In this regular feature a member of staff discusses their role within the department. In this edition Dr Louise Reardon talks about her time in INLOGLOV since she joined us in July 2017.
I joined INLOGOV in July 2017 and am so happy I did. Everyone has been so welcoming and there are loads of exciting new things happening in the department that I am lucky enough to be part of, not least the development of our Public Management and Leadership Executive Apprenticeship that will launch alter this academic year.
Before starting at Birmingham I was a Research Fellow at the Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds focusing on a range of governance questions relating to issues including energy demand, sustainability, ‘smart’ innovations and wellbeing. These issues are inherently interdisciplinary and I’m keen to connect with researchers and practitioners with links to the University and beyond in these areas of interest.
In between working out how the Muirhead Tower lifts work; how to record lectures; and testing which is the quickest place to get a salad at lunchtime (it’s the library, by the way), I have been co-editing a book on governing the smart mobility transition to be published with Emerald in February. The book argues that as we are in the early stages of adoption of various smart mobility innovations (automated vehicles and the like) we therefore have an important window of opportunity to think about how, and to what end, these transitions can be steered.
I’ve also been getting to know our PhD students, and I’m really looking forward to hosting the PhD showcases as part of my role as co-Director of Doctoral Research for the department. I also co-led our Public Management module last term and I’m learning so much from our students; their experiences of working in different parts of the public sector and in a range of different countries is exposing me to a range of issues pertinent to my research and leading to some great discussions both in the classroom and the corridor.