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Liam Phelan

0000-0002-9306-3216

Senior Lecturer (Climatology)

University of Newcastle

My primary research interest is sustainability and how to achieve it. I have a long-standing engagement at the nexus of climate change, finance, human rights and ecological sustainability. More recently my research interests have evolved to focus on governance of the Earth system as a complex adaptive system comprising human-social and ecological elements, and its key characteristics, including thresholds, non-linear change, and capacity for surprise. My particular interest is the relationship between the Earth system and the global economy as a subsystem of the Earth system, and how to bring the global economy into alignment with the Earth system. I engage in critical research, i.e. research which seeks both to understand the world and to change it for the better. I aim to equip and encourage students to participate consciously, actively and effectively in wider society as highly functioning citizens. Connections between education, social justice and sustainability are a key interest for me. This is why I teach. Through my teaching I aim to support students to engage in their own active learning processes and facilitate in them an understanding of complex environmental sustainability issues. I pursue ‘deep approaches’ to learning, associated with outcomes described by students themselves as ‘understanding’, ‘seeing something in a different way’ and ‘changing as a person’; this represents significant ambition for teaching, beyond shallow learning such as ‘increasing one’s knowledge’, ‘memorising’ and ‘applying’. From this philosophical starting point I have developed an approach to teaching that conceptualises learning as a social and interactive activity. I believe online students’ sense of belonging to a learning community is absolutely essential to their success and joy in learning. For students in the online space, interactions are key to their development of a sense of community, and learners interactions, engagement and their sense of community may even constitute a virtuous spiral, i.e. a self-reinforcing process which supports achievement of learning goals. In my teaching practice I create a sense of community in cohorts of online Master students by emphasising students’ interaction with course content, peers and myself as lecturer. My background is in activism for social and ecological justice, and human rights. I have worked with civil society organisations including AID/WATCH and the Australia Tibet Council. In 2005 I was co-recipient of the international Free Spirit Award, created in 2003 to honour individuals working for the cause of Tibetan people. I have also served in several honorary roles with the International Tibet Support Network and with The Mercy Foundation, a philanthropic foundation with a social justice mission based in Sydney, Australia. For more information, please visit http://liamphelan.com/

Publications

  • Antenarrative and Transnational Labour Rights Activism: Making Sense of Complexity and Ambiguity in the Interaction between Global Social Movements and Global Corporations DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2013.814458
  • Managing climate risk: extreme weather events and the future of insurance in a climate-changed world DOI: 10.1080/14486563.2011.611486
  • Ecological Viability or Liability? Insurance System Responses to Climate Risk DOI: 10.1002/eet.565
  • Climate change, carbon prices and insurance systems DOI: 10.1080/13504500903541806
  • Writing the Fine Print: Developing Regional Insurance for Climate Change Adaptation in the Pacific
  • Is Mayfield Pool saved yet? Community assets and their contingent, discursive foundations DOI: 10.1093/cdj/bst039
  • What to Make of COP 15?: A Ringside Report
  • Swimming against the neoliberal tide: The campaign to save Mayfield pool ISBN: 1742241964, 9781742241968
  • All hands to the pump: Notes from NCCARF’s2010 International Climate Adaptation FuturesConference
  • Bringing New Ph.D.s Together for Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research DOI: 10.1002/2013EO050009
  • Course evaluation matters: improving students’ learning experiences with a peer-assisted teaching programme DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2014.895894
  • Clean Energy, Climate and Carbon [book review]
  • Adaptation is not enough: Why Insurers Need Climate Change Mitigation ISBN: 9789609698047
  • The evolution of open access to research and data in Australian higher education DOI: 10.7238/rusc.v11i3.2076
  • Politics, practices, and possibilities of open educational resources
  • Assessment is a many splendoured thing: Fostering online community and lifelong learning
  • The Political Economy of Addressing the Climate Crisis in the Earth System: Undermining Perverse Resilience DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2012.678820
  • Mitigation of the Earth’s Economy: A Viable Strategy for Insurance Systems DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14776-0_6
  • Interrogating students’ perceptions of their online learning experiences with Brookfield’s critical incident questionnaire DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2012.667958
  • DISCCRSSymposiumVII;Colorado Springs, Colorado; 13-20 October 2012 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2013eo050009
  • Cooperative governance: one pathway to a stable-state economy DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2012.671572
  • Phelan, L., McBain, B., Ferguson, A., Brown, P., Brown, V., Hay, I., Horsfield, R., Taplin, R. (2015). Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement for Environment and Sustainability. Sydney: Office for Learning and Teaching.
  • Phelan, L., McBain, B., Ferguson, A., Brown, P., Brown, V., Hay, I., Horsfield, R., Taplin, R. (2015). Learning and Teaching Academic Standards Statement for Environment and Sustainability. Sydney: Office for Learning and Teaching.

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Co-workers & collaborators

Holly Jones

Holly Jones

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