In July 2014 I started as a Professor of Environmental Geography at the University of Sheffield.
Between September 2003 and 2014 I worked as a lecturer, senior lecturer and a Reader in Human Geography at Leicester University. This followed a two year research project as a Leverhulme Post-Doctoral Fellow in Australia examining the role of internet use in Australian environmental movements. I was based in Internet Studies in the School of Media and Information, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
I completed my PhD in the Geography Department at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, in 2001. It examined environmental activists’ use of computer mediated communication in Britain. I was funded by a Departmental PhD Studentship and an Economic and Social Research Council PhD Research Studentship.
I have also worked as a Research Associate in 1999 on a short-term commercial contract investigating users perceptions of e-commerce working with Dr Bronislaw Szerszynski and Dr Robin Grove-White at the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, Lancaster University, UK. Additionally I was a Research Assistant in 1997 for an Edinburgh University project for North West Water Ltd, with Dr Tim Malthus. This was an investigation of the applications of remote sensing for the detection of leaks from water mains.
In 1997 I won the Association for Geographic Information Student of the Year (Postgraduate) Award and ‘Best of Session’ for a presentation at the Third International Airborne Remote Sensing Conference for my research on underground water leak detections systems. In 1996 I completed a MSc in Geographical Information Systems at the University of Edinburgh, for which I gained a distinction. This was also funded by an ESRC studentship. This followed gaining First Class Honours in BA (Hon) Geography from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1995.
During my PhD years I became more environmentally active, becoming involved in a variety of campaigns predominately in Newcastle upon Tyne. I continued this involvement in Australia – volunteering at an environment centre in Perth and volunteering with The Wilderness Society. I am now less directly involved in activism, but am interested in transitions, permaculture, green building and social justice campaigns.
While I have had a great deal of luck and success in academia, I have also (like most academics) endured numerous rejections. Following the excellent example of Johannes Haushofer I have decided to add here my career low points, to give this brief biography a bit of realism.
Jobs I didn’t get:
- Research Assistant, Sociology, Manchester University, 2000
- Lectureship in Human Geography, Birkbeck, 2000
- Lectureship at University of Auckland, 2001
- Lectureship in Geography, Kings College, London, 2003
Articles rejected by journals:
- Mobilising environmental knowledges and practices: How eco-houses travel (Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers), 2014
- Making space for disability in eco-homes and eco-communities (Housing Studies), 2015
Grant funding bids rejected (many of which were collaborative):
- Rachel Carson Center, Munch University, Fellowship, 2016
- EPSRC, Connecting the Gaps: Improving urban integration together, 2016
- Leverhulme Trust, Anti-Fracking project, 2015
- NCRM Participatory Methods, 2015
- Grantham PhD funding, 2015
- ESRC Housing Ourselves co-housing project, 2013
- ESRC Seminar Series, Protest Camps, 2013
- Rachel Carson Center, Munch University, Fellowship, 2013
- British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship, Comfort in eco-housing, 2012
- Leverhulme Trust Fair Share project, 2010
- ESRC Energy transitions in rural communities, 2010
- ESRC The New Security Era & the Public Sphere, 2010
- Leverhulme Trust, Earthships and the mobility of eco-house knowledge, 201
- ESRC Transitions Large Grant application, 2009
- RGS Peter Fleming award, Charting new currents: Earthships and how environmental solutions travel, 2009
- Philip Leverhulme Prize application, 2009
- Leverhulme Trust, Sea Change: diversity, place and environmental ethics project, 2009
- Joseph Rowntree, Threatened Livlihoods project, 2009
- Artist in Residence project, 2007
