Staff

Meet our academic and professional staff at Dartington Trust.

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Academic Staff: Arts School
Academic Staff: Schumacher College
Professional Staff
Fellows

Professor Roberto Fraquelli

roberto.fraquelli@schumachercollege.org.uk

Roberto is Senior Lecturer for MA Ecological Design Thinking. He is interested in Holistic Design and the dilemma many designers face between the pressures of economic growth and an empathy with all living systems.
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His current research focuses on four interrelated themes: ecological design thinking, deep empathic design, systems design thinking and contemplative inquiry. With over 20 years of professional practice, mostly working with IDEO global design company, Roberto has designed products, environments and experiences for clients across Europe, America, India and the Far East. He holds a number of international design awards and patents - and his work has been featured in Domus, Business Week, Design Week, The Observer, and NewDesign magazine. Roberto studied Industrial Design at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London.

Dr Stephan Harding

stephan.harding@schumachercollege.org.uk

Stephan is a Deep Ecology Research Fellow and has been teaching on the MSC Holistic Science programme since its inception in 1998.

Stephan holds a doctorate in behavioural ecology from the University of Oxford. He has been involved in ecological field research in Zimbabwe, Venezuela and Costa Rica, where he was Visiting Professor in Wildlife Management at the National University.

In 1990 Stephan became one of the founding members of Schumacher College where he worked closely with James Lovelock, with whom he has maintained a long-lasting friendship and scientific collaboration. As a result of this, they were jointly appointed as founding chair holders of the Arne Naess Chair in Global Justice and the Environment at the University of Oslo.

Stephan led and lectured on the college’s MSc Holistic Science for nearly two decades, teaching on the core models of the programme, as well as on several short courses at the College. At Schumacher College Stephan has taught alongside many of the world’s leading ecological thinkers and activists, including Arne Naess, Fritjof Capra, Brian Goodwin, Vandana Shiva, David Abram, James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis. He is now Deep Ecology Research Fellow at Schumacher College, where his interests are the intersects between scientific ecology (especially Gaia theory) and the world of psyche and soul.

He plays classical guitar and the Venezuelan cuatro and loves to speak Spanish, his native tongue.
Stephan is author of Animate Earth: Science, Intuition and Gaia, as well as Gaia Alchemy and Poems of Lorca: Courting the Dawn, translated with Martin Shaw.

Melissa Harvey

mel.harvey@schumachercollege.org.uk

Melissa Harvey is a grower, horticulture teacher and facilitator. She is a lecturer on our MSc Regenerative Food, Farming & Enterprise programme.

She has a lifetime love of plants, over 10 years’ experience growing organic edibles and herbs, and a background in research in agroecological systems around the world.

In 2004 Melissa carried out research in Sri Lanka following the Tsunami for her MPhil in Sustainable Agriculture, where she explored elements influencing the resilience of smallholder farmers. The research looked at agroecological and psycho-social factors, finding that resilience of small farmers affected by the tsunami was boosted by both agroecological and social diversity and connections.

Inspired to work more locally towards a more sustainable food system Melissa trained in practical sustainable horticulture, and went on to work as part of a team to set up School Farm CSA, near Totnes, as well as working to support food growing and composting in schools across Devon. Melissa currently delivers the Practical Horticulture adult training at School Farm, and also runs a small herb, perennial vegetable and wildflower nursery based at the farm.

She has a profound respect for and interest in working with and learning from the land, and all plants and creatures. She lives on the edge of Dartmoor with her partner and, when she is not growing plants, enjoys exploring and meeting them in the wild.

Satish Kumar

Satish is Visiting Fellow and was the originator and cofounder of Schumacher College.

He served as its program director from 1991 to 2010, and was also the primary fundraiser during that time.

A former monk and long-term peace and environment activist, Satish has been quietly setting the Global Agenda for change for over 50 years. He was just nine when he left his family home to join the wandering Jains and 18 when he decided he could achieve more back in the world, campaigning for land reform in India and working to turn Gandhi’s vision of a renewed and a peaceful world into reality.

In 1973 Satish settled in the United Kingdom taking up the post of editor of Resurgence magazine, a position he has held ever since, making him the UK’s longest-serving editor of the same magazine. During this time, he has been the guiding spirit behind a number of now internationally respected ecological and educational ventures including Schumacher College.

Dr Andy Letcher

andy.letcher@schumachercollege.org.uk

Andy is the programme lead for MA Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College.

Andy has doctorates in Ecology (Oxford University – studying patterns of distribution of mammals at the continental level) and in the Study of Religion (King Alfred’s College, Winchester – researching bardic performance within contemporary Druidry and radical environmental protest movements). Consequently, he is especially interested in the intersection between ecology and worldview or spirituality.

