February 3, 2012, by Matt
A day in the life of a Geographer … an introduction
As of next week this blog will host our new series “A Day in the Life of a Geographer”, each week a different individual, from a group drawn from across the School, will talk about what they have been up to, however exciting this may be! The blog posts will describe why we all find Geography so important and interesting, as well as informing on what life is like for different groups of people in a UK University (which could be quite interesting given the changes to the HE sector that are coming on line in the next 12 months).
Our contributors are undergraduate and postgraduate students, research staff, lectures and professors, at different stages of their careers and with a wide range of geographical interests. Below you can find out about those people we will be hearing from, in the order they will be initially appearing in the blog (I’m still waiting to hear from our more senior contributors – so I’ll have to introduce them later!).
First up will be….
Lucy Veale
Lucy completed her Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded doctorate in the School of Geography at Nottingham in 2010. Her thesis was titled ‘An Historical Geography of the Nilgiri Cinchona Plantations, 1860-1900′ and looked at the history of the British experiment to establish quinine-yielding cinchona plantations in British India. Lucy then completed a post-doctoral project in association with Renaissance East Midlands and the Centre for Advanced Studies at Nottingham on ‘Representations of Climate Change in Local Museum Collections’ before joining the AHRC Landscape and Environment Programme in February 2011. As Research Fellow for the Director’s Impact Fellowship awarded to Professor Stephen Daniels, Lucy’s role is to work with the other members of the Directorate to further enhance and develop the work carried out by Programme. Responsibilities include collecting and analysing information and material for academic and popular publications, a book, a film, and a new website www.landscape.ac.uk, planning, organising and facilitating workshop events, liaising with fellowship partners, and playing an active role in the presentation and dissemination of research.
Lucy will be followed by…
Andy Cook
Andy is an economic and social geographer with interests in Eastern Europe, global cities and the geographies of money. He received his undergraduate degree in geography from the University of Southampton and his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. As a part-time Teaching Fellow in the School Andy has a number of teaching commitments and will be familiar to the Second Years for the Economic Geography module and the First Years for tutorials and the (renowned) Countries in Transition module. Andy also work as a part-time Research Associate in the School on a project relating to foreign exchange policy and ‘currency wars’ alongside Prof. Andrew Leyshon and Dr. Shaun French. He’s published a number of papers relating to post-socialist cities, highly skilled migrants and, most recently, the social and economic geographies of Magic Circle law firms. Prior to rejoining Nottingham Andy had a geographically mobile career taking in teaching and research appointments at Newcastle University, the University of Lancaster as well as the University of Gloucestershire teaching subjects as diverse as climate change policy, the geographies of war and terror, regional development, urban geography and (somewhat randomly) criminology(!).
In the week following Andy we will hear from…
Becki Quigley
Becki is a third year BA Geography student and the president of the Geography Society. Her main Geographical interests are the Geographies of football fandom and the landscapes of modern sport which inspired the topic of her dissertation. It is entitled “The Black and White World: A cultural Geography of the Toon Army” and has ultimate concern with the supporters of Newcastle United Football Club. During her second year Becki spent a semester studying abroad at the University of Newcastle, Australia (which may explain her photo!), and upon graduation she is going to complete a PGCE to become a secondary school Geography teacher.
Matt Jones will follow Becki on the blog
Matt Jones
That’s me (and some very important sediment cores from the Lake District)! I’m a lecturer in the School and my research interests are in the general area of environmental reconstruction. I’m particularly interested in how water availability has changed in the past, and how people have interacted with these changes. I’m lucky enough to spend time working on archaeological and geographical projects in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly in Turkey, Jordan and Iran (where it tends to be a little warmer than the Lake District). I grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and ended up in Nottingham Geography after taking degrees in Geology, Quaternary Science and Geography south of here.
Two of our PhD students Amber Martin and Tim Meadows will be next in line, and I think Amber might well end up talking about a big conference in America, if the timing’s right…..
Amber Martin
Amber is a cultural economic geographer interested in geographies of fashion, retail and consumption. She also has a strong interest in feminist geography and specialises in geographies of gender and sexuality. She is currently in her third year of studying for her PhD for which I am researching the changing geographies of the sex shop industry within England.
Amber studied for her undergraduate degree in Geography at Nottingham and then received an ESRC 1+3 scholarship which provided funding for her masters ‘Economy, Space and Society’ and for the three years of PhD research. Alongside her PhD Amber enjoys demonstrating on first year and masters statistics modules and taking first year tutorials.
Since being at Nottingham Amber has also been involved heavily with the University’s postgraduate theatre project. Since starting her PhD she’s acted in three plays and recently directed ‘An Ideal Husband’ by Oscar Wilde.
Tim Meadows
Tim is currently in his sixth year at Nottingham having progressed through the ranks from Undergraduate to Masters and finally PhD level. His research interests lie principally in fluvial geomorphology and landscape modelling. His PhD research, which he started in the Autumn of 2010, is primarily concerned with numerical modelling of fluvial systems and applies a reduced complexity landscape evolution model (CAESAR) to generate estimates of long-term sediment yields at a catchment scale. The focus of these modelling efforts is on the Upper North Fork Toutle River (USA), which was catastrophically disturbed during the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens.
Aside from research, Tim assists with practical elements of the second year ‘River Channel Forms and Dynamics’ course, and has enjoyed the opportunity to help out on several Undergraduate field trips. He’s involved in cricket and football teams and is generally keen to get involved in any activity that gets him outdoors.
So there they are, 6 Geographers willing to share all of their day to day lives, or some of it at any rate. I’m looking forward to reading what Lucy has been up to next week and to be able to introduce the final members of our group before too long.
02/02/2012
Sound great – I’m looking forwards to it!