eSoGE News - School of Geography and the Environment

Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
The electronic newsletter of the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford
Professor Sarah Whatmore is the new Head of the School of
Geography and the Environment
On the 1st of April Professor Sarah Whatmore
became the new Head of the School of
Geography and the Environment.
The School was established in 1899 under the direction of Halford John Mackinder, the first Reader
in Geography, with the assistance of the Royal
Geographical Society (RGS). Sarah is the first female
Head of School, succeeding Professor David Thomas.
Dr Marjorie Sweeting was acting Head of the School
from 1983–1984.
to the Council of the RGS/IBG and to membership
of the Research Committee in June 2004 for 3 years.
In 2012 she was appointed to the new DEFRA and
DECC Social Science Expert Panel. She is an editor
of Environment and Planning A (Pion) and the Blackwell
Dictionary of Human Geography (5th Edition, 2004).
Sarah’s research focuses on relations between people
and the material world, particularly the living world,
Professor Sarah
and the spatial habits of thought that inform the ways
Whatmore
in which these relations are imagined and practiced
in the conduct of science, governance and everyday
Professor Whatmore holds the Statutory Chair in Environment
life. She has published widely on the theoretical and political
and Public Policy at Linacre College, Oxford. She is a graduate of
implications of these questions in two main directions – develoUniversity College London where she gained a BA (Geography)
ping ’more-than-human’ modes of enquiry and interrogating the
in 1981; an MPhil (Town Planning) in 1983 and, after a stint worrelationship between science and democracy.
king for the Greater London Council, a PhD (Geography) in
1988. She spent 12 years teaching in the School of Geographical
Sarah joins her colleagues in acknowledging the significant contSciences at the University of Bristol, where she was promoted
ribution over the last four years of the outgoing Head, Professor
to a Chair in Human Geography in 1999 and awarded a DSc
David Thomas, and extends a warm thankyou to him. Professor
for published research in 2000. She moved to the Geography
Thomas will continue his work in the department as Professor
Discipline at the Open University in September 2001 as
of Geography, and REF lead.
Professor of Environmental Geography. Sarah is an elected
Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2002) and was elected
Professor Heather Viles gives evidence to House of Lords’
enquiry on Science and Heritage
Professor Heather Viles gave evidence to the House of Lords’ Science
and Technology Committee followup enquiry on Science and Heritage
on 13th March 2012.
Professor Professor Viles was asked what
Heather impact the National Heritage
Viles
Science Strategy, launched in
School of Geography & the Environment,
Environmental Change Institute, Transport Studies Unit
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
March 2009, has had, and whether the Government is doing
enough to support the discipline. The session was recorded,
and transcripts and video footage are available on the House
of Lords website. Please see Parliament TV for video footage,
and for more information on the enquiry please see the UK
Parliament website.
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
Professor Gordon L Clark appointed as new Director of the
Smith School
The University of Oxford has appointed
Professor Gordon Clark FBA, Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography, as the next director of the University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. He will take up
the new position in January 2013 succeeding
the founding director, Professor Sir David
King.
has engaged with governments, enterprises and a wide
range of stake-holders in the search for solutions to
environmental problems. I look forward to carrying
forward the agenda of the Smith School, working closely with Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment and the Saïd Business School. Our aim is
to build new educational and research programmes
that will educate tomorrow’s leaders, including entrepreneurs, business people, and NGOs at home and
abroad.’
Professor Clark is currently Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the School of Geography and Professor Gordon
the Environment. An economic geographer, his cur- Clark
The Smith School was launched in 2008 with a major
rent research focuses on the responsibilities and begrant from the Smith Family Education Foundation. It
haviours of institutional investors in corporate engagement and
aims to link academia to the corporate sector and to governenvironmental management, global finance and the investment
ments around the world through a wide range of teaching and
management industry, including the governance structure and
research programmes, and thereby to engage and equip public
decision-making performance of pension funds, endowments,
and private enterprise with the knowledge, networks and soand sovereign wealth funds.
lutions needed to address the major environmental challenges
currently facing them.
