Anthony Speca

I've been fortunate to wear many hats in my career, and I continue to do so today. Currently, I'm an educator, geographer, Arctic specialist, field lichenologist and politican.  In my role with the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, you'll find me wearing one of the first three of those hats most of the time.

My main project at UEA is 'Negotiating Sustainability', a Masters-level module on international environmental diplomacy.  The module includes a special focus on the Arctic, where questions of environmental protection, sustainable development, and Indigenous rights are at their sharpest and most urgent.  Most excitingly, the capstone project of the module is a simulation of the real-world Arctic Council, in which students play the roles of diplomats representing Arctic states and peoples.

Through my educational consultancy Polar Aspect, I've been designing and running such Model Arctic Council (MAC) experiential learning events since 2016.  Some of my MACs have been aimed at undergraduate students, in collaboration with universities in the UK and Canada.  But I also design and run the the world's only MACs for secondary-school pupils, in collaboration with schools in the UK, Hong Kong and Spain.

Over the years, my MACs have reached hundreds of students and pupils from dozens of countries.  They include the Norwich Model Arctic Council, hosted at university level by the UEA School of Environmental Sciences, and at secondary-school level by Norwich School.  I also write and speak about MAC and diplomatic simulation as educational tools.

Outside UEA, I'm an Honorary Fellow of the Scottish Association for Marine Science, and a Philosophy, Politics and Economics Teacher at Norwich School.  I was also formerly an Adjunct Professor at Trent University in Canada, and Managing Director of the Læra Institute for Circumpolar Education, an institute that I helped to establish within the international University of the Arctic.

Outside of the academy, I'm an elected Green Party politician, and Member of East Suffolk Council.  I'm now serving my third consecutive year as Chair of Council, and I've devoted my Chairship to establishing and championing the first-ever East Suffolk Youth Council, an elected youth body with the power to bring forward motions for consideration by East Suffolk Council itself.  And through my (other) consultancy, Aspen Ecology, I study, advise and teach about the secret and beautiful world of lichens, an ecologically vital but completely overlooked form of life that's unique on the planet.

In my earlier professional life, I was a senior policy official with the Government of Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic.  I directed a team of analysts advising policy-makers on fiscal and economic issues, and I helped strategise negotiations for the devolution of lands and resources from Ottawa.  Later, I continued to advise the Government of Nunavut as an independent public-policy consultant, whilst writing and speaking about Arctic governance.

I am especially interested in Arctic political and economic geography, Arctic imaginaries, Arctic education, Model Arctic Council, geographical concepts and history, and the philosophy of geography.

At Trent University where I was an Adjunct Professor, I created and contribute to a module on Arctic political geography, with a Model Arctic Council as a capstone project.  I have also updated and taught a module on the Arctic economy and its development.

At Norwich School, I currently convene a tutorial on critical thinking skills, and I teach extension sessions in the social sciences for the 'Academic Scholars' programme.  I have also taught A-level courses in political ideologies, the British constitution, the nature of economics, normative ethics and physical geography.

My academic background is in philosophy, and I obtained my PhD in 1999 from the University of Toronto in Canada.  I have also trained in negotiation and mediation.  I am a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.