Bio: Dr. Severine van Bommel is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland's School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability. With a keen interest in rural development and agricultural extension, her research focuses on understanding the role of experts and expertise in orchestrating effective governance performances for systemic transformation of natural resource dilemmas and competing claims. Through an interpretive lens, her research aims to support experts in communicating and collaborating with farmers and communities in situations of social learning, multi-stakeholder partnerships, farmer field schools, community-based NRM or co-inquiry and co-design.
Research Interests:
Rural development
Agricultural extension
Sustainable development
Indigenous engagement
Environmental credentials verification
Current Projects:
- the co-design of a virtual platform for verifying environmental credentials for Australian beef producers
- developing indigenous engagement methods (storian) for Australian researchers working with Ni-Vanuatu livestock farmers
- making visible and challenging gender norms in transdisciplinary research and development practice
- facilitating more-than-human participatory research and practice
Publications: Dr. van Bommel has contributed to significant works in her field, including:
"Rural Development for Sustainable Social-Ecological Systems: Putting Communities First" (Palgrave)
"Forest and Nature Governance: A Practice-Based Approach" (Springer)
Her research contributions have been published in prestigious journals and presented at international conferences such as IPA, MOPAN, IFSA, and APEN.
Teaching: In addition to her research, Dr. van Bommel teaches courses on:
Leadership in rural industries (MSc)
Effective stakeholder engagement (MSc)
Human-wildlife interactions (MSc and BSc)
Mentorship and Community Engagement: Dr. van Bommel is dedicated to mentoring early career researchers interested in interpretive methods within the APSA mentoring program. She also runs an International Virtual Community of Practice for Interpretive Practitioners, fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange in the field.
I obtained my first degree in Psychology (Experimental & Theoretical) from Ghent University in Belgium and completed a Ph.D. in Cognitive and Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Groningen. Following a postdoc at NeuRa in Sydney and a few years lecturing on psychology at the Australian Catholic University, I chose to shift my research focus to environmental issues, and how they affect individual and collective human health and wellbeing. I gained experience with grassroots commmunity conservation projects as a volunteer and completed the interdisciplinary MSc in Conservation Science at Imperial College London in 2016. I was a researcher at Imperial's Centre for Environmental Policy at Imperial College from 2017-2021. My research is now broadly focused on the human dimensions of environmental change, with a particular interest in how people (emotionally) connect with nature, determinants of pro-environmental behaviour, the health and wellbeing benefits of nature exposure and the mental health impacts of climate change.
Rebecca Wallis is a Lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law. Rebecca’s teaching and research interests fall broadly within the areas of criminal law and procedure, the law of evidence, and criminal justice system structure and operation. She is concerned with how criminal law theories and principles play out in policy and practice, and how these shape the operation of the criminal justice system in intended and unintended ways. In addition, she is currently working on a set of projects concerning the criminalisation of threats, particularly in the context of domestic and family violence.
Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland, a Master of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Hons) and PhD from Griffith University. She is admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia (non-practising).
