Staff and Senior Common Room
Here are a small number of our Senior Common Room members and their research interests. This page is regularly updated with new profiles.
Dr Ilan Baron
School of Government and International Affairs
Ilan Zvi Baron is a Lecturer in the School of Government and International Affairs, having completed his PhD at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, in 2007 where he was an E.H. Carr Scholar and recipient of an Overseas Research Scheme grant. He completed an MSc in International Relations at the London School of Economics and a BA (Hons) in Political Science at the University of Victoria, Canada. He has been deputy editor of Millennium, and has worked with various international NGOs in Geneva and Zurich. Dr. Baron is currently working on research project about identity and security, focusing on the Jewish Diaspora, and of how diasporic identity functions in the creation of security discourses.
Professor George Boys-Stones
Department of Classics and Ancient History
I am interested in all areas and aspects of ancient philosophy, but my main work for some years has been on the revival of interest in Plato in the first three centuries of our era. 'Middle Platonism', as it is sometimes known, is poorly understood, but it represents a turning-point in the Western philosophical tradition: it is the main reference-point for the theology of the nascent Christian movement, and sets the stage for Plotinus in the 3rd century.
Goshka Bialek
The aim of my research is to investigate and evaluate a range of aesthetic and practical issues connected with the application of transparent materials and reflective materials in order to create an additional space in sculpture. To experiment using space inside the sculpture to explore a new possibility, to turn the internal space into new forms in sculpture.
Professor Janusz Bialek
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Professor Janusz Bialek received his MEng and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from Warsaw University of Technology in 1977 and 1981, respectively. Currently he holds the Chair of Electrical Power and Control at Durham University having previously ( 2003-2008) held Bert Whittington Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Edinburg. Janusz is Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Honorary Professor of Heriot-Watt University, UK.
Janusz's research deals with achieving stable, secure, sustainable and economic supply of electricity while meeting the challenges of reducing CO2 emissions. His particular expertise is in technical and economic integration of renewable generation in the power system, in preventing electricity blackouts and in analysis of power system dynamics. He has published 2 books and about 130 research papers. He has been a consultant to the UK government, Scottish Government, European Commission, Elexon, Polish Power Grid Company, Scottish Power and Enron. He has been the Principal Investigator of a number of major research grants funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Electrical Power Research Institute (EPRI) in USA.
Dr Eric Cambridge
My principal interests are in medieval archaeology and history. Within those broad fields I specialise in the material culture, and particularly the architectural history, of the medieval church. I also have a special focus on the North East, particularly on medieval Durham (my doctoral research being on Durham Cathedral and its masons in the later Middle Ages). In addition I have a subsidiary (but lively) interest in nineteenth-century architectural history.
Dr Mike Church
Department of Archaeology
My key research theme is the investigation of the interaction between humans and the environment in the North Atlantic islands (including Atlantic Scottish islands, Faroes, Iceland and Greenland) through reconstructing and analyzing
1) trajectories of environmental change
2) the impact of human settlement on palaeoenvironments
3) palaeoeconomies in different island settings
4) cultural adjustments to marginality.
Professor David Cowling
School of Modern Languages and Cultures
I am interested primarily in the application of elements of cognitive metaphor theory, as developed by George Lakoff and others, to the analysis of late medieval and early modern French texts, with particular reference to political and polemical discourse. Having published in the first instance on metaphors of the building in French allegorical texts, I have more recently turned my attention to metaphors of economic exchange in the polemical works that were motivated by the debate on linguistic borrowing from Italian into French in the later 16th century, focusing primarily on the vernacular writings of Henri Estienne. I also retain an interest in the reception of classical writers in Renaissance France, with particular reference to the works of Quintus Ennius.
Dr Chris Dent
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
Dr. Chris Dent is a Lecturer in Energy Systems Modelling in the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences. His interests lie across electrical power systems analysis, from reliability analysis and system operations and planning, to system economics and whole system models to support public policy. Current projects include the Customer Led Network Revolution smartgrid trial, advising National Grid on the first GB statutory generation capacity adequacy assessment, and academic projects on the mathematics of power systems and energy storage. In 2014 he will be General Chair of the International Probabilistic Methods Applied to Power Systems conference in Durham - during which the welcome reception will be held at the Castle.
Dr Sam Drake
School of Engineering and Computing Sciences
I am currently a visiting researcher from the University of Adelaide, Australia. I am here to write a book entitled "A First Course in Relativity for Engineers" and I am doing this with Professor Alan Purvis from the School of Engineering and Computer Science. Our book proposal has been accepted by Cambridge University Press.
