pathway: Human Geography

My project aims to explore how factors: politics and geography, biological factors and government actions, affect bodily autonomy in East Africa, particularly in Ethiopia and Kenya. In doing so, it examines the influence of issues such as political in/stability, and international aid as well as biological determinism (the idea that genetics shape behaviour and social outcome) on advocacy efforts of NGOs and activists. I will investigate how state violence and discriminatory laws impact these groups’ rights.

My research focuses on disaster narratives, specifically around volcanic activity. Through lived experience and interaction with volcanism, communities develop strong cultural ties to the landscape and a heterogeneous local disaster knowledge, which may be shared in narrative or story form. An understanding of these knowledges is crucial to both effective volcanic risk management and building of relationships between disaster managers and communities. By completing a systematic review of existing literature around disaster storytelling and ethnographic research within a specific community, I hope to build upon existing academic work around local disaster knowledges and contribute to a decolonisation of disaster research.

My PhD project will investigate how feminist humanitarian networks challenge inequalities in the aftermath of disasters, and how their everyday practices can foster long-term, transformative change. The research seeks to inform post-disaster frameworks, policies and strategies by embedding gender-sensitive approaches into disaster recovery. Ultimately, I aim to bridge theory and practice by developing gender-sensitive frameworks for disaster management that can deliver tangible, equitable impacts. 

In Western literary geography, Oceania has often been exoticised (Kothari & Palis, 2024) with its stories extracted by white male geographers/explorers via violent encounters with Indigenous populations. These gendered colonial portrayals silence numerous Oceanian voices, particularly women’s (Kabutaulaka, 2015). While post-/de-colonial scholars have challenged this silence, women’s voices have remained peripheral. With this project, I aim to disrupt this and counter the tendency to undervalue orature, by foregrounding Indigenous women’s stories in transmedial forms (beyond written formats). Methodologically, I focus on decentralising the researcher from storying processes by centring Indigenous story-holders (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012). I intend to both make Indigenous stories visible, and co-create stories that focus on island women’s lived experiences.

My research explores connections between culture and intersectional inclusion within the UK Drum & Bass (DnB). Following nearly a decade in music production, I am stepping back from the production networks to conduct a digital ethnography to examine how gendered and racial identities are promoted or excluded within contemporary DnB digital economies of peer production and influencer marketing. I am motivated by the potential for creating more equitable markets for my fellow producers and DJs through this research, with my research also partnering with several music labels to inform their diversity and inclusion strategies.

Over 95% of UK local authorities have declared climate emergencies and many have adopted local climate plans to establish targets and actions for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change. However, these plans typically lack the legal powers and accountability mechanisms of national policy frameworks, such as climate change acts, to force and incentivise actions by local actors. This research critically interrogates how local climate plans achieve impact in these circumstances by investigating the mechanisms and processes through which they seek to build stakeholder support and influence the behaviour of local actors in pursuit of net zero.

I am intending to investigate the value of playful learning for reducing climate anxiety in young people. I am particularly focused on cryosphere geography, and have based my project around Ice Flows, developed by Dr Anne Le Brocq, University of Exeter. I want to understand if playful learning can help develop the skills needed for proactively approaching climate change problems, especially through building climate resilience. I am also aware that playful learning needs to complement current UK secondary education, which prioritises written communication through examination. This balance will be key to my research.

My research aims to understand the affective life of Chinese diasporas in the UK during and after COVID-19. The PhD project attends to the emotionally intensive ways in which migrant bodies, ordinary feelings and life (his)stories have been connected and shaped by technologies, policies and politics of the country’s pandemic management practices, thereby contributing to critical studies of crisis, governance and migration through an affective lens. Methodologically, it does so by facilitating alternative modes of narrating life during the pandemics using methods such life history interviewing and digital ethnography.