Last week, the 2007-08 MSc course began with warm celebrations in the Department of Geography and Sociology, along with a meal and ceilidh prepared by continuing students and graduates. After an intensive week-long workshop, fourteen new students are off to a flying start on their Human Ecology journey. They've graciously prepared brief bios for the newsletter, so we can welcome them into the wider community.

Asha Bee Abraham is a food geek from Melbourne, Australia, where she was involved in a number of community-based food security projects. Her interest/obsession with food security emerges from a deep concern about the devastating social and environmental impacts of the current globalised/industrialised food system, especially in light of peak oil and climate change. She believes that the MSc will provide guidance for her future work in food security in the Australian context.

Gerry Aiken is a native of Buckie in North East Scotland. He earned his first degrees in Geography & Education, and teaches Geography at Banff Academy. He is passionate about ethical Geographies, spatial literacy and sacred spaces. His favourite quotes are: 'actions speak louder than words' and 'consumption used to be a disease, now it's a way of life.'

Jamie Auldsmith studied Philosophy in his home city of Edinburgh before realising his life-long ambition of running away to join the circus. Taking the Trans-Siberian railway to China, he learned the esoteric arts of fire-spinning and Mandarin Chinese, before deciding to give saving the world a go. He loves organic food and farming, social enterprise and 'human' economics, and hopes to work to promote corporate responsibility and social justice, as stepping stones to a more sustainable world.       

Stephen Dietrich has spent most of his life in northern California. After studying Sociology and globalization at Sonoma State University, he became involved in the global justice movement, and is currently taking time off from developing a permaculture institute in the Sierra Nevada mountains. His passions include reforestation, community participation in direct democracy, ethnolinguistics, and social justice.

Melissa Garvey was born in New York but has been living in Galway, Ireland for 13 years. She studied English and Philosophy, and was involved in several environmental and social activism groups during university. She is interested in people's relationship with the environment, including their perceptions and sense of repsonsibility. She is also interested in the connections between human unhappiness and the destruction of the environment. 

Dan Glass is from England and is passionate about connecting the dots between human-environment (dis)connections and impending climate change. He is interested in effective, front-line direct action approaches to protecting the environment, and putting beliefs into action, because environmental issues can no longer take a back burner. 

Helen Johnson grew up near New York City and earned a BSc in Wildlife and Fisheries Biology at the University of Vermont.  Her work has ranged from straight biology such as species reintroduction and wildlife surveys, to more human based sustainability work such as community composting projects.  She is interested in closing cycles in human systems to make them more closely resemble natural systems (eg. composting as an alternative to landfilling for food and green waste).

Ariana Jordao, from Portugal, has seen the wonders (and predicaments) of the real world by travelling in India, Ladakh and the Andaman islands. More recently, she has worked with community regeneration projects in Scotland and seen the power of community action. She is interested in the true nature of nature & processes of change, wholesomeness, and expression. Also: football, yoga and permaculture as facilitators of inter-personal development.

Mikael M. Lyshede is a citizen of the Kingdom of Danimarca (Denmark). He has a background in East European studies and has spent quite some time in that region. He hopes to be able to use the MSc in an Eastern European context, and is particularly interested in organic foods and goods. 

Svenja Meyerricks was born in Berlin (formerly West), and lived in Germany until 2002. She studied social anthropology and philosophy, and is fascinated by cultures around the world, especially the ones she has travelled to - sailing to the Americas & back, backpacking & visiting ashrams in India and Nepal, and social & environmental projects in Ecuador. She is interested in creative activism and sustainable solutions which acknowledge the human, ecological and personal spheres.

Jason Nicholas is an American storyteller who speaks through writing, photography, and video. For the past several years he's produced short documentary and promotional pieces for non-profits and educational institutions, and is now working more with words and ideas. He is interested in environmental and social issues and the arts.

James Taylor is an Essex man and London resident with degrees in literature and film. He works as a film archivist (currently for Amnesty International) and is engaged in urban permaculture projects in the English capital.

Adam Weymouth, from the south of England, studied philosophy and was drawn back into education after reading Alastair McIntosh's Soil and Soul. During 6 months in Australia, he became interested in Aboriginal culture, and has since spent time living with indigenous peoples in Namibia and Ecuador. In contrast to the strong community spirit he found there, he links many of England's problems to the breakdown of community.

One other new student -- Derek Reid -- did not wish to submit a bio. He's still very welcome, though!