Dr Thomas Smith

(he/him)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Current Projects:

Foraging Machines (EPSRC Funded) - Understanding the role of digital technologies in contemporary foraging practices, and co-designing futures.

The Public Map (AHRC Funded) - Community-made, digital mapping platform. I lead Ethics and Safeguarding, and co-lead Social Mapping, and educational outputs.

Sustainability through Living Labs (Leverhulme Trust Funded) - Working with children and schools across Cardiff and South Wales to drive sustainable solutions to school energy use. 

Co-creating neighbourhoods, parks and urban spaces with children and young people (Cardiff Council and ESRC-IAA Funded) - which has included a number of strands of neighbourhood and park co-design, including: 

• A Grangetown to Grow Up In - children and young people in Grangetown co-produced neighbourhood plans.
• Llanishen to Grow Up In - children and young people in Llanishen co-produced neighbourhood plans.
• HerParks Cardiff - teenage girls and young women assessed and then co-designed public parks in Cardiff.

Building child- and youth-friendly neighbourhoods in Dhaka, Bangladesh (HEFCW/MEDR ODA Funded) - children and young people in disadvantaged and marginalised neighbourhoods co-designed neighbourhood plans and led local safe-street interventions.

Grow Your Own School (Civic Mission, IAA and Futurte Generations Funded) - promoting growing in primary schools and developing Wales- and UK-wide tools for teachers and educators.

Considering Just Urban Transitions in African Cities: International Writing Workshop (British Academy Funded) - Supporting early-career African Scholars in networking, writing, and developing concepts around just urban transitions.

Inclusive landscapes: Understanding diversities and inequalities of landscape experiences (CU Research Leave Funded) Exploring the cultures of nature and inclusion/exclusion in outdoor learning organisations, alongside the experiences of marginalised young people and children in outdoor learning settings.

Logging skill: Understanding how logbooks communicate experience and competence - This project uses recording and logging of experience in Mountain and Outdoor Leadership qualifications, and the practices of outdoor leadership training, to examine the process of recording and communicating experiences, skills and competences.

Beasts of the UK: Implications for conservation and rewilding -  Big cats and other ‘out of place’ animals, including unexpectedly (re)introduced creatures, and spectral animal presences, continue to be sited across the UK. This project explores how people make sense of these presences, and how these influence understandings of the UK countryside and its wildlife. These encounters have wider significance for current debates on conservation, rewilding and species (re)introduction in the UK. 

Past Projects:

Employment and livelihood Impacts of low-Income housing construction in developing cities (Real Equity for All, and GCRF Funded) - This project explored the currently under-reported livelihood impacts on low-income urban dwellers of moving into new or improved dwellings, and the employment impacts of low-income home building on the complex formal and informal supply chain. This research compares housing schemes in Kenya and the Philippines, working in partnership with Real Equity for All.

Changing spatialities of learning in Bangladesh (GCRF, HEFCW, and ESRC IAA Funded) This work explored the disruption to learning that teachers and learners experienced during the pandemic in urban contexts of Bangladesh. It examined how physical (often outdoor) and digital learning spaces intersect, and the proliferation and blurring of educational spaces during crisis. Ongoing impact work has included work with teachers and pupils to re-imagine outdoor learning spaces and lesson planning for digital-outdoor teaching. 

Mining and sustainability in the Global South (RGS-IBG Environment and Sustainability, and HEFCW GCRF Funded) This research as focused on artisanal gold mining in Brazil and more recently on Tanzanite mining in northern Tanzania. This later project focuses on the practices and power relations of mining precious gemstones, considering relations with land, local enskillment, and the achievement of sustainable futures. 

Leicester Young Ecology Adventurers evaluation (Heritage Lottery Funded) Working with the Canal and Rivers Trust (CRT), and the Somali Community Parents Association (SOCOPA), we evaluated a two-year project to facilitate young people from the Somali community in Leicester to access waterways in and near the city. The young people learnt to canoe, and explored waterway heritage and nature as part of the programme. Our mid-project and final evaluations fed into project design and future work with young people. We examined themes of comfort and discomfort in often unfamiliar bluespaces, including issues around race, and physical and emotional (dis)comforts in these landscapes.

Navigation, technology and interactions outdoors - This research explored how social interaction is done in outdoor, natural or ‘wild’ settings, with a particular emphasis on navigation of outdoor, wild environments, use of mobile digital technologies, and interactions with heritage in outdoor settings. Further research has examined how navigation is done in orienteering courses in both mountainous and other countryside landscapes in international settings. 

