Research group

Ocean Justice

Plastic pollution in the sea by Naja Bertolt Jensenon

We are at the intersections of transdisciplinary ocean studies and concepts of global and environmental justice, exploring how to decolonise our engagements with the ocean and understandings of justice.

About

The Ocean Justice group aims to explore what the ocean brings to the meaning of justice, the presence and representation of the ocean in courts and law, and how we can unlearn and decolonise both our engagement with the ocean and understandings of justice in transdisciplinary manners.  

In 2022-23 we had a launch meeting that focused on how to build the group and on submitting a report to the International Seabed Authority Intersessional (ISA) Working Group on intangible and tangible Underwater Cultural Heritage and the insertion of this concept on their current draft of the ISA Mining Code. The report was co-authored with Mekhala Dave from Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary:

A Thyssen Bornemisza Art Contemporary Submission in Collaboration with Southampton Marine & Maritime Institute Special Interest Group on Ocean Justice (ISA Council’s Intersessional Working Group on Underwater Cultural Heritage, 15 May 2023, pp. 24–34).

For 2023-2024, we plan to hold an international and transdisciplinary hybrid Ocean Justice panel. We hope that the conversations that begin at this panel in early 2024, can be continued during a sandpit and writing retreat with members from the group. This retreat will allow a few members of the group to put together 2 main outputs: a brief publication on ocean justice and a funding bid to spend more time exploring this concept via a larger research project.

We also run a termly reading group, which includes both published work and work-in-progress to support scholars across the University and outside. We hold our discussion on an MS Teams group

To find out more about the Ocean Justice Special Interest Group and what we do, get in touch with group champions Giulia Champion and Dina Lupin.

Join the SMMI Community to sign up to this group, and any others of interest to you. 

(Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensenon)

People, projects and publications

People

Dr Sam Thompson

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Chemical Biology
  • Organic Synthesis
  • Medicinal Chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Sandy Wright

Principal Research Fellow
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Dr Seyedvahid Vakili

Research Fellow

Research interests

  • Sustainable shipping;
  • Net zero emissions;
  • Alternative fuels for (maritime) net zero emissions;
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Dr Sheida Afshan PhD, FICE, MIStructE, CEng, FHEA

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • High performance metallic materials and structures for applications in infrastructure and energy sectors
  • Experimental and numerical investigation of structural materials and components
  • Metallic materials for liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel storage and transportation

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Sien Van Der Plank PhD

Senior Research Fellow

Research interests

  • Multi-scale analysis using mixed methods of coastal flood risk management across policy domains, organisational stakeholders and households.
  • Risk attitudes and behaviours to the natural environment in relation to perceived, expected and experienced social and physical changes.
  • Mixed methods analysis of the form and evolution of stakeholder perceptions toward mining, expected impacts of mining, and experiences of consultation process.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Simon Blainey PhD, FRGS, FHEA, MCIHT, CMILT

Professor of Sustainable Transport

Research interests

  • Rail demand and operations modelling
  • GIS and transport
  • Transport decision support systems

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Simon Boxall

Principal Teaching Fellow
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Professor Simon Cox

Head of Department

Research interests

  • My research focusses on computational tools, technologies and platforms and how they enable interdisciplinary problems to be solved in engineering and science.His team in the Computational Engineering and Design Group is applying and developing high performance and cloud computing in a variety of collaborative interdisciplinary computational science and engineering projects. These include:
  • High Performance and novel Computing SystemsCloud Computing and commercial distributed computing - which led to a spin out companyApplied computational algorithms Computational electromagnetics– which led to the formation of a spin-off company.New algorithms such as meshless methods and fast solvers.Data Management Simon is also Director of the Microsoft Institute for High Performance computing where he demonstrates why, where and how current and future Microsoft tools and technologies can be exploited to enable engineering and scientific research to deliver faster, cheaper and better results.
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Professor Stephanie Jones

Professor of Literature and Law

Research interests

  • Literature and Law
  • Postcolonial and decolonial studies
  • Marine and maritime literatures
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Professor Stephen Boyd BEng, MSc, PhD

Professor

Research interests

  • Maritime Composites
  • Experimental and Numerical mechanics
  • Non-contact full-field techniques for validation of numerical models
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Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

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Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.