Hi, I’m Dr. Ben Habib, aka Benny Bookshelf, wayfinder in a world in disequilibrium.
I’ve been many things…
Educator: Online educator with Online Education Services in the Security and International Relations program at Swinburne Online. Award-winning teacher & learning designer of over ten undergraduate & postgraduate subjects at La Trobe University, including the award-winning subject “International Politics of Climate Change,” the one-of-a-kind in Australia country case study subject “Contemporary Politics of North Korea,” and New Colombo Plan-funded environment, sustainability and global citizenship-themed short study program travel subjects to South Korea and China. Adult environmental education contributing expertise on socio-economic landscapes in the Permaculture Design Course at CERES Community Environment Park.
Writer and digital content creator: Producer of this Edge Dwellers Cafe website and YouTube channel, along with Benny Got Burnout and Archetype Transnational on Substack. Contributor to popular media publications including The Conversation, NK News, and The Diplomat.
Researcher: Internationally published researcher with expertise on North Korea, international climate politics, teaching practice and learning design, and the lived experience of neurodivergence. Nearly two decades of experience leading and managing research projects, qualitative research design, participant-action research, and extensive overseas field experience in Northeast Asia. ORCiD ID: 0000-0003-3087-4828.
Environment and sustainability activist with experience in community-level campaigns and expertise in international environmental movements, community development & grassroots economic regeneration based on horizontal and rhizomic organizational models.
Advocate: Staunch neurodiversity advocate with experience in embedding diverse and inclusive practice into workplace systems and award-winning learning design and neurodiverse-accessible teaching resources, public advocacy, and basketball coaching for neurodiverse adults.
Public speaker: Accomplished public speaker & communicator across different media, integrating & synthesising complex information for diverse audiences in books, peer-reviewed journals, online media and public presentations.
…what I’m becoming is a work in progress. Still growing, still evolving.
Edge Dwellers Café 
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I saw your interview on ABC News Breakfast the other day and wanted to give you a “granny hug.”
“Granny hug” accepted with a smile! Thanks for your support 🙂
You should not feel bad and its very courageous of you to write this post because it will help others. It’s also extremely powerful for others to see and understand that even the brightest academics and experts in their fields, are human, like we all are. Most of us have our own personal battles of one sort or another, but we mostly cover them up or avoid situations where we will be exposed. As human beings we tend to remain firmly our comfort zones so good on you for putting yourself out there and facing one of your greatest fears and to have a career where you do that every day. Others would run a million miles rather than do that. I don’t know if it would make it less challenging if interviews were pre-recorded but either way – we all need to learn more about North Korea so keep up the good work and thank you for your courage and inspiration to others.
Thanks for your support 🙂
Hey Ben.
Great videos on the DPRK but one thing that I lack from analysts like yourself is insight int othe WPK;
If all decisions are ultimately decided within the party and the people chosen from it then what would be the most interesting and important thing to learn and understand would be how this party works.
What relics if any of democracy exist *within* the party?
Are there any debates or discussions?
How are people chosen within it to represent the state?
etc.
From what I understand reading some South Korean research the PY upper class strata is like the communist court of China on steroids. Personal relationships and back-scratching lifts and demotes people, often from within this group or those that manage to associate itself with it.
But is that all there is?
Thanks for your great comment and question Boris. My working theory on this is as you say, that there’s the formal mechanics of the WPK and then there’s the informal jockeying for promotion and power, along with periodic purges from the top of officials that outlive their usefulness. The reason few analysts are able to speak in detail on this is because of the difficulty finding people who have been in that system who can/will talk about it. Without their direct testimony, we can’t know for sure the minutiae of the informal process, beyond what we can triangulate from the testimony of high-level defectors, memoirs from foreigners who have engaged with high level officials, and the informed speculation of Pyongyang-ology. It’s the flip-side of how we know a great deal about informal processes within democratic political systems, because the actors involved are more able to talk about their experiences. Interested to hear your thoughts on this.