Professor Clark said: ’I am honoured to have been chosen as
the new Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the
For more information please see:
Environment. Under the leadership of Sir David King, the Smith
www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/120217.html
School has become a globally recognised research centre that
International Conference on Water Security, Risk and
Society, 16-18 April
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew
Hamilton, spoke enthusiastically about Oxford’s key role in the leadership of the global
water security agenda on 17th April at the
Natural History Museum to over 220 senior
policy, research and business leaders participating in the International Conference on
Water Security, Risk and Society.
Over the three-day event, more than 70 presentations addressed the status of and pathways to
water security with contributions from more than
15 countries. The conference was organised by the
School of Geography and the Environment and the
Environmental Change Institute under the direction of Professors Jim Hall and David Grey, and Drs
Rob Hope and Dustin Garrick, as well as an international science committee and advisory group
Professor Hamilton’s address followed a public
from policy and enterprise. A new cross-university
lecture by Professor Sir John Beddington, Govern- The Vice-Chancellor,
website on ‘water’ – www.water.ox.ac.uk – was
ment Chief Scientific Adviser, who underlined the Professor Andrew
launched at the conference as part of the FellUK Government’s increasing priority on water se- Hamilton addressing the
funded Water Security Network. The conference
curity in the UK and internationally.The conference conference
attracted sponsorship from UK research councils
was earlier opened at St Hugh’s College by the Pro Vice-Chan(ESRC, NERC), UK Collaborative on Development Sciences,
cellor for Research, Professor Ian Walmsley, and the Director of
AEA Technology (lead sponsor), international partners (Australthe Oxford Martin School, Professor Ian Goldin, who identified
ian National University, Forum of Federations) and many others.
the significant opportunities and urgent requirement for science,
policy and enterprise communities to work together to tackle
A range of academic outputs and reports will be released shortly
water security as a defining 21st century challenge. The Parliaincluding material to directly feed into the ‘Rio +20’ conference
mentary Under Secretary of State, Stephen O’Brien MP, also adlater in the year and the global task force examining the Millendressed the conference on the UK government’s commitment
nium Development Goals on water and sanitation post-2015.
to water security to promote economic growth and poverty
reduction with a multi-million pound research investment to be
shaped by the conference outputs.
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
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Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
The Oxford University Moluccan Woodcock Project
Current DPhil student, H Eden W Cottee-Jones, and
recent MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management graduate, John Mittermeier (2010-2011) are planning an expedition to the remote island of Obi in the
Northern Moluccas, Indonesia, this summer where they hope to become the first
ornithologists to carry out surveys over
800m on the island.
While there is a fair chance that they may make
some exciting new scientific discoveries, their
main aim is to rediscover and assess the true
conservation status of the Moluccan Woodcock
(Scolopax rochussenii), a terrestrial shorebird endemic to Wallacea and the largest woodcock in
the world. It has only ever been recorded 8 times
in 140 years, and is currently listed as endangered. In March of
last year, however, two Moluccan Woodcock were unexpectedly
observed in the lowlands of Obi Island. This area is under intensive pressure from mining and logging activities, and it is critical
that further field studies follow up on this exciting
“rediscovery” to assess the conservation status of
the Moluccan Woodcock and develop strategies
to ensure its future survival. By trekking up into
the rugged hill forest in the centre of the island
they hope to find Moluccan Woodcock, and catch
some using wide gauge mist nets in order to take
the first ever photograph of the bird.
The Moluccan Woodcock
(Illustration: Birdlife
International, 2001)
The expedition has been endorsed by the Oxford
University Expeditions Council, and is supported
by the Royal Geographical Society.
Achieving zero: delivering future-friendly buildings
A new report from the Environmental Change Institute, ’Achieving zero: delivering future-friendly buildings’,
was launched by Dr Brenda Boardman at the Energy Retrofit 2012 conference in Salford on the 24th of January
2012.
Achieving Zero provides the policy framework to ensure that
all energy use in all buildings in the whole UK results in zero
carbon emissions by 2050. This covers 26 million homes and 2
million business (i.e. non-domestic) properties. The study views
the challenges from a people’s perspective – the roles of the
property owner and the occupant – with the implications for
energy supply one of the results. The emphasis on energy services, rather than energy purchases, shifts the debate on to demand reduction rather than energy supply
and on to lower, not higher, bills. Investing
in greater energy efficiency provides users
with a better standard of living: a futurefriendly property is one that it is warmer,
more comfortable, healthier.
