Human Geography

Carlotta Molfese

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
Plymouth University, Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Start date: October 2017

Research topic: The Back-To-The-Land movement and nature in the Anthropocene: a personal journey through “haptic geographies”

My PhD will be looking at one particular social movement – the back-to-the-land movement (BTL) – and its engagement with the non-human world. Through an auto-ethnographical methodology that will pay particular attention to sensorial experience with the non-human world, I aim to investigate counter-culturenature ontologies as practiced on the ground by BTLs to highlight the diversity of relationships to and performances of nature within the presumed homogeneous Western society. Finally, through the lenses of anarchist theory I will attempt to respond to some of the philosophical and practical challenges presented by the emergence of the Anthropocene concept.

Research supervisors: Dr Kim Ward, Professor Geoff Wilson

Email: carlotta.molfese@postgrad.plymouth.ac.uk

LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/carlotta-molfese-676860151

Chloe Asker

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC +3)
University of Exeter, Department of Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2017

Research topic: Mindful geographies? Towards the therapeutic geographies of mindfulness

Mindfulness has grown in popularity since the millennium, however the practice has been neglected from geographical literature concerning health and wellbeing. This is surprising since a recently published ‘Mindful Nation UK’ (2015) report by the Mindfulness All-Party Parliamentary Group (MAPPG) identified the practice as key to remedying mental health difficulties. My project aims to understand the geographies of mindfulness, and in doing so, expand the concept of therapeutic geographies using mindfulness practice. Practically, I will carry out ethnographic fieldwork with charities and/or organisations that use mindfulness as a therapeutic device.

Research supervisors: Dr Jennifer Lea, Professor John Wylie

Professional memberships/Positions held: Human Geography student rep for College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter  

Email: ca409@exeter.ac.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chloeasker

Courtenay Crawford

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
University of Bristol, School of Geographical Sciences

Start date: October 2020

Research topic: Ecodharmic Worlds: Decoloniality, the Anthropocene, and Buddhist geographies

Buddhist philosophy and the questions it poses regarding the boundary between nature/culture and self/other speaks clearly to contemporary human geographical questions concerning political ecology, inter-species relationships, care-giving, and environmental governance. Its unique contribution lies in bridging gaps between post-colonial and post-human critique. My research will investigate how Buddhist critique can help human geographies reconceive the politics of our more-than-human worlds in an age of planetary crisis.

Research supervisors: Dr Mark Jackson, Dr Naomi Millner

Email: Courtenay.crawford@bristol.ac.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtenaycrawford/

Daisy Curtis

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
University of Exeter, Department of Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2017

Research topic: Provisional title: 'Digital Geographies of the 5G mobile network: An exploration of the narratives and experiences of increasing interconnectivity.'

5G technology is the next generation of wireless mobile network, and my PhD research seeks to engage with proponents of 5G technology as well as potential users to provide an insight into how people make sense of, and engage with, this developing technology. The PhD research aims to critically explore some of the major themes bound up with the development of this new technology. These three main themes include: the materiality of the 5G network regarding infrastructural requirements, challenges and concerns; geopolitical and security issues related to the development of the network; as well as the narratives that 5G will be ‘transformative’ by enabling new capabilities, and will act as a foundation for further technological development.

Research supervisors: Dr Pepe Romanillos, Dr Sean Carter

Professional memberships/Positions held: Exeter Geography PGR Inclusivity and Wellbeing Rep

Email: derc201@exeter.ac.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/der_curtis

Gemma Lucas

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2019

Research topic: Yoga and gendered wellbeing: Exploring new ontologies of wellbeing and gendered body shame through innovative and ethnographic studies of yoga practices and spaces.

My ethnographic research of diverse yoga practices and spaces will deploy a novel ‘moving interview’ method to contribute to debates on gendered and embodied geographies of health and wellbeing. Modern postural yoga has rapidly gained popularity in the West (Singleton, 2010), and this research will foreground practitioners’ lived experiences of the body in contemporary yoga spaces, enabling an exploration of new ontologies of wellbeing and gendered body shame. This will open up novel analytical lines towards understanding wellness outside of consumerist, neoliberal and medico-scientific discourses (Dolezal, 2012).