Digital app-based interactions with heritage landscapes in outdoor settings (ESRC IAA Funded) Increasingly mobile and digital technologies are used to enable visitors to explore heritage sites, but studies to date have primarily focused on museum settings with limited research on the actual explorations of outdoor heritage landscapes using digital devices as guides. This project, working with the Brecon Beacons National Park Interpretation team, evaluated an interactive guide app that took visitors around remote hill forts in the Park. We examined the ongoing interactions that occurred throughout visits using video recordings of the visits themselves. 

Indigeneity, environment and sustainability - This research brought together two strands of my ongoing research, which concerns the role of spiritual ontologies in local environmental relations in Tanzania, and how ‘new’ knowledges (such as Carbon sequestration) are understood by communities in the global South as they become part of local development interventions in environmental management.

Environmental education, conservation and youth Identity in Tanzania. Based on my PhD research, this work examined how children and young people participate in a range of environmental education initiatives, and the subsequent impacts on their sustainable actions in both urban and rural contexts. It further examined how environmental knowledges, including local indigenous knowledges and those produced through educational initiatives, intersect and impact on local conservation.

Research Grants:

• Building Child- and Youth-Friendly Neighbourhoods in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2025-2026) Khan, M. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I) MEDR ODA Award (£29,932).
• Foraging Machines: Understanding and Designing for Digital Eco-Pedagogies (2025-2026) Smith, T.A. (PI), Laurier, E. (Co-I), Reeves, S. (Co-I) and Dunkley, R. (Co-I) EPSRC: Ecological Citizens (£14,948).
• The Public Map Platform (2023-2028) Samuel, F. (PI), et al. (inc. Smith, T.A. Co-I), AHRC Green Transition Ecosystems (£9.85M). 
• Considering Just Urban Transitions in African Cities (2025) Rubin, M. (PI), Healy, A. (Co-I), Moore, C. (Co-I), Anciano, F. (Co-I), Qambela, G. (Co-I), Smith, T.A. (Co-I), and Lemanski, C. (Co-I), The British Academy (£29,322)
• Inclusive Landscapes: Understanding diversities and inequalities of landscape experiences (2025) Smith. T.A. (PI) Cardiff University Research Leave (£5,000).
• Grow Your Own School: From Seeds to Fruit (2025), Pitt, H, (PI), Muddiman, E. (Co-I), Smith, T.A. (Co-I) and Khan, M. (Co-I), H-IAA Follow on Fund, AHRC, (£14,300)
• Grow Your Own School / Tufu Eich Ysgol (2025), Pitt, H, (PI), Muddiman, E. (Co-I), Smith, T.A. (Co-I) and Khan, M. (Co-I), Civic Mission Progression Fund, (£14,900)
• Building Futures Together: Digitalising Child-Led Citizen Science for Sustainable Schools (2025), Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI) and Smith, T. (Co-I), Civic Mission Progression Fund (£15,000)
• Co-designing and testing approaches to children's sustainability learning in primary schools (2025), Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI) and Smith, T. (Co-I), ESRC CRoSS (£9,999)
• Comfortable and energy efficient classrooms: Sustainability through living labs (2024-2026) Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI) and Smith, T. (Co-I), Leverhulme Trust (£234,440).
• Towards a child- and youth-friendly Dhaka: Piloting a co-creation children and young people's plan  toolkit in marginalised communities in Bangladesh (2024-2025) Khan, M. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), HEFCW ODA Award (£39,807).
• Cardiff University and Cardiff Council Partnership for Child Friendly Cardiff Programme 2023/24 (2023-2024) Smith, T.A. (PI), Khan, M.(Co-I), Harris, N. (Co-I) and Shahab, S. (Co-I), Cardiff Council (£24,999).
• Children as sustainable citizens: educational package to explore and learn about sustainability in primary schools (2024), Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), Civic Mission and Public Engagement Progression Fund (£10,000).
• Making neighbourhood parks inclusive for teenage girls and young women (2023-2024) Shahab, S. (PI), Khan, M.(Co-I), Smith, T.A.(Co-I) and Harris, N.(Co-I), ESRC IAA (£29,966).
• Pathways to Just and Sustainable Development Practices through Tanzanite Mining and Production (2022-2023), Herman, A. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), RGS-IBG Environment and Sustainability Research Grant (£15,000).
• Developing an online platform to support pupils and teachers to actively engage, explore and learn about sustainable and healthy school buildings (2023), Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI), Smith, T.A. (Co-I) and Nervo, V.D. (Co-I), CRoSS (Commercialising Research out of Social Sciences) Fund (£5,500). 
• A Blended Learning Framework for Bangladesh: Policy and practice placement on spatialities of the future of education (2022-2023) Khan, M. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), ESRC IAA (£14,966).
• Schools as Living Labs: Fostering behaviours for healthy indoor air quality (2022-2023) Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), ESRC IAA (£19,410).
• Co-Creating a child- and youth-friendly Covid recovery plan for marginalised communities in Cardiff(2021-2022), Khan, M. (PI), Smith, T.A. (Co-I), Harris, N. (Co-I) and McVicar (Co-I), Cardiff University Civic Mission Fund and Cardiff Council (£14,500).
• Indoor air quality toolkit for primary schools for covid-19 mitigation (2021-2022) Zapata-Lancaster, G. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), EPSRC IAA (£19,866).
• Crisis-led approaches to teaching and learning in Bangladesh: New frameworks for outdoor, blended learning in low-income country contexts (2020-2021), Khan, MN. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), HEFCW GCRF (£39,897).
• Canal and Rivers Trust – Work Package 5: Understanding engagement with waterways (2020-2021), Pitt, H. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), Canal and Rivers Trust (£36,000).
• Sustainable Futures for Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (2020-2021) Lambert-Smith, J. (PI), Herman, A. (Co-I), Smith, T.A. (Co-I), and Gomez, M. (Co-I) HERCW GCRF (£39,929).
• Improved low-income housing programme design in the global South: Impacts on employment and livelihoods (2018-2019), Smith, T.A. (PI) and Brown, A. (Co-I) HEFCW GCRF, (£33,511)
• Leicester Young Ecology Adventurers Evaluation (2017-2019) Pitt, H. (PI) and Smith, T.A. (Co-I), Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) via Somali Community Parents Association (SOCOPA) (£8,500, total project value: £49,800).
• Developing a new employment impact measurement for direct and indirect livelihood opportunities created from the Real Equality for All (Reall) Community-Led Infrastructure Funding Facility (CLIFF) Programme of affordable house building in Nairobi, Kenya (2016-2017) Smith, T.A. (PI) and Brown. A. (Co-I) Real Equity for All (Reall) (£4,735).
• Building evaluative capacity amongst outdoor learning practitioners: Enhancing understanding of user experience through sharing place-based research methods (2016-2017) Dunkley, R.A. (PI) and Smith. T.A. (Co-I), ESRC IAA (£3,000).
• Volunteers and Young People in the Global South (2013), Smith, T.A. (PI) ESRC Festival of Social Sciences (£1,334).
• 2013-2014: Sheffield University Foreign Research and Travel Grant, Dr T.A. Smith (£1,500).
• 2009-2010: Journal of Urban Studies Overseas Research Grant, Dr T.A. Smith (£1500).
• 2008-2009: Royal Scottish Geographical Society Small Research Grant, Dr T.A. Smith (£500).
• 2007-2011: Journal of Urban Studies Research Scholarship for MRes and PhD, Dr T.A. Smith (£50,000).

