, Romanticism, and Religion and Literature, among other journals, and my monograph, English Journeys: National and Cultural Identity in the 1930s and 1940s, was published by Cambria in July 2012.

 

Dr. Scott McLean (HIST125 & HIST241 & HIST242)

Dr Scott McLean is an Associate Professor  in History and has taught at the BISC since 1999. His focus is upon British and European history and the courses he has taught include: Roman Britain, Medieval Britain, Early Modern England, The British Isles in the 20^th Century, and World War Two and British Cultural Life. He believes that the Castle is a place where history can come alive through incorporating the many local sites of interest into the classroom experience. Teaching history in a region rich in historic associations, from the Roman invasion of 43 A.D. to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the Battle of Britain during WWII, not to mention the Castle itself - built by a knight who fought at Agincourt, painted by Turner in the 1820s, visited by Churchill in 1916 and home to the Royal Greenwich Observatory from 1946-1989 – allows history to be brought alive as students are exposed to history in a way that is difficult to duplicate elsewhere. He is also the Director of the BISC Field School in British Archaeology and he and his students continue to explore the archaeology of the Castle estate. Over the past seven years investigations have uncovered evidence of human occupation dating back to the Neolithic, with other sites from the Roman period, the Middle Ages and WWII! He is also developing an archive of materials related to the Castle’s colourful history. His recent publications include, William Wye Smith: Recollections of a Nineteenth Century Scottish Canadian (2008) and Researching Your Ancestors in Simcoe County: A Study in Migratory Patterns and Family History (2012). His current research is focused upon British perceptions of Canada and the Canadian Army during WWII.

 

Dr. Eugene Michail (IDIS305 & INTS221-02)

I have been teaching at BISC since 2007. This year I am teaching ‘IDIS304/305: British Identities’, a course that explores how Britishness is constructed and contested, looking at history, popular culture, and politics. I am also co-teaching ‘INTS 221: Global Issues of the 21st Century: Commodities, Globalization & Migration’, while in the summer I will be responsible for ‘HIST273: New Imperialism’.

I studied History and Archaeology at the University of Athens, Greece (BA), and Contemporary History at the University of Sussex, UK (MA, PhD). My research primarily evolves around two themes: trans-national and inter-cultural contacts with Britain as a starting, vantage point; and the political and cultural history of southeastern Europe. My recent book (Continuum, 2011) is on British-Balkan relations in the first half of the 20 ^th century. Currently I am working on the international reactions to Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. I am also preparing an online, collaborative project on the History of the Greek Crisis, part of which has been funded by Queen’s University (Canada).

 

Len Pedroza (COMM328)

After completing his schooling in Asansol, India, Len Pedroza came to live in the UK.   Following articles with a firm of Chartered  Accountants, he worked in professional and commercial accountancy before making a career change by attending the University of Sussex where he read International Relations.  After graduation, he attended the University of Essex on an ESSRC research studentship and gained a Masters degree in Comparative Politics. He subsequently completed a Postgraduate Certificate in the Education of adults at the University of Surrey.   He has been engaged in further and higher education since 1984.

He is currently a senior lecturer in the School of Sport and Service Management at the University of Brighton.  His main responsibilities deal with teaching Finance, Accounting, and Business Environment and Strategy and acting as a special tutor for International students.  Hs research interests include ethics and the world of international business and finance.

Len has been associated with the Bader international Study Centre since 1996 and has developed the involvement of the University of Brighton in the teaching of commerce at the BISC.

 

Dr. Shara Rambarran (FILM320)

Shara has taught at the castle for four years. She has completed her undergraduate music degree at the University of Sheffield, PGCE in Huddersfield and PhD in Salford and Leeds. Her research interests include: popular music analysis (music production, style/genre, text, audio and visual performance); musicology; digital media; intellectual property rights; and critical theory. Courses that Shara has taught at the BISC include Social History of Popular Music and British Studies (Contesting British Identities). Prior to her lecturing career, Shara has worked in music press companies specializing in dance and indie, music venues, and has taught in rock school. Shara has presented conference papers based on her research involving the remix/sampling, authorship, and copyright. She is currently on the editorial board of Journal for the Art of Record Production.

 

Dr. Charu Sharma (GPHY102)

I joined the Bader International Study Centre in September 2012 and started by teaching an upper year course in Invertebrate Paleontology.  My background is in the Geosciences with research interests in Late Quaternary marine paleoenvironmental reconstructions using microfossils as proxies.  I did my Masters in Applied Geology at the Indian School of Mines.  For my PhD I went to Dalhousie University, Canada.  My research was on sea-level changes on the Sunda Shelf, South China Sea over the past 50, 000 years using foraminifera as indicators.  I then had a post doctoral fellowship in the Dept. of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution, USA where I looked at the community structure of Holocene coral reefs of Papua New Guinea.  My second post doctoral project was at the University of Cambridge in the UK where I examined Pleistocene coastal environments of South Asia as possible migratory routes of early human dispersals out of Africa.  At the University of Plymouth I worked on research projects using foraminifera as Holocene sea-level indicators in the Persian Gulf and in Eastern Canada.  I then worked there as a teaching technician in the Ocean Sciences.  I am a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth, UK as well as at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, India.  My most recent publication is a co-authored paper with the IISER team in Kolkata, on the foraminiferal assemblages in turtle congregation sites along the north-eastern coast of India (Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the UK, Oct. 2012).  I am currently working on coastal paleoenvironments of Neolithic to Bronze Age settlement sites in south-east England in collaboration with Drs. Scott McLean and Steven Bednarski at BISC.

