Dr Theresa Ashford is a Lecturer in Geography and Sustainability at UniSC whose passion is exploring human-nature relations through a geo-ethical lens. Her undergraduate and post graduate education is in Geography and spans science, human and cultural geography domains. She has worked in the regional planning field in Canada and her Masters research explored the use and role of public spaces in the support and construction of homeless punk youth identities in Winnipeg, Canada. Her work with homeless youth led her to change careers and move into Senior Education, where she taught Geography and History.
Dr Ashford’s PhD research (2018, Education, UQ) used Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to investigate the emergence of digital ethics in 1:1 classrooms and tracing the role of technology mediating, supporting and translating student behaviour and understandings. This interest in ANT translates into all her geography and sustainability research where she studies human-non-human relations and ethical performances across different applications including habitat protection and conservation (Koala); decarbonisation; and teaching climate change.
Dr Ashford is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and is keenly interested in ethical and socially just pedagogies, nurturing future-oriented thinking, and the shift required to teach in the Anthropocene.
Professional Memberships
- Institute of Australian Geographers Inc.
Awards/Fellowships
- Senior Fellow HEA
Currently Supervising
- Investigating Infrastructure Strategy in Disruptive Futures, Richard MacGeorge
- Tracing regional sustainable development: a critical appraisal of a practitioner’s engagement in regional Australia 2004-2022, Peter Waterman
Research areas
- Applications of Science and Technology Studies (Actor Network Theory and New Materialisms)
- Ethics and Technology
- Critical thinking in Geography
- Teaching in the Anthropocene
Teaching areas
- Geography
- Sustainability
- Sociology
- Ethics
Dr Theresa Ashford is a human geographer and lectures in the School of Law and Society. Her main areas of research are human-environment relations and currently span youth – tech relations in public parks using Pokémon Go; rethinking mapping extinction following the EPBCA and the Planning Act; better understanding student experiences during COVID; working from home; and Education for Sustainability approaches. Her main focus is thinking through ethical and responsible relations. She is interested in working with community, thinking about transformation, and collaborations.