He taught for many years as an Associate Lecturer in the Study of Religion at Bath Spa University and Oxford Brookes University (Research Methods, Issues in Contemporary Religion, Contemporary Paganism and Festivals in Religion and Culture). Andy is third supervisor for a PhD student at the University of Sydney, who is researching the experiences of participants at the Synthesis psilocybin retreat centre in the Netherlands.

Andy’s areas of expertise include neopaganism, shamanism, the new animism, and psychedelic spiritualities. His current research focuses on the proliferation of both scientific and religious interest in psychedelics, and the assumptions, sympathies and antipathies between the various discourses by which psychedelic experience is interpreted. Current papers include a study of the use of psychedelics within contemporary Druidry, an investigation of the purported ability of psychedelics to engender an ecological self, and a co-authored paper on the significance of the Green Man in contemporary alternative spiritualities. He is the author of Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom and a range of papers, many of which can be found at independent.academia.edu/AndyLetcher.

Dr Simon Platten

simon.platten@dartington.org

Dr Simon Platten is senior lecturer and course lead for BSc Regenerative Food and Farming, and lecturer for our MSc Regenerative Food, Farming and Enterprise.

Simon is an Environmental anthropologist by training, specialising in the social dynamics and economics of small-scale horticultural production systems. He has conducted fieldwork in Indonesia and the UK and previously lectured on Human Ecology and Ethnobotany at the University of Kent. He is a Director of Tamar Grow Local CIC (TGL) and has project managed the development of their ecosystem of food projects and businesses for the last 12 years.

During this time TGL has established over 30 community food projects, businesses, and co-operative ventures designed to be self-supporting but to benefit from the mutual support provided under the TGL umbrella. The resulting network of projects have been shaped to grow resilience and respond to market failures around small-scale food production, and to revitalise local food consumption, production and employment opportunities. Simon brings his academic, business and supply chain development experience to the BSc Regenerative Food and Farming at Dartington.

Dr Mona Nasseri

mona.nasseri@schumachercollege.org.uk

Mona is Head of Research at Schumacher College and Programme Lead for MA Ecological Design Thinking. She joined Schumacher College in 2014 and been involved in the delivery and development of the programme since its inception.
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Alongside her role on the EDT programme, she has been working with interdisciplinary teams on multiple projects in relation to the problem of soil erosion in East Africa. Her main responsibility is to engage local communities in co-designing pathways to change and ensure local problems are responded by local wisdoms.

Mona has a background in craft and design. After doing an undergraduate degree in Craft and Material Culture at the University of Art, Tehran, Iran, she completed MDes and PhD in Design at the University of Dundee, Scotland. Her doctorate thesis is an exploration of the role of unmediated relationship with the environment in the evolution of human consciousness. Her aspiration is to reintroduce the embodied and relational qualities of craft practice into regenerative design processes, particularly in participatory approaches to Transition.

Dr Rachel Sweeney

rachel.sweeney@dartington.org

Rachel is Head of Schumacher College Programmes and Programme Lead and Senior Lecturer for Movement, Mind, and Ecology.

She is a practicing movement artist whose research actively seeks our transdisciplinary approaches to decolonizing body-place relationships, engaging creatively and imaginatively with cultural heritage and sustainability discourses. Rachel is a graduate of the BA Theatre Degree at Dartington College of Arts and holds an AHRC funded PhD from Middlesex University exploring site based approaches to movement training.

Rachel has worked as Head of Dance Studies at Liverpool Hope University (2010-2021), as a Visiting Fellow for the Humanities Research Centre at the Australian National University, and as Centre Fellow for the Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Plymouth. She is a current member of the European experimental heritage project Karum Creevagh and her research has been supported internationally through the Arts and Humanities Research Council UK, Creative Ireland and CSIRO Australia, and locally through Dartmoor National Park Authorities, Teignmouth County Council and Dance in Devon.

Jay Tompt

jay.tompt@schumachercollege.org.uk

Jay is a Lecturer for Regenerative Economics. He is also a co-founder of the Totnes REconomy Project, and associate lecturer in economics at Plymouth University.

He co-developed the Transition Network REconomy Project’s Local Economic Blueprint course and handbook, co-founded the REconomy Centre, and developed the Local Entrepreneur Forum model. He has worked with groups in many communities picking up these models. He has also developed a course on ‘Citizen-led Economics’, as well as led workshops and given talks in Europe, USA and Japan.

Before moving to the UK Jay was based in Silicon Valley in the US as an entrepreneur and consultant in the ‘green business movement’. He holds an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a BA in Philosophy from San Jose State University. He’s also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.