For more information, and to download a
copy of the report, please see: www.eci.
ox.ac.uk/research/energy/achievingzero/
’Protect the Human / Protect the Planet’ – 2012 Oxford
Amnesty Lectures, March–May
Amnesty’s watchword,
‘Protect the Human’, is
a call to respect existing
human life. But in putting
humans at the centre of
our moral universe, do
we imperil the ecological
resources on which we
depend? Does our insistence on human rights ask too much of the planet?
tal ethics? Can we refashion human rights to acknowledge our
interconnectedness with nature? Or should human rights move
aside to make room for less human-centred system of values?
Both climate change and the fight against it have immense human
consequences. Do human rights get in the way of an effective
response? Or might they form the basis of a new environmen-
Full details are available on the website at
www.oxford-amnesty-lectures.org/index.php?p=Lectures
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Can we protect the human and save the planet? Join an Economics Nobel Laureate, an environmental activist, a UN Special
Rapporteur, a political theorist, and others to find out in this
year’s series of Oxford Amnesty Lectures. All lectures start at
5.30pm in the Gulbenkian Lecture Theatre, St Cross Building,
Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3TU.
03
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
Undergraduate Honour School outreach
The School of Geography and the Environment continues to be involved in outreach work, promoting the
undergraduate course and the department to prospective students with a variety of activities.
Dr Lorraine Wild and Dr Theo Papaioannou have been representing Geography at the Oxbridge Conferences which are
organised annually by the University’s Undergraduate Admissions Office. Destinations include London, Cardiff, Leicester, the
North West and Newcastle. The conferences attract 2,000 –
3,000 prospective students per day.
Over 200 sixth formers will be attending the 2012
Departmental Open Day on Friday 4th of May.
Professor Richard Washington and Dr Anna LoraWainwright will be giving taster lectures and Professor Heather Viles will be giving a short presentation
on the undergraduate course and admissions procedures in Oxford. As part of the event, prospective
students will also be having lunch at various colleges.
For more information about our open days please
visit www.geog.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/opendays.html
Since 2010 the School has participated in the UNIQ Summer
Schools, organised and coordinated centrally by the University.
This is a week-long, intensive course for Year 12 students from
UK state schools to help prepare them for University and to
encourage them to apply to Oxford. Twenty students will be
on the Geography course in this year’s summer school, which
runs between the 8th and 13th of July. For more information on
the programme please visit the UNIQ Summer Schools website
The School is keen to build up links with local schools and is
currently exploring ways to develop stronger links
with geography departments in Oxford City schools.
Pupils from St. Michael’s Catholic High School in
Watford and Fitzharrys School in Abingdon visited
the School recently and were given an informal tour
of the facilities, and if any other schools would like
to visit, this can be arranged. We also now offer
work experience to a limited number of local school
students, giving them the opportunity to work with
Dr Mona Edwards in the Oxford Rock Breakdown
Laboratory. All arrangements can be made through
the Undergraduate Coordinator via undergraduate.
[email protected]
PA Photocall
’The Geographical Canon?’ HPGRG/RGS-IBG Workshop,
15 June 2012
On Friday 15 June 2012, the School will be hosting ’The
Geographical Canon?’, an all-day workshop supported
by the History and Philosophy of Geography Research
Group (HPGRG) and the Royal Geographical Society
(with the Institute of British Geographers).
The format for the event, which will be held at St Catherine’s
College, Oxford, involves six contributors, each speaking for
30 minutes, with 15 minutes for discussion of each paper. There
will also be an extensive audience discussion session, providing
plenty of time for audience interaction.
The focus of the workshop is to discuss
whether the discipline of geography has
a canon or not. Did geography have a
canon that has been forgotten? Or did
it never have one? Or was there just a
weak canon? And if there is/was a geographical canon, what/who should be on
it, and why? Why has there been such
relative reluctance to enforce a canon, in comparison to related
fields? What sorts of implications have disagreements about a
geographical canon had for the disciplinary community? Have
historians of geography spent too much time in recent years
investigating the hidden histories and micropractices of geography, only to lose the bigger picture? The organisers believe
that the wider context of higher education across the UK, the
rest of Europe and North America, and its implications for Geography in particular, make this an important moment for further
consideration of these questions in their intellectual and political contexts by as a wide a community as possible, including
geographers and related practitioners.
