Ryan Shum

Ryan’s research is situated at the interface of geography and science and technology studies. His research is interested in the everyday practices of scientific knowledge production and (interdisciplinary) collaboration with an ongoing interest in care in science.

An important part of his work is focused on the emerging geographies of microplastic (science) in the UK. His ESRC-funded PhD titled ‘Caring for Microplastics: a multi-sited laboratory ethnography’, follows microplastics in and out of scientific spaces to explore how actors, including scientists, policymakers and diverse publics, negotiate the sociopolitical, ethical but also practical challenges of responding to the unevenly ubiquitous ontologies of microplastic materialities.

Currently, Ryan works as Postdoctoral Research Associate on the RENEWing biodiversity through a people-in-nature approach programme. He is part of an interdisciplinary team investigating collaborative experiences in biodiversity research (past and present).