My staff profile is here
http://www.dur.ac.uk/directory/profile/?id=10156
Professor Madeline Eacott
Department of Psychology
Research interests: I am interested in the mechanisms of long-term memory. The modern view sees memory not as a single entity but as a series of interconnected memory systems, each of which has different characteristics and different underlying neural substrates. My work attempts to delineate and understand these different memory processes (see http://www.dur.ac.uk/psychology/staff/?mode=staff&id=578 for more details).
Professor Anoush Ehteshami
School of Government and International Affairs
Professor Anoush Ehteshami is the Nasser al-Muhammad al-Sabah Chair in International Relations and Director of the HH Sheikh Nasser al-Muhammad al-Sabah Programme in International Relations, Regional Politics and Security in the School of Government and International Affairs.
His current research revolves around five over-arching themes:
· The Asian balance of power in the post-Cold War era.
· The ‘Asianization’ of the international system.
· Foreign and security policies of Middle East states since the end of the Cold War.
· The impact of globalization on the Middle East.
· Good governance, democratization efforts, in the Middle East.
Dr Henry Emeleus
Deparment of Earth Sciences
Dr Emeleus is Emeritus Reader in the Department of Earth Sciences. His research interests include Investigation of the structure, emplacement and evolution of the Palaeogene central igneous complexes in NW Scotland and NE Ireland, and in the North Atlantic Igneous Province, together with studies on similar PreCambrian complexes in SW Greenland.
Gillian R. Foulger
Department of Earth Sciences
Specialist in earthquake seismology and also actively researching in volcanology, geothermal energy, and industrially induced earthquakes, e.g. in shale-gas fracking. Is renowned for extensive research in Iceland, and for leading the controversy regarding whether deep-mantle plumes exist in the Earth's interior. For this she received the Price Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2005. Please visit the project website at http://www.mantleplumes.org. Personal website: http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.r.foulger/
Professor David Greer
Department of Music
Most of my research is into English music of the 16th and 17th centuries. My most recent publication is an edition of Musica Transalpina, a collection of Italian madrigals published in England in 1588. I am currently in the final stages of a bibliographical study entitled Manuscript Inscriptions in Early English Printed Music.
Professor P.D.A Harvey
Department of History (Emeritus Professor)
Research interests:
Economic and social history of medieval England, latterly looking particularly at rural estates in the 10th to 12th centuries - and, a by-product of this, the use of seals in early medieval England. A long concurrent interest in the history of cartography has led recently to the completion of work on medieval maps of Palestine.
Professor David Held
School of Government and International Affairs
David Held is Master of University College, Durham and Professor of Politics and International Relations at Durham University. Among his most recent publications are Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities (2010), Globalisation/Anti-Globalisation (2007), Models of Democracy (2006), Global Covenant (2004), Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture (1999), and Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (1995). He is currently completing, with two colleagues, Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation is Failing, which will be published in early 2013. His main research interests include the study of globalisation, changing forms of democracy and the prospects of regional and global governance. He is a Director of Polity Press, which he co-founded in 1984, and General Editor of Global Policy.
Dr Hazel Huang
Durham Business School
Hazel Huang is a Lecturer in Marketing at Durham Business School. Her research interests lie in consumer behaviour, particularly in symbolic consumption and individual differences. She investigates consumer behaviour via the lenses of psychology and sociology and her current projects include brand relationship, imagination, emotion branding, and male interpretations of advertisements.
For more information, see: http://www.dur.ac.uk/dbs/faculty/staff/profile/?id=6717.
Dr. Kris Fire Kovarovic
Department of Anthropology
My research interests are targeted at developing a picture of the environment in which early hominins (human ancestors) were evolving in East Africa from 5 million to 1 million years ago. The skeletal and dental adaptations of fossil mammals are used to infer palaeoecological conditions at key sites in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. I am also actively engaged in fieldwork at a conservancy in Kenya; this project investigates the way that modern ungulates affiliate with local habitats and the resident predator guild, as well as how the bones of these animals are distributed across the landscape after death.
Dr Greger Larson
Department of Anthropology
I run a research lab whose primary interests are rooted in evolution, domestication, and civilization. We like asking big questions about the process of domestication and the patterns of human movement across the Old and New Worlds. Our primary datasets consist of modern and ancient DNA extracted from current and archaeological specimens which we analyse in our dedicated labs in the department.
For more information about who we are, what projects we're involved with, and a complete list of publications, visit our lab website at www.dur.ac.uk/greger.larson/
Dr Richard A. Lomas
I am a retired member of Durham University History Department. Currrently I am writing a history of Durham Cathedral Priory 1083-1539. It will combine personal research over many years, with that of other scholars. It is intended to complement the book by Prof. R B Dobson, Durham Priory 1400-1450 (CUP 1973).
