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

Professor Tom Ezard

Associate Dean Education

Research interests

  • The bridge from micro- to macroevolution.
  • Scaling ecological dynamics across individuals, populations and ecosystems.
  • Demography for conservation and life history evolution.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Toni Martinez Sykora

Professor

Research interests

  • Optimisation and Combinatorial Optimisation 
  • Cutting and packing problems
  • Transportation and vehicle routing problems

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Tony Kushner

James Parkes Professor of History

Research interests

  • Jewish migration history
  • Refugee studies
  • Representation and memory of the Holocaust
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Dr Vicky Dominguez Almela

Teaching Fellow in Ecology

Research interests

  • Her work has included the use of individual-based models (IBMs), geographical information systems (GIS) and stable isotopes to increase understandings of invasion patterns and processes and evaluate invasive species eradication programmes.
  • Postgrad Rep and Social Media Lead of the British Ecological Society Invasion Science Group.

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Emeritus Professor Victor Humphrey

Research interests

  • Professor Humphrey has particular research interests in the areas of medical ultrasound and underwater acoustics. Common themes running through his research include the understanding and application of non-linear acoustics and the laboratory measurement of physical acoustic phenomena including scattering. His main research interests include: · Nonlinear propagation, streaming and imaging in medical ultrasonics; · Ultrasonic heating and propagation in biological media; · Parametric arrays and their application to acoustic measurements in the laboratory; · Acoustic transmission and reflection properties of isotropic and anisotropic materials; · Scattering from objects and methods of measuring and predicting the scattered field for regular and irregular bodies; · Numerical modelling of transducers and fields.
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Dr Wassim Dbouk

Research Fellow

Research interests

  • I am currently involved in a multi-disciplinary research project as part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC - https://www.linkedin.com/company/idricuk/), where I am researching the legal and regulatory aspects of the transport of CO2 to support the implementation of the UK Government's Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) plans.
  • My wider research interests include the policy aspects influencing the governance and sustainable management of our oceans and the simultaneous implementation of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their respective targets.
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Professor William Powrie

Professor of Geotechnical Engineering

Research interests

  • Railway track and trackbed behaviour and performance
  • Geotechnical transportation infrastructure (earthworks, retaining walls, tunnels)
  • Groundwater and groundwater control

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with William

Professor Xize Niu

Professor of Biosensing&Microengineering

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Xize

Professor Yannis Ieropoulos PhD, MIET

Head of Department

Research interests

  • Environmental Engineering;
  • Bioelectrochemistry;
  • Autonomous Bio-Robotics;

Accepting applications from PhD students

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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.