Early Career Conference 2015
- Plenary 1 (Mark Robinson, Marketing Manager, Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Group, UK)
- Plenary 1 (Rob Langham, Global Editorial Director, Routledge, UK)
- Plenary 1 (Professor Alex Singleton, University of Liverpool, UK)
- Plenary 2 (Dr Sarah Ayres, University of Bristol, UK)
- Plenary 2 (Professor Martin Jones, University of Sheffield, UK)
- Plenary 2 (Dr. Ignazio Cabras, Newcastle Business School, UK)
Plenary 1
Mark Robinson, Marketing Manager, Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Group, UK
Mark Robinson has been promoting academic publications for 15 years; the last eight marketing journals for Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group. Mark works with the Regional Studies Association, as well as authors and editors of the RSA journals, to increase readership and impact of the latest regional studies research.
Plenary 1
Rob Langham, Global Editorial Director, Routledge, UK
Rob Langham is Global Editorial Director for Routledge’s Business, Law, Economics and Environment publishing. He is also the Acquisitions Editor for the Regions and Cities series published in collaboration with the Regional Studies Association
Plenary 1
Professor Alex Singleton, University of Liverpool, UK
Alex Singleton is a Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool, where he was appointed as a Lecturer in 2010. Previously he held research positions at University College London, where he was also awarded a PhD in 2007. He completed a BSc in Geography at the University of Manchester, graduating with a First-class honours degree in 2003.
Plenary 2
Dr Sarah Ayres, University of Bristol, UK
Sarah is a political scientist with expertise in public administration and theories of policy making. Her research is concerned with territorial and collaborative governance – how actors from state, market and civil society coalesce and work with one another in specific localities.
Sarah's central research interest is the governance of place, space and territory. This core provides the basis for two main strands of work. First, her research is concerned with devolution and decentralisation in both a UK and an international context, with a particular emphasis on analysing inter-governmental relations between central government and local actors. Second, it has explored the role of partnership working and network management in the governance of territory.
Sarah is currently chairing the Political Studies Association's first Research Commission to investigate how 'informal governance' is shaping devolution to England's cities – see https://www.psa.ac.uk/media/press-releases/psa-launch-new-research-commission-investigate-how-%E2%80%98informal-governance%E2%80%99 The Commission will deliver its report in March 2016.
She has also carried out research into the emerging patterns of governance in the English regions, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme (L21951113). In 2007 she was awarded a three-year ESRC First Grant 'English regionalism: rhetoric or substance? Evaluating decision making procedures for Regional Funding Allocations' (RES-061-23-0033), which examined political and fiscal decentralisation in England. She has also undertaken research for the Countryside Agency, Constitutional Convention, West Midlands Regional Assembly and Equal Opportunities Commission.
Plenary 2
Professor Martin Jones, University of Sheffield, UK
Professor Martin Jones joined the Department of Geography in September 2013 as Director of the White Rose Social Science Doctoral Training Centre (WRDTC)—an ESRC-funded consortium between the Universities of Sheffield, Leeds and York—and as Professor of Urban and Regional Political Economy.
Martin previously held positions at Aberystwyth University: Chair in Human Geography (from 2004); Pro Vice-Chancellor (from 2009) with portfolio experience in research, enterprise, engagement, and the student experience; and Co-Director of the ESRC-Welsh Government-funded, Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD). Before this, he was a Simon Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, after graduating from Manchester with a BA (1992) and PhD (1997) in Human Geography.
Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) and Academician, Academy of the Social Sciences (AcSS) – elected for his contributions to human geography and to policy debates on the economic development sector. He received an Honorary Professorial position (Docentship) in Oulu, Finland, in recognition for research on the ‘geography of regions’ and was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Geography, which is a mark of international scholarship and distinction. Martin is the originator and co-editor of the journal Territory, Politics, Governance, plays an active role in learned societies through the Regional Studies Association, has been a research associate of several policy organizations (CLES, LGIU, Unemployment Unit/CESI), and has given evidence to UK Government Select Committees on skills, business support, and regional development.
Martin is an interdisciplinary researcher, working in the broad area of society and space and specifically on the interface between economic and political geography. He is interested in the geographies of state and government intervention through economic and social policy in cities and regions, and subnational political economies therein.
Plenary 2
Dr. Ignazio Cabras, Newcastle Business School, UK
Ignazio Cabras is a Reader in Economics, Business and Management at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University (UK). He is also an Associate Fellow of the York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis at the University of York (UK). Ignazio’s research interests are focused on economics and environment, with particular emphasis on regional growth and development, public sector management, employment issues, urban-rural dynamics, community cohesion and social capital, industry and innovation, knowledge economies and ICT.
At the moment, Ignazio is heavily engaged in the NEMOG (‘New Economic Models and Opportunities for Digital Games’) project, which is exploring ways and methods to use outcomes derived by serious games to develop solutions to apply within industry, economy and society. NEMOG, which comprises a consortium of eight researchers based in four Universities (Northumbria, Durham, York and CASS Business School), is a three year £1.2 million EPSRC funded project (EP/K039857/1).
In addition, Ignazio is currently managing a number of projects exploring and examining the association between social networks and third places in peripheral and remote areas, and their role in developing communities and businesses at a local level.