Tegg Westbrook
Associate Professor
Contact
Telephone: 51831622
Email: tegg.westbrook@uis.no
Room: KE C-335
Department
Faculty of Science and Technology
Department of Safety, Economics and Planning
About me
I am Associate Professor at the Department of Safety, Economics, and Planning at the Faculty of Science and Technology. I have a Bachelor of Science in Human Geography, a Master of Arts in International Relations, and a PhD in Globalisation Studies. I am was previously study programme coordinator for City and Regional Planning and byplanlegging og samfunnssikkerhet (2021-2025).
Research
My research focuses on security and safety technologies and their positive and negative effects on society. I focus specifically on the end-use of technologies that both challenge and enforce security - from the home, the city, and with relevance to global affairs.
At the urban scale, I have focussed attention on resource efficiency of emergency services and how this is affected by the built environment, with particular focus on how ICT contributes to space-time compressions. Furthermore, I have published widely on how intentional radio-frequency interference affects urban systems and users, partlcularly those reliant or aided by the GNSS. Finally, I focus attention of issues of proportionality when making security decisions at both high and low-risk sites, with emphasis on crime and terrorism prevention strategies.
I am currently dedicating research into the coercive effects of geospatial services through the nexus of "hostile architectures." This focusses on the implications of coercive digital planning at the urban scale, focussing on anti-loitering measures, crime detractors, and mandatory parking and speed restrictions. My ambition going forward is to understand how the electromagnetic spectrum, from longwave to shortwave frequencies, will revolutionalise city planning in the future, with emphasis on security and safety.
I am also looking at how wide-scale denial of service (GNSS jamming) is affecting urban, rural, and coastal communities in the Nordic-Baltic region. With this, at the political level, I want to identify escalation scenarios (maritime, aviation) and de-escalation strategies.
Finally, I am interested how sensitive topics in security and safety are handled in the classroom, particularly with respect to teacher positionality and classroom compositions. I am currently interviewing educators about their experiences.
I believe all research should be free and open access. The vast majority of my work is published through university publishers with zero barriers to access.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch for collaboration, supervision, and networking.
Teaching
I teach internally and externally in bachelor and master programmes from several study programmes, including city planning, societal safety/planning, risk management, as well as in media and social sciences.
I have also participated and co-managed external education activites, especially on subjects in resilient cities, smart cities, and climate change adaptation.
Other relevant experiences
Between 2019 and 2020, I was Visiting Scholar at the University of St. Andrews, Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV). I worked with scholars at the Center on the subject of non-state actor motivations and capabilities in the electromagnetic domain.
For two years during my PhD I worked mostly on a voluntary capacity for Omega Research Foundation who are dedicated to providing rigorous, objective, evidence-based research on the manufacture, trade in, and use of, military, security and police technologies.