![Dr Tom Roberts](https://api.research.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/images/profile/Portrait_2.jpg)
Dr Tom Roberts
2015Ìý Ìý PhD (Geography) - University of Bristol
2011Ìý ÌýÌýMSc (Human Geography: Society & Space) - University of Bristol
2008Ìý ÌýÌýBA Hons (Geography) - University of Oxford
Scholarships ofÌýAUD$35,000Ìýare available for PhD students who achieved H1 /High Distinction in their UG program and/or have completed a Masters by Research.ÌýIf you are interested, please contact me at thomas.roberts@adfa.edu.au.
Tom is a cultural geographer based in the School of Science at ÁñÁ«¹ÙÍø Canberra. He joined ÁñÁ«¹ÙÍø Canberra as a Research Associate in 2017 and was promoted to Lecturer in July 2020. Tom read geography as an undergraduate at the University of Oxford, before completing an MSc and PhD at the University of Bristol. Tom has held previous posts as a Research Assistant and Senior Tutor at the University of Melbourne.
Tom's research develops new ways of thinking about the human that are more sensitive to the novel forms of material agency emerging in our increasingly technologically-mediated environments. His work contributes to a numberÌýof cutting-edge conceptual debates in cultural geography, including:
- More-than-human geographyÌý(e.g., post-humanism, new materialism)
- Relational frameworks in contemporary social scienceÌý(e.g., assemblage theory, process philosophy)
- Non-anthropocentric theories of subjectivity (e.g., post-phenomenology, affect theory)
- Non-representational research methodologies (e.g., material ethnographies, experimental writing practices)
Ìý
Tom's work is currently focused on three interrelated research agendas:
1. Questioning the human
Social science research is often based on unacknowledged assumptions about what it means to be human, many of which are outdated, rigid and philosophically suspect. Drawing on cultural geography's rich tradition of thinking critically about 'the human', Tom's research explores and develops approaches to social science that are no longer based on human exceptionalism. This agenda includes work on Spinoza'sÌýEthics,Ìýpublished in the interdisciplinary journalÌýGeoHumanities,Ìýas well as engagements with the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, published inÌýProgress in Human GeographyÌýandÌýTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers.Ìý
2. Conceptualizing material agency
The second aspect of Tom's research investigates the nonhuman dimensions of social and cultural life through a focus on material agency. Inspired by recent developments in new materialist theory and science and technology studies, Tom's research develops vocabularies that seek to amplify forms of material agency that are often overlooked in contemporary accounts of social and cultural processes. Tom's work in this area includes an experimental ethnographic engagement with the vibrant matter of an IKEA superstore, published inÌýEnvironment and Planning A; aÌýphilosophically-speculative analysis of smart materials and their application in architectural design contexts, published inÌýEnvironment and Planning D: Society & Space; and a conceptual analysis of assemblage thinking, published inÌýArea.Ìý
3. Understanding the social and cultural implications of technological change
Technological change and its impact on the human is an area of particular interest in Tom's research. He has undertaken research on the cultural implications of 3D-printing technologies, published in cultural geographies journal.ÌýTom is also the originator and course convenor of a masters course entitledÌýUnderstanding Socio-technical Systems: Ideas, Spaces & Cultures, and is currently involved in an interdisciplinary research project investigating how trust is negotiated by everyday users of AI technologies.Ìý
Ìý
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
2022Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýExploring Trust with Artificial Intelligence (ÁñÁ«¹ÙÍø Canberra AI Seed Fund)Ìý- M. Ghasrikhouzani,ÌýC. Boshuijzen van Burken,ÌýN. Dobos, B. Turnbull, A. Lapworth & T. Roberts
2019Ìý Ìý ÌýPromoting High Quality Research Papers SchemeÌý(2 papers awarded)
2019Ìý Ìý ÌýScience at the Shine DomeÌý(supported early-mid career researcher)
My Research Supervision
"Re-thinking the materiality of colour through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze"Ìý-ÌýEugenia Carlota De La Herran Iriarte (joint supervisor)
"Assemblages, power, and sovereignty in new materialist geopolitics: Transboundary rivers in the borderlands of postcolonial South Asia"Ìý- Raj Kaithwar (secondary supervisor)
My Teaching
Undergraduate:
ZPEM1201 - Human Geography 1A (Course Lecturer)
ZPEM2211 - Special Topic in Geography 2: Human Geographies of Environmental Change (Course Convenor)
ZPEM3208 - Geographic Research Methods (Course Lecturer)
Postgraduate:
ZPEM8310 - Understanding Socio-Technical Systems (Course Convenor)