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Centre for Democratic Futures
Centre for Democratic Futures

Our people

Learn more about our researchers and their expertise.

Dr Adriana Patino

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Director of the Centre for Linguistics, Language Education and Acquisition Research (CLLEAR). I have expertise in sociolinguistic ethnography, language socialisation, narrative inquiry, and multilingualism. I have concentrated on the social processes that are produced in daily-life encounters by focusing on the intersection between language, ideology and positioning. My interests lie in the area of how young people and adults experience language issues when embarking upon life projects involving mobility. I am currently interested in Family, Language and Memory. 

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: a.patino@soton.ac.uk

Address: B65, Avenue Campus, Highfield Road, SO17 1BF

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Professor Age Chapman

Professor of Computer Science

Email: adriane.chapman@soton.ac.uk

Address: B13, East Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ

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Dr Bindi Shah PhD, FHEA

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • A key question that Bindi is interested in asking is: What shapes citizenship and a sense of belonging to the nation amongst immigrants and established ethnic minority communities?
  • Bindi is also interested in exploring the role of social capital for developing interdisciplinary solutions to climate crisis and biodiversity loss for marginalised communities.

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: b.shah@soton.ac.uk

Address: B58, West Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ

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Dr Brian Mcelwee

Lecturer in Philosophy

Research interests

  • Normative Ethics
  • Applied Ethics, esp Global Poverty
  • Metaethics and Normativity

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: b.m.mcelwee@soton.ac.uk

Address: B65, Avenue Campus, Highfield Road, SO17 1BF

Dr Brian Pickering MA, PGCert, MSc, DPhil, MBPsS, MBCS

Senior Research Fellow

Research interests

  • My focus is on how human agents interact with technology, especially the online world, to achieve their goals. Most of the work I do is informed by Actor Network Theory and tussle analysis, but also the social psychology of group interactions. This also involves the development of agency and increased self-efficacy.
  • Trust: The social science construct of trust as an ongoing negotiation between trustor (who is willing to expose themselves to vulnerability) and the trustee (who must demonstrate their trustworthiness through their actions) is an underlying theme to much of the work I am involved in. I do not conflate trust with a cognitive assessment of cost versus benefit since there is definitely both a social and an emotional component. With regard to technology, trust is an "organising principle" for much technology-mediated interaction. It also relates to constructs like self-efficacy and agency in technology adoption.
  • Cyberpsychology: I bring together many years of experience with computer technologies (especially speech- and language-enabled applications) with a broader psychological perspective. I'm interested primarily in the Internet as a tool to be adapted for user needs, rather than an independent environment, and therefore uncovering the social and network processes which help individuals engage.

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: j.b.pickering@soton.ac.uk

Address: B13, East Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ

ORCID

Professor Chris Armstrong

Professor of Political Theory

Research interests

  • Global justice
  • Climate justice
  • Ocean justice and ocean politics

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: c.armstrong@soton.ac.uk

Address: B58, West Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ

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Dr Christopher Fuller

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • US foreign policy
  • Terrorism and counterterrorism
  • Cyberspace and cyber conflict

Email: c.fuller@soton.ac.uk

Address: B65, Avenue Campus, Highfield Road, SO17 1BF

Professor Claire Le Foll

Professor

Research interests

  • History and culture of Jews in Belarus from 1772 to 1939, including Belarusian-Jewish relations
  • Jewish art in Eastern Europe, more specifically in Belarus and Ukraine
  • Nationalities policy in the Russian/Soviet western borderlands

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: c.le-foll@soton.ac.uk

Address: B65, Avenue Campus, Highfield Road, SO17 1BF

ORCID

Dr Daniel Devine

Lectureship in Politics and IR

Research interests

  • Public opinion
  • Voting behaviour
  • Political psychology

Accepting applications from PhD students

Professor David Owen

Professor in Politics

Research interests

  • 1) Post-Kantian social and political philosophy from Nietzsche to Foucault, and the Frankfurt School.
  • 2) The Ethics and Politics of Migration
  • 3) Democratic Theory and Practice

Accepting applications from PhD students

Email: dowen@soton.ac.uk

Address: B58, West Highfield Campus, University Road, SO17 1BJ

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