Research supervisors: Dr Jennifer Lea, Prof John Wylie, Dr Luna Dolezal

Email: GL366@exeter.ac.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gemlucas12

Gia D’aprano

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2016

Research topic: Feral food foraging in the city and ecological literacy

I am interested in how foraging for feral foods in an urban setting can provide opportunities for learning about ecological literacy, defined as identification with urban nature, leading towards greater ecological consciousness. I have chosen urban public space as the site for the research as it is replete with counter hegemonic initiatives towards more equitable and socially just relationships with both human and non-human members of community. An urban ecology of feral food plants, which can be seen as a subset of alternative food networks, could provide informal, experiential and embodied ways to become more eco-centric as a species.

Research supervisors: Professor Stewart Barr, Dr Ewan Woodley

Email: gd300@exeter.ac.uk

Harriet Earle-Brown

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2018

Research topic: Homeless Women and their Transgressive Bodies

Homeless women’s bodies often transgress ideas about what a woman’s body “should be”, perceived as dirty, undesirable and out of place. However, it can be used as capital within the homeless community, unless it is layered with other transgressions such as bigness, sexuality or colour.

I am interested in the ways in which the body of the homeless woman is constructed, how these constructions influence its treatment and performance and how the homeless female body intersects with other identities.

Research supervisors: Professor Paul Cloke, Professor Jo Little

Professional memberships/Positions held: Geography PGT course rep

Email: he282@exeter.ac.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harriet-earle-brown-20b697167/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/hearlebrown

Website/Blog: http://postgraduategirl.home.blog

Jen Clements

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC/BBSRC +3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2018

Research topic: Farming, labour and landscape in post-Brexit Cornwall

My project concerns the development of a post-Brexit domestic agricultural policy and the emerging trade-offs between economic, environmental and social aims among key stakeholders. Ultimately, it will combine interviews, surveys and economic data in order to model potential outcomes.

Research supervisors: Professor Jane Wills, Professor Juliet Osborne, Professor Matt Lobley

Email: jc1011@exeter.ac.uk

Jo Hynes

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC +3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2018

Research topic: Geographies of Immigration Law: Space, Technology & Access to Justice

My research explores the legal geographies of immigration law. Using ethnographies of tribunal hearings and interviews with their key actors, I will examine the impact of space and technology on access to justice in immigration bail hearings across sites in the UK and the USA.

Research supervisors: Professor Nick Gill , Dr Helena Wray

Professional memberships/Positions held: I am part of the ASYFAIR network, which explores the extent to which fair and consistent asylum appeal adjudication occurs across EU member states.

Email: jh1076@exeter.ac.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanna-hynes-6b049096/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jo__hynes

Kieran Green

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC 1+3)
Plymouth University, Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Start date: September 2018

Research topic: British Youth Unseen: Sofa-Surfing and Space

My research seeks to understand how sofa-surfing, other temporary living arrangements and the support available for young people affects their motivation to achieve fruitful and prosperous lives. To complete these aims, I’m using an innovative methodology that combines descriptive statistics with interviews, person-centred photography and the ‘Future Authoring programme’.

Research supervisors: Professor Richard Yarwood, Dr Mark Holton

Email: kieran.green@postgrad.plymouth.ac.uk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-green-2882a6130/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kegrenola

Website/Blog: sofasurfers.co.uk

Leah Shackman

Human Geography 1+3
University of Exeter, College of Environmental and Life Sciences

Start date: September 2021

Research topic: Children’s and Young Adult Feminist and Queer Non-Fiction Literature: A Literary Geography Approach.

My research examines the role of collective biographies of women and LGBTQ+ figures in diversifying children’s and young adult literature through narrating the lives and achievements of figures, past and present. I am interested in how the production of collective biographies of women and LGBTQ+ figures disrupts masculinist, heterosexual knowledge, and contributes to increasing the diversity of children’s literature. I aim to explore the successes, complexities and critiques of the content, themes and messages of children’s non-fiction literature, and will address how biography can be used to teach issues of gender and sexuality, perhaps providing potential solutions to the gaps in the school curriculum, created as a result of the unease surrounding feminist topics and LGBTQ+ education.