Attendance and refreshments will be free
although prior registration is required.
HPGRG are also offering a number of
bursaries to support the travel costs of
postgraduates, postdoctoral fellows and
early career researchers attending the
workshop. Applicants should send full
name, position, contact details, estimate
of travel costs and a statement (100 words maximum) of research interests and why you wish to attend the seminar to the
organiser Dr Richard Powell via [email protected]
by Friday 18 May 2012. Also email Dr Powell to reserve a place
as soon as possible, and by 31 May 2012 at the latest.
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
For more information please see the conference website at:
www.geog.ox.ac.uk/news/events/120615.html
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
Representing Oxford University at ’Planet Under Pressure’
conference
The Environmental Change Institute (ECI) took on the
role of coordinating Oxford University’s presence at the
recent ‘Planet Under Pressure’ conference in London’s
Excel Centre, March 26th–29th.
The conference was the world’s largest gathering of experts
to discuss possible environmental and social solutions to move
societies on to a sustainable pathway – across all scales. The
conference aimed to provide scientific leadership towards the
major UN Summit ‘Rio+20’ in June 2012.Over 3000 experts
attended and many contributed to the 150 oral sessions and
800 poster presentations which spanned the social and natural
sciences. Delegates were presented with current thinking on
the drivers of global environmental change – globalisation, urbanisation and consumption – and listened to the latest scientific
knowledge about the Earth system: climate science, ecosystem
services, land use, biodiversity loss, planetary thresholds, and
food, water and energy security.
Oxford University was prominent
at the conference, with a vibrant,
well-located and
busy exhibition
booth. Coordinated by ECI, the
stand presented
the Oxford Network for the Environment which
ECI staff and visitors at the OU’s ‘Planet links
Oxford’s
Under Pressure’ exhibition stand
research, education and outreach
activities in water, biodiversity, energy, food and climate change
across science, engineering, social sciences and the humanities.
With exhibits from Engineering Sciences; interactive material
from Climateprediction.net, Biofresh and Amazonian field experiments; hand-outs and promo postcards; student helpers
from Physics; 20 ECI staff, researchers, academics, associates
and a further 30 from across the University, there was never
a quiet moment. The stand offered a valuable opportunity for
networking, making linkages across the University, and helping
to promote Oxford’s impressive environmental credentials to
wider audiences.
The ECI convened four sessions at the event and delivered
papers in a further 8 sessions. Included in these was a wellattended discussion organised and chaired by Professor Jim Hall,
’Convergent Global Megatrends’. During this event an eminent
panel presented and debated the interlinking global challenges
around ecosystem assessment (Professor Sir Robert Watson),
energy (Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith), water (Professor
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Pavel
Kabat),
food (Professor
Charles Godfray),
climate (Professor Corinne Le
Quéré) and population (Ed Barry), with the UK
Government’s
Chief Scientific
Adviser Professor Sir John Beddington providing ECI’s Professor Jim Hall and others on the
panel, at the ‘Convergent Global Megan overarching
atrends’ discussion
perspective.
Andrew Revkin
summed up the optimism presented by the panel around the
opportunities for solutions in his New York Times Blog, writing,
“Beddington noted that while long-term outcomes for humans
and climate are uncertain, human and environmental trajectories through 2030 or so are already clear, offering clear choices
on actions that could limit regrets and boost prospects later in
the century”.
Our final role at the conference was organisational. Dr John
Ingram (NERC Food Security Leader, based in ECI), led the successful bid for the UK to host the Planet under Under Pressure
conference. John then chaired the Local Organising Committee
(LOC, working closely with the Royal Society, NERC, LWEC
and Elsevier), and had overall responsibility for the conference
logistics and overseeing the core budgets. He also worked closely with the international Scientific Organising Committee, liaised
with plenary speakers and took a lead in raising over £500k for
developing country scientists to participate. Anita Ghosh supported both the LOC and conference organisers more generally
by administering the Session selection process, coordinating the
mentoring scheme for developing world scientists, liaising with
donors and managing the disbursement of the £500k funding.
Anita was supported by Karen Anderton, Olaf Bayer, Satomi
Jardine-Iwakoshi
and Alyona Rydannykh in the
logistical arrangements for the
200+ developing
country colleagues who received funding to
attend the Planet
under Pressure
conference.
