My
affair with geography began at the age of
11, when after having been accused of causing
a ‘ruckus’ before my very first
geography class, I deemed it necessary to
rescue my reputation and try extra hard in
that class for the rest of the year. Since
then I have been lucky enough to have had
some wonderful geography teachers along the
way, including not least Mr. Chapman and
Mrs. Major (Wallingford School) and Peter
Vincent (Lancaster University) to channel
my enthusiasm. I gained my BSc from Lancaster
University specializing in fluvial geomorphology,
before heading to Florida State University
where I wrote! my MA thesis ‘Dreaming
Spires and Heretical Minarets: postcolonial
geographies of the City of Oxford'.
At
Kentucky my research interests revolve
around questions of finance, socialist economics
and class. I am interested in the intersection
of Marxian political economy and the liberal
critique, particularly as they coalesce
around questions of markets, information,
planning and forms of economic decentralization.
Flowing from this and focusing specifically upon the centrality of investment
to coordinating and reproducing capitalist social relations, I draw upon Convention
Theory, Institutionalism, and to a lesser degree Actor-Network-Theory, to explore
the prospects for reforming economic institutions and actors in the spheres
of high finance. With this in mind, my research,
examines the prospects heralded by rise of
the pooled savings of labor, delegated to
large institutional investors such as State
Pension Funds, Labor Union Funds, a! nd Mutual
Funds, for fostering a dynamic, egalitarian,
and democratic economy.
Outside of college I have two cats, Comrade Smokey and Beckham. My sporting affliations include Manchester United, Florida State Football and the Cincinnatti Bengals (and any team that's playing the Dallas Cowboys!).