Dr Stephen Cowden is Senior Lecturer in Social Work Coventry University. He is originally from Melbourne Australia, but has lived in the UK since 1985. He did a BA at Melbourne University 1979 – 1983 and after leaving Australia and travelled throughout South Asia in 1984-5. After arriving in London he became involved in political campaigns in the areas of anti-racism, gay and lesbian rights and Irish solidarity. He worked in the NHS where he was an active trade unionist. He trained as a Social Worker in 1990-92 and then combined this work with further research in Australian studies (MA University of London 1992-94 and PhD University of Kent 1994 – 1999). He began work in the Social Work department at Coventry University in 2001 where his teaching and research interests concern Social Work and Social Theory, Critical Pedagogy and Ethics. Much of his work has been carried out collaboratively with Dr Gurnam Singh. He presently lives in Leamington Spa with his partner and three children.