The main exhibition hall at the conference
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
TSU Seminar Series: Socio-Spatial Inequalities, Transport
and Mobilities
(Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University), Professor Margaret Grieco (Transport Research Institute, Edinburgh
Napier University) and Dr Ruth Butler (Dept. of Social Sciences,
University of Hull).
Seminars on the theme ’Socio-spatial inequalities, transport and mobilities’ were delivered on Wednesdays
during Hilary Term (January to March) 2012.
Speakers included: Dr Karen Lucas (TSU, Oxford), Dr Katharina Manderscheid (Dept. of Sociology, Universität Luzern), Dr
Gina Porter (Dept. of Anthropology, Durham University), Dr
Susan Kenyon, Professor Tim Cresswell (Dept. of Geography,
Royal Holloway, London), Professor Robert Imrie (Dept. of
Geography, King’s College, London), Professor Gordon Walker
Audio podcasts from the seminar series are now available
through the TSU website or via the University of Oxford iTunesU. For more information please see:
www.tsu.ox.ac.uk/events/ht12_seminars/
Follow the TSU on Twitter
The Transport Studies Unit have launched a new Twitter
account, you can follow the TSU through @TSUOxford or
https://twitter.com/#!/TSUOxford
Examining the fate of African Tropical Forests in the 21st
Century
In January 2012 the Oxford Centre for Tropical Forests
and ECI hosted a conference on Climate Change, Deforestation and the Future of African Rainforests’.
coverage of the conference appeared on the BBC, both online,
and on the World Service in Africa, helping to widen the debate
on this important region.
Steered by Professor Yadvinder Malhi and organised
by Dr Cécile Girardin, the
conference was an opportunity for global experts
to examine climate change and land use change
scenarios for African forest
regions; assess the sensitivities of these forests and
their communities to such
changes; and discuss the
policy implications related
to climate adaptation in
such forests.
There were many delegates from Africa attending
the conference.
News
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
The conference provided
an opportunity synthesise
existing knowledge and facilitate new collaborations
among researchers. Papers from the conference
have been submitted to
a special edition journal
which is due to follow in
2012.
All presentations and conference materials can be
found on the conference
website at www.eci.ox.ac.
uk/africa
Conference attendees at the venue in Oxford in January
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
’Beyond Carbon’ 2012 conference on the role of justice and
equity in REDD+, held in March
The ’Beyond Carbon’ conference saw 120 delegates
from the science community, government, NGOs and
the private sector gather for 2 intense days of presentation and discussion around the limits and opportunities
in deriving co-benefits from REDD+ activities.
’Beyond Carbon’ conference
delegates in March
Since its inception in 2005,
REDD+ has grown in scope
from being a cheap mitigation option and opportunity
to address the 15–20% of
global GHG emissions attributed to deforestation into
a wider set of activities that
reach beyond the carbon
dimension of REDD+. The
conference aimed to take
stock of the developments
to date, address them from
both natural and social
science perspectives and discuss the role of justice and
equity in current debates on
REDD+.
The conference programme included four plenary sessions and
four parallel sessions with 38 oral presentations. The findings
of the conference were immediately presented to an academic
audience at the ’Planet Under Pressure’ conference which took
place in London (see page 5), and will be further presented at
the UNFCCC Bonn climate change meeting in May, and the
Royal Geographical Society Annual International Conference in
Edinburgh, in July.
All presentations and conference materials can be found on the
conference website at www.eci.ox.ac.uk/redd
The conference ran from 23–24 March 2012 and was co-hosted
by the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University
of East Anglia, and the Environmental Change Institute. The
conference steering committee consisted of Dr Heike Schroder
(ECI/UEA), Dr Thomas Sikor (UEA), and Dr Constance McDermott (ECI). The conference was funded by the Asia-Pacific
Network for Global Change Research, and organised by Heike
Schroeder and Maria Mansfield.
2nd Oxford Interdisciplinary Desert Conference held
in the School
Deserts attract a dedicated group of researchers in
fields from Archaeology and Earth Science to Geography and Zoology. In March the 2nd Oxford Interdisciplinary Desert Conference was held in the School.