Research supervisors: Dr. Cordelia Freeman, Professor Jana Funke, Dr. Nichola Harmer

Email: ls877@exeter.ac.uk

Oliver Dawson

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC +3)
University of Bristol, School of Geographical Sciences

Start date: October 2017

Research topic: Poetic Cartographies in the Age of the Anthropocene

My research happens at the intersection of art, philosophy and the social sciences. I explore how the cognitive, ritual and social references that art and poetry generates produce new ‘regimes’ of subjectivity. I am particularly interested in how the non-linguistic, a-signifying and affective qualities of poetry allow for the mapping of new subject capacities, and how these offer new ways of thinking and responding to the ethical and political challenges of the Anthropocene.

Research supervisors: Dr John David Dewsbury, Dr Franklin Ginn , Dr Joe Gerlach

Email: od15598@bris.ac.uk

Ryan Shum

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC +3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Start date: October 2020

Research topic: How to care for microplastics: storying entanglements of microplastics through a speculative multi-sited ethnography

Microplastics are particles and fibres of heterogeneous size, shape and chemical composition less than 5mm in diameter found to be ubiquitous across the planet. This anthropogenic pollutant exposes the inextricable entanglements of plastic and human/more-than-human bodies which forces us think through what it would mean to respond and live well in a ‘permanently polluted world’ (Liboiron et al., 2018). My research aims to follow researchers pioneering ways of responding to microplastics to explore the extent to which the production of knowledge about microplastics and how to respond to them also reflects (or not) notions of care and responsibility.

Research supervisors: Professor Gail Davies, Dr Angeliki Balayannis

Email: hs677@exeter.ac.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShumRyan

Taylor Butler-Eldridge

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC +3)
University of Exeter, College of Life and Environmental Science

Start date: September 2021

Research topic: More-than-Buoyant Bodies and Aquatic Acclimation(s): Tracing the Psychoswimographies of England’s Largest Lake

Open-water swimming (OWS) in the UK and ROI has seen a resurgence of popular interest. Academic research often aligns this growth with contemporary, human-centered, motivations for exercise and improved health and wellbeing through recreational, therapeutic, and competitive contexts. In response, my research questions the co-constitutional forms of human and non-human health experienced during OWS in lacustrine spaces, expanding limited geographical research beyond individualised perspectives, competitive OWS, and sea swimming. It will open a more relational and intersectional insight concerning OWS’s health-responsive acclimation(s) through a 12-month, psychogeographically influenced, ethnographic inquiry at Lake Windermere, England’s largest lake in the Lake District National Park.

Publications:

Butler-Eldridge, T. (2021). Taking a Pedagogic Chance with Psychogeography. RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2021 – 3rd Sept. [Online]. Royal Geographical Society: London.

Mcphie, J. and Butler-Eldridge, T. (2021). Slam Poetry, Giant Specs and a Psychogeography Monopoly Board: Progressive Directions for Outdoor Facilitation. In: Palmer, C. (Eds.). Arts-Based Learning in Outdoor Education. Sport and Wellbeing Press: Preston.

Butler-Eldridge, T., Bridger, A., Richardson, T., Cole, S. and Mcphie, J. (2019). Definitions, Debates and Directions for Contemporary Psychogeography. The Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography – 6th Sept. University of Huddersfield: Huddersfield.

Research supervisors: Dr Jennifer Lea, Professor John Wylie

Email: tb585@exeter.ac.uk

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/taylorbutlereldridge

Twitter: https://twitter.com/notorioustbe

Website/Blog: exeter.academia.edu/TaylorButlerEldridge

Tom Cantellow

PhD Researcher in Human Geography (ESRC +3)
University of Bristol, School of Geographical Sciences

Start date: October 2020

Research topic: Spatial variations in the attachment of meaning to political engagement.

Tom’s research examines the manifestation of neoliberalism in British society. By reinforcing examinations of British socioeconomic policy with spatial analysis of sociodemographics, inequalities, and voting outcomes, he aims to produce novel insights into attitudes and trends across different places in Britain.

Tom’s broader research interests include neoliberalism, political economy, international relations, voting, populism, social and political values, and spatial and statistical analysis, for which he predominantly uses R and QGIS.

Research supervisors: Professor Julie Macleavy, Professor David Manley

Email: t.cantellow@bristol.ac.uk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tom_cantellow