Committee
Gail Davies (Chair)
Gail has research interests in the spatial, institutional and embodied aspects of knowledge practices, particularly the relationship between scientific, policy and popular knowledges. Much of this work has focused on animals, as a way of linking diverse empirical contexts, from natural history filmmaking to genetically modified animals, to broader questions about the changing relations between nature, space, ethics and expertise. For more, see Gail’s website at University College London.
Russell Hitchings (Secretary)
Russell uses qualitative methods to examine how different social groups relate to the natural environment within cities. His doctorate explored the benefits derived from domestic gardens in London. He subsequently studied how indoor city office workers relate to the outdoors within their working lives. Most recently, he has examined how groups of older people, with various degrees of wealth, pass through the UK winter as part of a developing interest in the seasonality of human experience. For more, see Russell’s website at University College London.
Ben Anderson
Ben’s research interests include spaces of hope and boredom, utopianism and theories of matter and materiality. He is currently working on the politics of affect, particularly in relation to the affects of war and security, and the use of anticipatory logics and techniques to govern futures. For more please see his website at the Department of Geography, Durham University.
Chris Bear (Acting Treasurer)
Chris specialises in animal geographies, particularly in relation to recreational angling and commercial fisheries. He is currently working on an ESRC-funded project, with Lewis Holloway (Hull University), which looks at the human-animal-technology relationships of robotic milking. For more, see Chris’s website at Aberystwyth University.
Harriet Hawkins
Harriet’s research explores the relationships between geography and art. She is particularly interested in the place of of art in contemporary geographical debate on subjectivities, bodies, the landscape and new materialities. Harriet has participated in collaborations between geographers, artists and other forms of ‘creative geographies’, including the production of an artists’ book and exhibitions with the RGS and the Institute for International Visual Arts. Harriet is lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Elaine Ho
Elaine’s research interest lies in the way that citizenship as a concept and practice is undergoing change as a result of transnational migration and globalisation. Her research agenda revolves around citizenship, transnational migration, emotions, ‘race’/ethnicity, gender and cosmopolitanism. For more, see Elaine’s website at the University of Leeds.
Mia Hunt (Postgraduate Representative)
Mia is an international postgraduate student from Canada whose work explores materiality, place-making, and vernacular practice. Her PhD project, underway at Royal Holloway, considers everyday shop-keeping as a curatorial exercise and focuses on London’s ad hoc consumption spaces – like pound shops, corner shops, and souvenir stands. The project weaves together her academic and professional backgrounds in urban planning, fine and applied arts, and community engagement.
Owain Jones
Owain has two main areas of research and writing interests: geographies of childhood and geographies of nature-culture, particularly animal geographies, place/landscape/dwelling, and tidal geographies. He has also written on geography, non-representational theory and pragmatism, and geography and memory. For more information, see Owain’s wesbite at the Countryside & Community Research Institute or the University of the West of England.
Hannah Macpherson
Hannah has research interests in the body, disability, disability arts and green space. Her research draws on feminist, post-structural and post-phenomenological theories and contributes to debates on qualitative methods, embodied ethics, disability, visual impairment and concepts of landscape. For more, see Hannah’s website at the University of Brighton.
Sarah Mills (Membership Secretary)
Sarah’s research explores youth citizenship and the social and cultural geographies of difference played out in the Scout Movement over time. Her broader research interests include informal education, youthful religiosities, gender and citizenship, and the historical geographies of childhood. For more, see Sarah’s website at Loughborough University.
Jo Norcup (Education co-ordinator)
Jo is interested in a wide range of educational practices and histories. As well as teaching and consulting, she is currently researching dissenting and DIY geography education initiatives in the journal series Contemporary Issues in Geography and Education (1983 – 1991). This research investigates the geographies of inclusion and exclusion in the making and performing of formal geographical education, and considers how such initiatives may prove insightful in current debates concerning contemporary issues in geography and education. For more information, see Jo’s website at the University of Glasgow.
Emma Roe (Dissertation Prize co-ordinator)
Emma is interested in embodied practices, theories of matter and materiality and human – non-human relationships. She has a long-standing empirical interest in agro-food studies, most recently in the area of farm animal welfare in Europe and China. Currently, she is developing empirical interests in the cultural geographies of health. For more, see Emma’s website at the University of Southampton.
Amanda Rogers
Amanda is currently conducting research on ‘Geographies of Transnational Theatrical Creativity.’ She is a social and cultural geographer whose interests lie in critical theory on identity, race, and difference, particularly regarding East Asian identities; transnational, diasporic, and creative communities; and interdisciplinary perspectives on the theory and practice of performance. For more, see Amanda’s website at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Rebecca Sandover (Postgraduate Representative)
Rebecca is undertaking qualitative PhD research into the visceral geographies of allotment, ‘grow-your-own’ practises. Focus is on the embodied nature of self-provision, with material and social engagements providing opportunities for informal learning, extending food choices. The wider contexts of Local Food networks, as well as access to ‘good’ food are also explored. For more, see Rebecca’s website at The University of Exeter.