Academics from 25 universities across 20
countries gathered to talk about progress
and integration in desert research. The
theme was that of broadening discussion
and collaboration among departments and
institutions. Presentations ranged in subject
from carbon exchange in Mexican deserts,
historical preservation in Mali and community-based resource management in Asian drylands; to conducting fieldwork in Libya today
and tracking Arabian Leopards in Yemen.
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Professor Andrew Goudie gave the keynote speech, entitled
’Four Decades of Desert Geomorphology’ which was based on
his long-time work in the School of Geography and the Environment. The conference was preceded by a half-day field-trip
on ’T E Lawrence’s Oxford’, which was presented with help
from the Ashmolean Museum and Bodleian
Library.
There was interest in broadening future
events to include other groups, such as
policymakers and NGOs, that have a major
impact in dryland regions.
For more information, please see:
www.geog.ox.ac.uk/news/events/deserts/
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
’Human Creativity: Ecologies and practices of invention’ Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series, 2011
In 2011, Professor Chris Gosden (Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford), Professor Sarah Whatmore
(School of Geography and Environment, University of
Oxford), and Dr Charlotte Bates (School of Geography
and the Environment, University of Oxford) organised
a Mellon Foundation Sawyer seminar series on ’Human
creativity: ecologies and practices of invention’.
The seminars, which were strongly based in practice and activity, involved international visiting scholars and Oxford academics
from philosophy to music participating in artist-led interventions
and working collectively through the mediations of objects selected from the University’s museum collections. The first seminar ’Creative ecologies: conditioning inventiveness’ took place
in May at the Pitt Rivers Museum, with the second seminar,
’Practising creativity: thinking/making-in-the-act’, following in
December at the Ashmolean Museum.
Invited participants: Dr Sebastian Abrahamsson (Institute for
Social Science Research, University of Amsterdam), Professor
Ash Amin (Department of Geography, University of Cambridge), Professor Andrew Barry (School of Geography and the
Environment, University of Oxford), Professor Jane Bennett
(Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University),
Charles Blanc and Tristan Surtees (Sans Façon, Calgary), Professor Georgina Born (Faculty of Music, University of Oxford),
Professor Eric Clarke (Faculty of Music, University of Oxford),
Participants working with objects selected from the
museum’s collection
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Professor William Connolly (Department of Political Science,
Johns Hopkins University), Dr JD Dewsbury (School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol), Dr James Dixon (Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol), Dr Mark Doffman (Faculty of Music, University of Oxford),
Dr Matthew Fuller (Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths),
Joe Gerlach (School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford), Professor Graham Harman (Department
of Philosophy, American University in Cairo), Thomas Jellis
(School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford), Martin Jennings (Sculptor, Oxford), Dr Lambros Malafouris (Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford), Professor
Lynn Meskell (Department of Anthropology, Stanford University), Wendy Morrison (Institute of Archaeology, University of
Oxford), Professor Lucy Suchman (Department of Sociology,
Lancaster University), Professor George Lewis (Department of
Music, Columbia University), Dr Derek McCormack (School
of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford), Dr
Anders Munk (Department of Management Engineering, Danish
Technical University), Angela Palmer (Artist, Oxford), Sefryn
Penrose (Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford), Professor Andrew Pickering (Department of Sociology and Philosophy, University of Exeter).
For more information, please see: www.geog.ox.ac.uk/news/
articles/120306.html
Discussion group at the Mellon Sawyer Seminar Series
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
Recent awards
Professor Sarah Whatmore has been appointed a member of
the new Social Science Expert Panel for Defra (Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) and DECC (Department
of Energy and Climate Change). The panel’s purpose is to bring
high quality, multi-disciplinary social science advice to both departments.
Dr Abi Stone has accepted the Supernumerary Teaching Fellowship post at St John’s College, Oxford, and will begin in
October.
Dr Christian Brand has been elected to Senior Research Fellow in Transport Studies at Linacre College, Oxford. Christian
hopes to strengthen the already existing links between the College, ECI and TSU by exploring how the College can fulfil its aim
to reduce energy use and climate impacts from travel of staff
and students.
Jan Rosenow, current DPhil student, won the award for the
best presentation at the next! conference for young researchers
of the World Sustainable Energy Days in Wels, Austria. World
Sustainable Energy Days are one of the largest annual conferences in this field in Europe, offered a unique combination
of events on sustainable energy production and use, covering
energy efficiency and renewable energy sources for buildings
and industry.
