Alex Krasodomski-Jones

Alex is director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, leading work on digital political extremism, information environments, disinformation and machine-enabled decision-making.

He manages CASM’s visual analytics capability, and provides written and televised comment for the BBC, CNN, the Spectator, the Huffington Post and other outlets.

Before joining CASM, Alex worked at Accenture Digital in visual analytics.

Andrew Leslau

prison reformer and property developer

Andy was a student of St Paul’s School, London, and a graduate of Russian Studies at The University of Essex, including a year, during the Cold War, at Moscow State University. Andy has, to date, spent his professional life in UK residential property – as agent, developer, investor and asset manager, responsible, at its peak, for a portfolio of over 3500 properties with a vacant possession value today of c.£750 million. Today his main preoccupation is prison reform and how to change the prison world so that reoffending rates can come down. His other great loves, apart from his family, are dog-walking, warm weather, most things new, reading, critical thinking and speaking, many sports including, in particular, real tennis, and yes, he has to confess, Manchester United.

John Cornwall

John is currently an author, personal construct psychologist and education consultant engaging in research and school development.  Also, John is a performing musician, composer and recording artist and co-director of Music4Wellbeing CIC, a not-for-profit company that runs eight choirs in Kent for people with neurological and age-related conditions.  John was formerly director of the Centre for Enabling Learning and emeritus principal lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University.  Prior to that, John was principal of a residential and day school and family centre for students with complex and profound disabilities.  This was following a career in schools spanning 16 years and working with all areas of learning and inclusion of students with disabilities and/or experiencing disadvantages.

Professor Ellie Lee

Ellie is professor of family and parenting research at the University of Kent. Her research and teaching draws on sociological concepts such as ‘risk consciousness’ and ‘medicalisation’ to analyse the evolution of family policy and health policy. Her work explores why everyday issues – for example how women feel after abortion or how mothers feed their babies – turn into major preoccupations for policy makers and become heated topics of wider public debate. She is the author of Abortion, Motherhood and Mental Health: Medicalizing Reproduction in the United States and Great Britain (Aldine Transaction) and co-author of Parenting Culture Studies (Palgrave). She is the director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies based in SSPSSR and regularly discusses her research in the media and other public forums.

Richard Swan

Richard is an ex-secondary school teacher who now operates as a freelance writer, lecturer and academic. Recent publications include the Hodder study guide to The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and a fantasy novel, Melody’s Unicorn (signed copies available!). By training and inclination a medievalist, he has organised and participated in a wide range of talks and debates on subjects including extra-terrestrial intelligence, animal cognition, Mervyn Peake, T.S.Eliot and Lana Del Rey. He also runs creative writing sessions in schools.

Simon McKeon

Simon McKeon believes passionately in caring for and making accessible the nation’s rich archive collections. For 20 years Simon managed archive and museum services before becoming the Head of the ‘Collections, Audience and Intelligence Team’ at The National Archives in Kew. He has contributed to several books, TV programmes and exhibitions on different aspects of London’s history, as well as lecturing on archives at universities and schools. He has two fine teenage sons and lives in South East London. When not at work, Simon can be found supporting Queens Park Rangers FC.

Linden West

Linden West is Professor of Education at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts. He is Visiting Professor at the University of Milano-Bicocca and the Université de Paris Nanterre. His main expertise lies in the application of narrative methods to diverse educational, social, cultural, political and psychological phenomenon. He has written on how to build richer forms of dialogue among teachers and students in areas of conflict, such as in Israel, Palestine and Georgia. 
His books include Transforming perspectives in lifelong learning and adult education, a dialogue, with Professor Laura Formenti, and Distress in the city, racism, fundamentalism and a democratic education. Linden’s writing is translated into French, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Chinese and Korean. He has also worked in radio and television and as an educational administrator.

Simon Cook

Simon began his career at 16 when he left school to become an apprentice chef.  He then embarked on a phenomenal journey in the hospitality and catering industry, taking him to work at prestigious 5 star London hotels, then on to Germany where he worked in some of the very best restaurants in the country, before moving on to open a restaurant with four colleagues which soon gained a Michelin star.  He then moved to South Africa where he met his wife, and who he then returned to England with to start his second career in teaching. Simon quickly progressed working within further education colleges and joined MidKent College in 2013, before being appointed principal & chief executive in September 2016.

Simon is passionate about the impact further education has on changing communities, shaping careers and opening opportunities for all ages, something he believes is no more important than in the communities of Medway & Maidstone where it serves thousands of students every year.

Ella Whelan

journalist and author; co-convenor, Battle of Ideas festival

Ella Whelan is a journalist, author and co-convenor for the Battle of Ideas Festival. Her first book, What Women Want: Fun, Freedom and an End to Feminism explores contemporary feminism and its effect on women. Ella was the assistant editor at spiked and host of the spiked podcast between 2015-2018. When not at the Academy of Ideas, Ella appears frequently on TV and radio and writes for Standpoint the Sun, the Spectator, The Sunday Times, The Economist, Conscience and others. Her interviews with high-profile figures like Slavoj Zizek, Harold Bloom and Lionel Shriver feature in the spiked review.

Bernie Whelan

Debating Matters coordinator, boi

Bernie Whelan is Debating Matters coordinator at boi and a reviewer for spiked. She has written on a wide range of topics from Elvis Presley to Seamus Heaney. She worked as office manager at the East London Science School and is a member of the AoI Arts and Society Forum.