Dr W.T.W. Morgan
Department of Geography (retired)
My interests were regional geography and development, by decreasing importance, in East Africa, Africa south of the Sahara, The Tropics. A current interest is supporting The Art Fund.
Dr Caitríona Ní Dhúill
Department of German, School of Modern Languages and Cultures
Caitríona Ní Dhúill's field of research is German literature and philosophy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her particular interests are in gender theory, utopian theory, and the relationship between biography and literature. Recent and forthcoming publications include articles on Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Ingeborg Bachmann, Frank Wedekind and Ernst Bloch, as well as a monograph on the imaginary sex-gender systems of modern utopian thought and fiction.
For more information, visit: http://www.dur.ac.uk/mlac/german/staff/display/?id=7612
Dr Ivana Petrovic
Department of Classics and Ancient History
Ivana Petrovic is Senior lecturer in Greek literature at Durham University. She has published articles on Hellenistic poetry, Iconotexts, Augustan poetry, and Greek religion and is a co-editor with Andrej Petrovic and Manuel Baumbach of Archaic and Classical Greek Epigram (Cambridge 2010). With Dennis Pausch and Helmut Krasser she has co-edited Triplici Invectus Triumpho. der römische Triumph in augusteischer Zeit (Stuttgart 2008). Her PhD thesis from the universities Heidelberg and Giessen Von den Toren des Hades zu den Hallen des Olymp. Artemiskult bei Theokrit und Kallimachos appeared in 2007.
Ivana is interested in exploring all aspects of ancient visual culture, especially in objects where the two media, text and image meet and produce an iconotext – dual media situation.
Professor Stefan Przyborski
School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, and Reinnervate Ltd.
Professor Pryzborski is currently undertaking a research programme focused on the investigation of cell differentiation and the development of innovative ways to control the development of tissues from stem cells. In brief, this comprises three principle lines of investigation:
• Study of the molecular mechanisms that control cell differentiation;
• Development of new strategies to direct the differentiation of cells and tissues;
• Design of more favourable growth conditions for cells in vitro.
He is also a Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Reinnervate Ltd, a spinoff company from Durham University which is developing new and innovative ways to manage the growth and function of cultured cells. Its technologies have multiple applications and will be particularly relevant to the control of stem cell differentiation.
Professor P.J. Rhodes
Department of Classics (retired)
Prof. P. J. Rhodes is a specialist in ancient Greek history, particularly politics and political institutions, and the ancient sources for Greek history. Current projects include an edition of Thucydides book I, a collection of fifth-century historical inscriptions (with R. G. Osborne) and an edition of the fragments of the laws of Solon (with D. F. Leão).
Dr John M. Sanderson
Department of Chemistry
Research in the Sanderson group focuses on the interactions of proteins and peptides with membranes.
Research Areas:
1. Understanding the activity of membrane-active peptides (with Dr J A Mosely, Durham University).
2. Characterisation of the membrane activity of proteins from enveloped viruses (with Dr R P Yeo, Durham University).
3. The development of new analytical methods for studying lipids and membranes, including Raman tweezing (with Dr A D Ward, STFC) and linear dichroism spectroscopy (with Prof A Rodger, University of Warwick).
4. The development of model systems for studying the fundamental properties of the interactions between aromatic amino acids and phospholipids.
More information: http://community.dur.ac.uk/j.m.sanderson
Dr David Selby
Department of Earth Sciences
Dave Selby is a Geologist that applies a novel chemical clock (radioisotopes of rhenium and osmium) to establish when in the Earth's 4.5 billion year history, when and how precious metals, oil forming rocks and oil formed. For more information visit: http://www.dur.ac.uk/earth.sciences/staff/?id=2697.
Professor Brian Snowdon
Department of Economics and Finance
Brian joined the Department of Economics and Finance in October 2008, having previously lectured at the Northumbria University, where, before retiring, he was Professor of Economics and International Business. Brian also worked for many years at the Open University and was a Visiting Professor of Economics at Old Dominion University, Virginia, USA, in 1990. He has researched and published widely in the fields of macroeconomics and international economic development and currently teaches Macroeconomics, International Economics, and The World Economy. His most recent book (2007) was Globalisation, Development and Transition: Conversations with Eminent Economists. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Dr Michael Stansfield
Durham University Library
I am an archivist at Palace Green Library who develops, catalogues and facilitates research into all the archive collections held by the university, but particularly the medieval archive of the cathedral and the archive of the university itself; I also do the same for the archive collections held at the Cathedral Library and Ushaw College.
Dr Anthony Yeates
Department of Mathematical Sciences
My main interest is magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), particularly the structure and evolution of the Sun's magnetic field. I focus on problems which are nonlinear, three-dimensional, time-dependent, or all three. I apply a mixture of numerical and analytical modelling.