Brandon Dickson (he/him) is a PhD candidate (ABD) at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. His research focuses on the international drivers of sustainability decision making in organizational policies. Previously, Brandon’s research programme has focused on the politics of education in the wake of mass atrocities.
Brandon has worked in various research roles in academic, policy and consulting positions. Most recently, Brandon has served a collaborator on a SSHRC funded research project developing a toolkit for responsible investing in public sector organizations. He has also worked on various SSHRC and NSERC funded projects related to sustainable finance, international diplomacy, university governance, open educational resources, mathematics and computational thinking education, teacher education and communication education for data science students. He has published his work widely and has presented at leading international peer-reviewed conferences.
In addition to his research, during his university career, Brandon has been actively involved in teaching and service. He has worked for the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Teaching Excellence as a Graduate Educational Developer delivering training to teaching assistants and new instructors. Brandon has taught in various roles, including as course instructor for a first-year political science course in the Bachelor of Arts in Social Justice and Legal Studies program at St. Clair College, and in Teaching Assistant roles for political science and business skill courses at UW. He has also worked positions in K-12 education and in program development at UWO. In the community, Brandon volunteered as a youth soccer coach for nearly a decade and has served on the Board of Directors for both the London Youth Advisory Council and Amabile Choirs of London.
Brandon’s PhD dissertation is situated in the context of global sustainability governance and explores how sustainable transitions are being undertaken by universities. Recognizing the critical role universities play in sustainability, as both mini-cities and societal knowledge leaders, Brandon’s research investigates the various levels of influence on higher education institutions integration of sustainability principles, and explores how findings in this arena can support sustainability integration across the field.