About
I do a whole bundle of things in an attempt to contribute to building a world that looks more like the world I want to live in. I teach, I do research, I’m an activist, and I have a bunch of side projects.
I’m currently a lecturer at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia, teaching in the department of Net Studies (but of course I don’t speak for the department or any other organisation). I love teaching: I learn a lot in the process, and it’s tremendously satisfying to watch my students grow and develop their skills and analysis. I have so many moments in which I am proud of what they are achieving and the ways in which they are making a difference in the world. I work hard at teaching: I think about what I’m doing, I care about my students, I go to workshops, I read about teaching theory (when I have the time).
My activism and my research are closely tied together (as well as informing, and being informed by, my teaching). I don’t go to protests to do research. I do research because I want to contribute to activist struggles. I completed a PhD at the University of Western Australia’s department of Political Science and International Relations in 2010: my research looked at the opposition to genetically modified crops in India and the activism around filesharing, the free and open source software movement, and copyright activism, using a framework that understands these struggles in the context of the broader movement for globalisation from below. As part of my research, I spent several months in India and travelled to the 2006 Polycentric Social Forum in Karachi and the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi. My recent research/activism has taken me to Bangalore, Melbourne, and the Bay Area, where I’ve spent a heap of time going to protests and trying to work out how to be useful as an outsider.
I have a lot of side projects, because I’m promiscuously enthusiastic. I’m one of the founding members of The Bluestocking Institution, which runs workshops and tries to create links between research and activism, and am on the advisory board of the Ada Initiative. I’m also learning Greek, in a ridiculous band called Raptor Mishap, and doing tiny art projects through Your Smallest Art.
This blog will contains fragments of my research that haven’t found a home yet, reflections on teaching and academic research, and leftover words and thoughts that don’t fit anywhere else.
Dear Sky,
Your open letter expressing concern about Monckton misrepresenting the research of countless scientists and being given a platform to express his misguided views at an Australian university was a delight to see.
Please continue to be a voice for reasoned and rational thought.
THANK YOU AGAIN.
Frank Lister