 

Dr. Shannon Smith (ENGL100 & ENGL237 & WRIT175)

Shannon Smith has been a Visiting Fellow at the BISC since 2008 teaching ENGL100, the first-year survey course, as well as courses in children's literature, academic writing, and the cultural history of London and the Olympics. This summer, when not watching the Canadian rowing team's performance in the London 2012 Games with all her lucky appendages crossed, she will be teaching a course titled "Nineteenth-Century Necromancy: Why We Keep Bringing the Victorians Back From the Dead". Shannon is a strong advocate of the BISC as a supportive and exciting learning environment. Shannon is currently in the final stages of her PhD (Queen's, Dept. of English) which is tentatively titled Marked Men: Sport and Masculinity in Victorian Popular Culture, 1865-1905 and which examines the way in which men who participated in the newly-developed sphere of modern sport were represented in various popular culture forms in the nineteenth century. Other research interests include: the Victorian spectacular theatre, specifically the melodramas of Dion Boucicault, Victorian and contemporary equine sporting narratives, neo-Victorianisms (i.e. the steampunk movement), and developments in the digital humanities, specifically the work of the NINES project and the coding language TEI P5. In 2009, Shannon was a Research Fellow at Goodenough College, London (UK) on a fellowship from the London Goodenough Association of Canada.

 

Dr. Anna Taylor (PSYC100 & PSYC333)

Anna Taylor has been teaching at the BISC since completing her PhD in psychology at the University of Sussex in 2009. She runs the ever-popular PSYC100 (Principles of Psychology) and the upper level PSYC333 (Human Sexuality). Both courses take a strict scientific perspective, allowing students to develop an understanding of research methods while also learning how to express their own opinions. This fits with Anna’s own research interests, which include the development of new research paradigms with the study of behaviour – both human and animal. Anna’s work has been published in numerous scientific journals and has been presented at conferences across the world. As well as teaching at the BISC, she is currently working in collaboration with the Mammal Vocal Communication and Cognition Research Group at Sussex.  Current experimental projects include the development of social cognition in equines and gender-specificity in the human voice.

 

Dr. Chris Taylor (MATH121)

Chris Taylor teaches mathematics at the Castle, including a first-year calculus course. Other courses that he has taught at the Castle include upper-year courses on cryptography and on the history of mathematics, introductory computing courses, a course on the history and philosophy of science (co-taught with Eric Litwack), and an Effective Writing course (co-taught with Christian Lloyd). He has a broad background in scientific and technical disciplines, including a bachelors degree in physics from Imperial College, London, a masters in computing from the University of Essex, a doctorate from the University of Sussex related to formal logic, and research and teaching experience at other UK universities --- most recently at the University of Sussex and the University of Kent. His research interests have been mainly in formal logic and its applications to computer science, and most recently, in the application of mathematics to cosmology. He is a member of the field studies team, and so helps to plan and accompany field-trips, and is a keen hiker, who has helped to organize hikes for students in the local area.

 

Richard Tudway (COMM398)

I bring a mature and varied knowledge of finance, business development, technology transfer risk management skills combined with entrepreneurial flair to the task of promoting sustainable economic and commercial development and the appropriate supporting governance structures within businesses.  I studied philosophy politics and economics at the University of Oxford and postgraduate studies in economics in Oxford and the University of Paris. I have worked in government, intergovernmental organisations, multinational commerce and the investment banking industry. I currently teach at a number of international educational institutions.  I have written and published on issues of corporate governance and corporate responsibility.

 

Dr. Huajing Zhao (CHIN100)

Huajing started to teach the Mandarin course in BISC from September 2012. She did her undergraduate in Chinese language and literature and had many years’ experience of teaching both Chinese and English as a foreign language to students at various levels. She received her PhD degree in Second Language Education at the University of Cambridge in October 2010. In addition, She also held an MPhil degree in the same field at the University of Cambridge and an MA degree in educational studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

She has presented papers mainly on gender and EFL (English as a foreign language) learning and teaching at several international conferences. Her first academic book named ‘gender construction and negotiation in the Chinese EFL classroom’ was published by CSP in June 2011. Her future research interests remain in the fields of applied linguistics, second language learning and teaching, gender studies and inter-cultural and cross-cultural communication.