Biography
Dr Simon Preston Pooley
D.Phil., University of Oxford; MA, first class, Birkbeck College, University of London; MA, University of Cape Town; BA (Hons) cum laude, University of Natal.
Present Position: Junior Research Fellow, Imperial College London, based at Imperial College Conservation Science
Research interests:
Social and ecological dimensions of environmental change; environmental history; crocodilian conservation; history of wildfire and research and management of fire (particularly in South Africa); history and philosophy of science particularly life sciences and ecology; history of environmentalism; biodiversity and conservation; invasion biology; scientific expertise and indigenous knowledge; global and imperial history; commonwealth and imperial networks; land management traditions and institutions (forestry, conservation, agriculture).
Career:
Junior Research Fellow, Imperial College London (2012-2015); AHRC Research Fellow, Imperial College London; Junior Research Fellow, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford (2010-2012); D.Phil., History, University of Oxford, 2006-2010; MA, History of Science, Medicine & Society, Birkbeck College, 2003-2005; Managing Editor and Publishing Manager, New Holland Publishers, London, 2001-2006; Editor, Managing Editor, Commissioning Editor, Struik Publishers, Cape Town, 1997-2001; Magazine Editor & Freelance Journalist, Cape Town, 1996-97; Assistant Magazine Editor, London, 1995-96; MA, English Literature, and Tutor, University of Cape Town, 1992-1994; BA (Hons) first class, and Research Assistant, University of Natal, 1988-1991; Research Assistant, Natal Flora Trust, 1990-91.
Academic awards and grants: Junior Research Fellowship, Imperial College London (2012-2015); AHRC research fellowship (with Dr Andrew Mendelsohn and Prof. E.J. Milner-Gulland), 2012; Junior Research Fellowship, St Antony’s College Oxford (2010-2012); Proxime accessit award, Beit Research Scholarship competition, University of Oxford (2009); AHRC doctoral funding (2007-2009); Travel grant, St Antony's College, University of Oxford (2009); Travel grant, Royal Historical Society (2009); Beit Fund travel grants (2007/2008 and 2006/2007); Centre for Science and Development MA funding (1992-93); Human Sciences Research Council funding (1989-91).
Publications: ‘Recovering the lost history of fire in South Africa’s Fynbos’, Environmental History, vol.17 (January 2012), pp.55-83; 'Fire and Loathing in the Fynbos’, book chapter in I.D. Rotherham, R.A. Lambert (ed.s), Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals: Human Perceptions, Attitudes and Approaches to Management (Earthscan, March 2011); 'Histories of fire in South Africa's Cape Floral Region', chapter in G. Massard-Guilbaud and S. Mosley (ed.s), Common Ground: Integrating the Social and Environmental in History, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), pp.293-314; 'Pressed Flowers: ideas about alien and indigenous plants at the Cape, c.1902-45', Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol.36, No.3 (September 2010), pp.599-618; Book review of Stephen Pyne's America's Fires: A Historical Context for Policy and Practice, in Environment & History (in press); 'Jan van Riebeeck as pioneering explorer and conservator of natural resources at the Cape of Good Hope (1652-62)', in Environment and History, Vol.15, (2008), pp.3-33; Book review of Saul Dubow's A Commonwealth of Knowledge: Science, Sensibility and White South Africa 1820-2000, in British Journal for the History of Science, Vol.42, No.1, (March 2009), pp.152-154; Book review of Saul Dubow's A Commonwealth of Knowledge, in Social Dynamics, Vol.35, No.1, (March 2009), pp.205-210.
Professional services: I have reviewed articles for Cambridge University Press, the Journal of Eastern African Studies, the Journal of Southern African Studies, South African Journal of History, British Journal for the History of Science, Social Dynamics, Journal of Contemporary History and book manuscripts for White Horse Press, publishers of Environment & History. I co-organised the 2009 Annual meeting of the European Association for Environmental History UK Branch, with the European Society for Environmental History, held at St Antony's College, Oxford (with Karen Brown), and another conference for these societies in 2011 (with Karen Middleton), entitled ‘Wild Things: Nature and the Social Imagination’.
Contact: s.pooley@imperial.ac.uk
