Professor Bill Boyd BSc(Hons)(St.And), GradCert(Higher Ed) (SCU),
MEdLead(HigherEd)(MACQU), DSc(St.And), PhD(Glas) 

Bill is both the Professor of Geography at SCU and the Chair of the University’s Human
Research Ethics and Animal Care & Ethics Committees. He a geographer, archaeologist
and landscape scientist, with special research interests in long-term environmental
change, human-landscape interactions, environmental and cultural heritage management, and
higher education. He draws on both the geosciences and the humanities to inform his
research. He teaches in the fields environmental management and cultural heritage. 

He has worked throughout Australasia and southeast Asia for the last two and a half
decades, examining how ancient people interacted with, and modified, their environments,
and how the landscapes of this tropical region evolved over the long term. He uses
microfossil analysis, geomorphology and sedimentology to reconstruct histories of
vegetation, the physical environment, sea levels and human impacts, and analyses his
findings using models of system resilience. 

Bill also works in the fields of environmental management and higher education teaching
& learning. As an environmental management researcher, he examines issues of the
management of environmental and cultural heritage places and landscapes. He is especially
interested in community engagement with environmental management. As an education
researcher, he uses reflective narrative methods to examine issues of pedagogy,
curriculum and teaching & learning practice. 

He has published extensively in the scientific literature in all these subject areas, and
has co-authored several books, including: Heritage Landscapes: Understanding Place and
Communities; Maunten Paia: Volcanoes People and Environment; Mapping the Environment;
Analysing Global Environmental Issues; and Living and Working in Rural Areas: A handbook
for managing land use conflict issues on the NSW North Coast. 

Bill holds doctorates from the Universities of Glasgow and St Andrews, and is a Life
Fellow of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical
Society and of the Institute of Australian Geographers. 

Journal articles

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Bridging the gap from skills assessment and problem-based learning: lessons from the coalface of scholarly engagement with curriculum development, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2011)

This reflective essay charts and reflects on the progress of a scholarly engagement in curriculum...

 

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Activating the teaching-research nexus in smaller universities: case studies highlighting diversity of practice (with Meg O'Reilly, Daniel J. Bucher, Kath Fisher, Anja Morton, Peter Lynton Harrison, Elaine Nuske, Rebecca Coyle, and Karyn Rendall), Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice (2010)

The teaching-research nexus (TRN) has become an important process in the modern University, providing both...

 

OpenURL

Laterite nodules: a credible source of iron ore in iron age northeast Thailand? (with Hayden James Cawte), Geoarchaeology (2010)

The advent of iron metallurgy changed the course of prehistoric Thailand. There is, however, little...

 

OpenURL

Mind mapping as an interactive tool for engaging complex geographical issues (with David J. Lloyd and Kristin A. den Exter), New Zealand Geographer (2010)

Students and communities engaging with complex geographical issues require tools to assist them structure and...

 

OpenURL

Human adaptive responses to catastrophic landscape disruptions during the Holocene, Numundo, PNG (with Jeffrey F. Parr, Vicki Harriott, and Robin Torrence), Geographical Research (2009)

Prehistoric land use and social activity in West New Britain, PNG, are well documented, although...

 

Books

North coast planners Aboriginal site awareness workshop manual (with David Lloyd), School of Environmental Science and Management Papers (2009)
 

Link

Living and working in rural areas: a handbook for managing land use conflict issues on the NSW North Coast (with Rob Learmonth, Rik Whitehead, and Stephen Fletcher), School of Environmental Science and Management Papers (2007)
 

Analysing global environmental issues: a skill manual (with W Laird), School of Environmental Science and Management Papers (2006)
 

Mapping the environment: a professional development manual (with Kathryn Tafts), School of Environmental Science and Management Papers (2004)
 

Heritage landscapes: understanding place and communities (with Maria M. Cotter and J Gardiner), School of Environmental Science and Management Papers (2001)
 

Book chapters

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Integrating social and environmental change in prehistory: a discussion of the role of landscape as a heuristic in defining prehistoric possibilities in NE Thailand (with Nigel Chang), Terra Australis: 21: Altered ecologies - fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes (2010)

The archaeological study of past societies is an inherently difficult activity. Relying on extremely small...

 

Developing the research proposal, Research: the journey from pondering to publishing (2009)
 

Formulating and conceptualizing the research problem, Research: the journey from pondering to publishing (2009)
 

Geochemical analysis of fragments of burnt and impressed cay (with Jeffrey F. Parr), The origins of the civilization of Ankor: Excavation of Noen U-Loke and Non Muang Kao (2007)
 

Rigidity and a changing order . . . disorder, degeneracy and daemonic repetition: fluidity of cultural values and cultural heritage management (with Maria M. Cotter, J Gardiner, and G Taylor), Heritage of value, archaeology of renown: reshaping archaeological assessment and significance (2005)
 

Book reviews

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Book review: M Stark (ed.), Archaeology of Asia, Australian Archaeology (2006)
 

Presentations

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Engaging complex geographical issues: An evaluation of mind mapping as an interactive learning tool (with David Lloyd and K Den Exter), Positioning Geography: Strategic Issues in Geographical Education (2010)

Conventional Western education relies, largely, on linear approaches in communicating and interpreting issues. For students...

 

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Evaluating academic governance processes and structures: Ethical dilemmas and academic governance development, 7th Annual Australasian Higher Education Evaluation Forum "Evaluation in a changing higher education landscape: Bradley and Beyond" (2009)

Academic governance is at the core of an educational institution’s business. Its value lies in...

 

Assessing spatial information without actually knowing the quality of original data for research: an assessment of global coastal vulnerability using internet-based data (with Sumith Pathirana), Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergence Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (2006)
 

Concerns with the use of internet research and GIS in recording and managing traditional knowledge (with D Lloyd, E Watson, and Greg O. Luker), Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergences Conference (2006)
 

Link

Aboriginal perceptions of a government consultation process: a case study of the Queensland Regional Forest Agreement process (with David J. Lloyd and Paul van Nimwegen), Proceedings of the United Nations Engaging Communities Conference (2005)

This paper examines the qualitative responses of indigenous informants, identified by the Queensland Environmental Protection...

 

Reports

Coastwise, images from the edge! (with I M. Dutton, Ros Derrett, Katrina Luckie, Kay Dimmock, and S Knox), Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (1998)
 

Images from the edge! Resource file (with Ros Derrett, Kay Dimmock, I M. Dutton, S Knox, and Katrina Luckie), Faculty of Resource Science & Management, Southern Cross University (1996)