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

Dr Megen de Bruin-Molé

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • contemporary remix culture
  • monster studies
  • adaptation
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Dr Melike Kurt PhD

Lecturer (Assistant Professor)

Research interests

  • Fluid-structure interactions 
  • Bioinspired propulsion and energy harvesting 
  • Underwater robotics 

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Melike

Dr Michael Grant BSc MSc PhD

Senior Enterprise Fellow
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Dr Michelle Newberry BSc Hons, MSc, PGCHE, FHEA, PhD

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Motivations for criminal behaviour
  • Violent offending (murder, intimate partner violence and animal cruelty)
  • Poaching and the illegal wildlife trade 

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Michelle

Dr Mike Bintley PhD, SFHEA, FRHistS

Assoc Professor in Medieval English Lit

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Mingyi Tan

Lecturer
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Professor Mohammed El-Hajjar

Professor

Research interests

  • Millimeter wave (mMWave) wireless communications and positioning
  • Energy efficient, low-complexity, high-performance Transceiver design
  • MIMO

Accepting applications from PhD students

Connect with Mohammed

Miss Molly Phillips

Research interests

  • Marine Autonomy
  • Sensor Development
  • Droplet Microfluidics
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Ms Mylene Ployaert

Director of Res Strategy and Funding
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Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

Enquiries

If you're interested in joining us or collaborating, get in touch with the Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute.