Bios
Ben S. Bradley
Ben was educated at Oxford and Edinburgh, where, with Colwyn Trevarthen, he began his pioneering research on infancy. He later migrated to Australia, where he is now Professor Emeritus at Charles Sturt University. He wrote the widely-translated Visions of Infancy (1989), and Psychology and Experience (2005). His research highlights include: proving young infants can participate in social groups; showing the value of theatre-based techniques with youth at risk; and, showing Darwin understood natural selection as an effect, not a cause. His most recent book is Darwin’s Psychology: The Theatre of Agency (2020).
Jane Selby
Jane studied babies for her Masters at St. Andrews, Scotland, an interest continued as National Research Fellow at La Trobe University, Australia – after gaining a PhD from the Child Care and Development Group, Cambridge University for her study of ‘Feminine Identity and Contradiction’ in women research students at Cambridge. Whilst lecturing at Charles Sturt University, she set up an infant laboratory with Ben Bradley in 1998. Since 1986 she has built clinical psychology practices in the UK and Australia, conducted research with Australian indigenous groups as Senior Research Fellow at James Cook University, and with youth ‘at risk’ in NSW.
Matthew Stapleton
With a background in design and a passion for improving the education of young people, Matthew has worked in adult education and early childhood services for the past 15 years. Since 2009, he has been CEO of Centre Support, a company which provides simple but comprehensive tools to help staff and managers comply with all requirements and implement the best possible practices in Long Day Care centres – now having 80% of Australian Long Day Care centres as customers. He owns and runs two high-quality centres of his own. His paper on ‘risky play’ recently appeared in Contemporary Issues in Early Education.