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 Markus Heller

Professor of Biomechanics
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Professor Martin Solan

Professor of Marine Ecology

Research interests

  • Biodiversity ecosystem function bioturbation benthic ecology

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Martin Warner PhD

Associate Professor
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Dr Martina Stiasny BSc, MSc

Lecturer

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Martyn Hill

Professor of Electromechanical Systems
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Dr Martyn Prince

Principal Research Engineer
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Dr Masashi Watanabe

Lecturer B in Coastal Marine Science

Research interests

  • Modelling coastal process
  • Investigating future and past coastal natural hazards
  • Coral reefs

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Massimiliano Manfren

Lecturer in Energy in Built Environment
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Dr Matt Kerr

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Nineteenth-century literature and culture
  • Oceanic humanities
  • Waste and rubbish

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Matteo Scarponi PhD, CEng, MRINA, AMSNAME

Principal Enterprise Fellow
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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.