Recent major research grants
Assessing health, livelihoods, ecosystem services and
poverty alleviation in populous deltas
Professor Paul Whitehead and Dr Fai Fung in collaboration
with the University of Southampton. Financial support from the
NERC; 2012-2016.
Alchemists of the revolution? The politics of educated
unemployed youth
Professor Craig Jeffrey in collaboration with several partners.
Financial support from the ESRC; 2012-2015.
The end of investment bank capitalism? Mapping the
global securities industry
Dr Dariusz Wójcik. Financial support from the Leverhulme
Trust; 2012-2015.
Future-oriented integrated management of European
forest landscapes
Dr Connie McDermott in collaboration with several partners.
Financial support from the European Commission; 2011-2015.
Ivy on Walls Phase 2
Professor Heather Viles. Financial support from English Heritage; 2012-2015.
Recently completed DPhil students
Nihan Akyelken – Capital and development in social and cultural
contexts: an empirical investigation on transport infrastructure development and female labour force in Turkey
Supervisors: Professor David Banister and Dr Dariusz Wójcik
Stephen Lew – Meaningful measurement and applications of
environmental, social, and governance information
Supervisors: Dr Dariusz Wójcik and Dr A. Nicholls (Saïd Business School, Oxford)
Victoria Arnold – The experience of sacred place in post-Soviet
Russia: a geography of Orthodoxy and Islam in Perm’ Krai
Supervisor: Professor Judith Pallot and Professor C. Kelly (Modern Languages, Oxford)
Arnoldo Matus Kramer – Climate change adaptation and tourism in the Mexican Caribbean
Supervisor: Professor Diana Liverman and Dr E Tompkins
Michelle Buckley – Building the global Gulf City: tracing transnational geographies of capital and labour in Dubai, UAE
Supervisor: Professor Linda McDowell
Amrita Hari – Indian hi-tech immigrants in Canada: emerging
gendered divisions of labour
Supervisor: Professor Linda McDowell
Dominique Henri – Managing nature, producing cultures: Inuit
participation, science and policy in wildlife governance in the Nunavut
Territory, Canada
Supervisors: Dr Andrew Barry and Dr Tom Thornton
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Maria Price – Trans-European networks: transport cohesion of the
high speed rail network in south-west Europe
Supervisor: Professor David Banister
Martino Tran – Modelling innovation diffusion in complex energytransport systems
Supervisor: Professor David Banister
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
eSoGE News
Recent publications
Recent books ...
Clark, G.L., Strauss, K. and Knox-Hayes, J. (2012) Saving
for Retirement. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 224
pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-960085-4.
Mol, L. and Sternberg, T. (2012) Changing Deserts: Integrating people and their environment. The
White Horse Press. 346pp. ISBN 978-1-874267-69-0.
Middleton, N. (2012) Rivers: A very short introduction.
Oxford University Press. 152 pp. ISBN: 978-019-958867-1.
Thornton, T. (ed.) (2012) Haa Léelk’w Hás Aaní Saax’u /
Our Grandparents’ Names on the Land. Sealaska Heritage
Institute, University of Washington Press. 256 pp. ISBN:
9780295988580.
Other recent publications ...
Arizzi, A., Viles, H. and Cultrone, G. (2012) Experimental testing
of the durability of lime-based mortars used for rendering historic buildings. Construction and Building Materials, 28(1): 807-818.
Hope, R.A., Foster,T., Money, A. and Rouse, M. (2012) Harnessing
mobile communications innovations for water security. Global
Policy.
Barua, M., Gurdak, D.J., Ahmed, R.A. and Tamuly, J. (2012) Selecting flagships for invertebrate conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation.
Howarth, N. and Foxall, A. (2012) More than hot air: the economics and politics of climate change in Russia. Chapter 8 in,
Bailey, I. and H. Compston (eds.) Feeling the Heat: The politics of
climate policy in rapidly industrializing countries. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 149-174. ISBN: 9780230280403.
Clark, G.L. (2012) From corporatism to public utilities: workplace pensions in the 21st Century.
Geographical Research, 50(1): 31-46.
Clark, G.L. and Monk, A.H.B. (2012) Sovereign Wealth Funds:
Form and functions in the 21st Century.
