Fred Gale

Associate Professor Fred Gale's research focuses on rethinking the discipline of political economy from a sustainability perspective and working through its implications for trade, investment, finance, labour, and preference formation policy. He has undertaken qualitative, empirical investigations into local, national and global private governance systems, especially those using multistakeholder approaches to develop social and environmental standards with a focus on the forestry, fisheries, fair trade and free range sectors.

Associate Professor Gale undertook a BA in English, Philosophy and Psychology at Trinity College Dublin before embarking on a career in International Development with Voluntary Services Overseas, the Agency for Personal Services Overseas, and the United Nations World Food Program. He completed a PhD dissertation on the International Tropical Timber Organisation in 1996 and subsequently held positions as Research Associate (Eco-Research Chair of Environmental Policy and Law) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Post-Doctoral Fellow (Department of Political Science), both at the University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In 2000, he took up an academic position at the University of Tasmania, Launceston, Australia where he teaches and conducts research in the Discipline of Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences.