Dr Lucy Ford

BA, MA, DPhil

Senior Lecturer in International Relations

School of Law and Social Sciences

Role

Lucy Ford is Senior Lecturer in International Relations, having joined Brookes in 2002. She received her MA and DPhil in International Relations from Sussex University, having gained a first degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent at Canterbury.  Before coming to Oxford Brookes she worked as researcher and parliamentary assistant to Caroline Lucas, former Green Member of the European Parliament in Brussels and now first Green UK MP. At Brookes she was instrumental in setting up the then new subject of International Relations at undergraduate and postgraduate level. She was director of the MA in 2004-2005 and acted as subject coordinator for International Relations (RL) and International Relations and Politics (RX) from 2009-2017. Her research interests in global political ecology transcend the discipline International Relations to include political economy, political thought, geography, anthropology, sociology and psychology. 

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Modules taught

Undergraduate

  • U23202: Introduction to IR 2: Themes and Issues (level 4)
  • U23222: Global Governance and Civil Society (Level 5)
  • U23270: Global Environmental Politics (level 6 honours)

Postgraduate

  • P23101: International Relations in Theory and Practice
  • P23150: International Relations in Theory and Practice (Distance Learning)
  • P23107: Global Politics and the Environment
  • P23199: Dissertation in International Relations

Supervision

Lucy would particularly welcome projects on global environmental politics, global political ecology, social movements and civil society, governance and resistance, critical international theory.

Completed theses:

  • Duncan Green (2010) 'Active Citizens and Effective States: Definitions and Interactions - A Critical Review' (PhD by Publication)
  • Abilene Pitt (2015) 'New forms of governance - the role of civil society and the World Bank in Argentina'

Research

Her doctoral research examined the global political economy of environmental governance and resistance. Her current research interests lie mainly in the areas of International Relations Theory and International Political Economy with a particular regard to, on the one hand, governance, civil society and social movements, and on the other, to the political economy of sustainable development and the challenge of ecological thought to International Relations, where she is broadly concerned with developing a global political ecology perspective. She has a further interest in psychoanalysis and ecopsychology, which she is working to bring into the discipline of International Relations.

Further information

Lucy helped set up the Green think tank Green House and is on their advisory board. She is also a research fellow at Schumacher Institute, an interdisciplinary systems think tank on environmental, social and economic issues.

Publications

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Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

  • Member of the British International Studies Association (BISA), since 1995
  • Member of the Interdisciplinary Research Network on Environment and Society (IRNES), since 1995.
  • Member of International Studies Association (ISA), since 1998.

APPOINTMENTS

  • 2016 - ongoing External Examiner at Free University Brighton (FUB).
  • 2013 - 2016 External Examiner for Politics and International Relations at Nottingham Trent University
  • 2009 – 2013 On Advisory Board of EU 7th Framework Programme Funded Research Project “Converge:Rethinking Globalisation in the light of contraction and convergence” (2009-2013). 

Conferences

Recent Presentations, Workshops and Conference Papers

  • BISA Annual Conference, 13-15 June 2018, Bath. Participation in Roundtable on Valuing Living Processes, 'The contribution of ecopsychology in Global Environmental Politics'
  • Schumacher Institute 10 year anniversary conference, 24 May 2018, Bristol. Keynote address:'The contributions of ecopsychology in the transition to a sustainable future'
  • PSA Annual Conference, 26-28 March 2018, Cardiff. Conference paper presentation, ‘The potential role of psychology and psychoanalysis in strategies for building an effective climate and Earth systems politics’.
  • EISA Annual Conference, 15-17 September 2017, September, Barcelona, Invitation to sit on the Semi-plenary Roundtable on Climate Change, Presentation: 'The power of denial and the denial of power: bringing psychoanalysis and psychology into IR and Global Environmental Politics'

Further details

Other experience

Previous Teaching Experience

  • Tutor Counsellor, “Introduction to Social Sciences”, Open University (1999-2000).
  • Tutor, “Media Coverage Unit”, MSc Environmental and Development Education, Southbank University (Spring 2000).
  • Tutor, “IR of Global Environmental Change”, Sussex University (Autumn 1999).
  • Tutor, “International Political Economy”, Sussex University (Spring 1998).
  • Tutor, “Colonialism and After” (Introduction to Development Studies), Sussex University (Autumn 1997).