I am a storyteller and biologist by training (b. 1972, London. UK). In 2024 I completed two research projects in partnership with Watershed, who led on commissioning two arts led inquiries into creative technology, focused on a just transition and AI Automation. As an academic, I have published several journal articles, book chapters and policy pieces across disciplines spanning design, creative technology, biology, public engagement, racial justice and equity in research funding. From 2025 I am developing the next phase of my *transdisciplinary research practice as Watershed's inaugural Researcher in Residence starting with a focus on creative writing through the lenses of self-love, queering metabolism and epistemic justice. In 2025, my poem 'How to read the atmosphere' was shortlisted for the Disabled Poetry Prize.

PhD students

I welcome PhD students committed to digital/ immersive arts practice as a means to centre epistemic justice, and the social worlds/ earths this can bring about. To support this agenda, I've trained over 75 early career environmental scientists in storytelling techniques to recognise and form solidarity with community-based research and indigenous knowledge. As co-editor of book series Digital Materialities and Sustainable Futures with Dr Adi Kunstman (Digital Politics, MMU) and Dr Liu Xi (Gender studies, Karlstad University) we are inviting proposals, in particular from early career researchers, for new books over the next 5 years. 

My students


Tosin Olufon: Preserving African Folktale Heritage through Virtual Reality and Animation: An Immersive Practice-Based Approach to Cultural Preservation

Cairi Jacks: Connecting with the more-than-human world through digital art. Read Cairi's paper, Listening to the Land.


Lena Dobrowolska: Co-creating an anti-colonial documentary toolkit for reflecting non-economic loss and damage. Check out Lena's work considering Ways of Repair. 


Ave Kotze: Older adults' lived experience of ‘virtual nature’ in Virtual Reality.


Iyun S Yemi-ShodimuI: black masculinity in blockbuster science fiction film.

As co-founder and co-director of Squirrel Nation, a small design agency that considers co-existence as an ethic, through installations, live events and moving image, I've held fellowships with Jerwood/ Manchester International Festival and AHRC AI Ada Lovelace/ LSE. Squirrel Nation are alumni of the Stuart Hall Scholars and Fellows network. Through Squirrel Nation, for five years, I guest curated Sheffield International Documentary Festival's public programme, DocFest Exchange, generating conversations between artists, activists and community organisers around planetary health. Prior industry roles include acting as director and executive producer of digital agency, B3 Media and freelance roles as scriptwriter, script mentor and filmmaker. I am an alumni of the EAVE programme.

*transdisciplinary = integrates and moves beyond discipline-specific approaches to address a challenge.

I am grateful for a charitable donation from Dr Simon Chaplin which is supporting this next phase of my research and to Jo Lansdowne for providing a generative mutual exchange.