CAPCO Journal, 33: 17-27.
Davenport, D. (2012) BRICS in the global climate regime: rapidly
industrializing countries and international climate negotiations.
Chapter 3 in, Bailey, I. and H. Compston (eds.) Feeling the Heat:
The politics of climate policy in rapidly industrializing countries.
Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 38-56. ISBN: 9780230280403.
Hale, J.D., Fairbrass, A.J., Matthews,T.J. and Sadler, J.P. (2012) Habitat composition and connectivity predicts bat presence and activity at foraging sites in a large UK conurbation. PloS ONE, 7:
e33300.
Hickman, R., Banister, D. and Ashiru, O. (2012) Modelling the potential transport CO2 mitigation impacts of available policy interventions. Chapter 10 in, Geerlings, H., Shiftan, Y. and D. Stead
(eds.) Transition Towards Sustainable Mobility:The role of instruments, individuals and institutions. Ashgate. pp. 187-214. ISBN:
9781409424697.
Hickman, R., Saxena, S., Banister, D. and Ashiru, O. (2012) Examining transport futures with scenario analysis and MCA. Transportation Research A, 46(3): 560-575.
www.geog.ox.ac.uk
Kajenthira, A., Holmes, J. and McDonnell, R. (2012) The role of
qualitative risk assessment in environmental management: a Kazakhstani case study. Science of The Total Environment, 420: 2432.
Lopez, A. (2012) Regional implications. Chapter 3 in, Booth, C.A.,
Hammond, F.N., Lamond, J.E., and D.G. Proverbs (eds.) Solutions
to Climate Change Challenges in the Built Environment. WileyBlackwell. pp. 23-32. ISBN: 9781405195072.
Lucas, K. (2012) Transport and social exclusion: where are we
now? Transport Policy, 20: 105-113.
Lucas, K. (2012) Transport and social exclusion: where are we
now? Chapter 10 in, Grieco, M. and J. Urry (eds.) Mobilities: new
perspectives on transport and society. Ashgate. pp. 207-222.
ISBN:9781409411505.
Malhi,Y. (2012) The productivity, metabolism and carbon cycle of
tropical forest vegetation. Journal of Ecology, 100(1): 65-75.
Marthews, T.R., Malhi, Y. and Iwata, H. (2012) Calculating downward longwave radiation under clear and cloudy conditions over
a tropical lowland forest site: an evaluation of model schemes for
hourly data. Theoretical and Applied Meteorology, 107(3-4): 461477.
Issue 5: Trinity Term 2012
Moran, D., Piacentini, L. and Pallot, J. (2012) Disciplined mobility
and carceral geography: prisoner transport in Russia. Transactions
of the Institute of British Geographers.
Morel,A.C., Fisher, J.B. and Malhi,Y. (2012) Evaluating the potential
to monitor aboveground biomass in forest and oil palm in Sabah,
Malaysia, for 2000-2008 with Landsat ETM+ and ALOS- PALSAR.
International Journal of Remote Sensing, 33(11): 3614-3639.
Stone, A.E.C. and Thomas, D.S.G. (2012) Casting new light on
late Quaternary environmental and palaeohydrological change in
the Namib Desert: a review of the application of optically stimulated luminescence in the region. Journal of Arid Environments.
Thomas, D.S.G. and Burrough, S. (2012) Interpreting geoproxies
of late Quaternary climate change in African drylands: implications for understanding environmental change and early human
behaviour. Quaternary International, 253: 5-17.
eSoGE News
Thomas, D.S.G., Burrough, S. and Parker, A.G. (2012) Extreme
events as drivers of early human behaviour in Africa? The case
for variability, not catastrophic drought. Journal of Quaternary Science, 27(1): 7-12.
Tran, M. (2012) Agent-behaviour and network influence on energy innovation diffusion.
Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation,
17(2): 3682-2695.
Viles, H.A. and Goudie, A.S. (2012) Weathering in the central Namib Desert, Namibia: controls, processes and implications. Journal of Arid Environments.
Vira, B., Adams, W., Agarwal, C., Badiger, S., Hope, R.A., Krishnaswamy, J. and Kumar, C. (2012) Negotiating trade-offs: making
informed choices for ecosystem services. Economic and Political
Weekly, XLVII(9): 67-75.
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