Overview
I am a PhD researcher with an undergraduate degree in Social Anthropology from University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Research Methods from Cardiff University. I am interested in nature-society relations and the societal and cultural responses to changes in our 'natural' spaces. In particular, my PhD research focuses on the responses to tree diseases and the UK's changing treescapes.
Research
Tree Diseases:
My ESRC-funded PhD focuses tree diseases and the long term responses to disease outbreaks. My research centres on:
· Efforts to breed, return and preserve elm trees in UK
· The ecological and cultural response to ash dieback in Devon
I ask what specifically these conservation efforts are trying to conserve/preserve and why the loss of trees matters to those involved in their conservation. Through interviews, participant-observation and documentary analysis I am investigating how these conservation efforts are shaped by perceptions of what species belong where, how treescapes 'should' look and what makes an appropriate proxy for ‘lost’ species. Additionally, I am interested in artistic responses to speices loss, and the ways they document changing landscapes and memorialise lost trees.
Urban Orchards:
My Masters research focused on the community groups across London are reversing the loss of the city's historic orchards by planting new collections of fruit trees. It sought to understand why these sites are important, the processes by which they are made valuable, and how this could change in the future. This project questioned what plant autonomy is in these sites, and how it acts in close relation to human intention. Additionally, it investigated how fruit trees are valued as heritage objects and native species - and how these values are reworked in the face of climate change.
Biography
Academic positions
Editor - Agoriad: A journal of spatial theory
Speaking engagements
Hestercombe House TEST BED Panel Disucssion 2024 (Invited)
RGS Postgraduate Forum Mid-Term Conference 2024. Replacing 'lost' trees: aesthetics, ecology and the desired states of treescape restoration.
CCRI Winter School 2024. Responding to loss: what is 'the right tree' and 'the right place' when replanting after disease.
Association of Social Anthropologists Annual Conference 2023. Tree disease and the culutral wellbeing of impacted communities: value and unvalued trees in 'authentic' treescapes.
Committees and reviewing
PGR conference fund committee
Research themes
Specialisms
- More-than-human geography
- Human geography
- Cultural geography