Teaching

I currently teach on the undergraduate BSc Human Geography course. I supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate dissertaion students and act as a personal tutor to students across these levels.

Administrative Roles:

• Chair: School Ethics Committee
• Member For AHSS: Open Research and Integrity and Ethics Committee (ORIEC)

Current Undergraduate Modules:

• The Geographical Imagination - Module Leader (1st year)

Past Undergraduate and Postgraduate Modules: 

• The Global Countryside - Lecturer (1st year)
• Development and the Global South  - Module Leader (2nd year)
• Researching Contemporary Issues In Tanzania - Module Leader (3rd year)
• Critical Geographies of Developing Spaces (3rd year)
• Citizen Geographies (2nd year)
• Researching Spatial Planning and International Development (PGT)

PhD Supervision:

• Nirushan Sudarsan (Cardiff University: Principle Supervisor) 2024-present, Title: Inclusive Spaces for Future Generations: Co-producing Urban Spaces and Plans with Children and Young People from Ethnic Minority Communities in Cardiff, Second Supervisors: Matluba Khan and Neil Harris.
• Sam Croot (Cartiff University: Principle Supervisor) 2024-present, Title: Co-designing a Digital Platform for Sustainable Energy Use in Schools, Second Supervisors: Gabriela Zapata-Lancaster and Nervo Verdezoto Dias.  
• Rosie Havers (Cardiff University: Principle Supervisor) 2021-present, Title: The Geographies of the Digital-Outdoors: Bringing Together Digital and Outdoor Learning Spaces in Welsh Primary Schools, Second Supervisors: Dr Matluba Kahn and Karen Clarke (NRW).
• Nia Rees (Cardiff University: Co-Supervisor) 2021-present, Title: Prevention of youth homelessness: an exploration of mediation in networks of care and place attachment. Principle Supervisor: Peter Mackie; Co-Supervisor, Richard Gale.
• Regan Doyle (Cardiff University) 2015-2018 (completed), Title: Slum economies: Spatial drivers of economic activity hubs in informal settlements - A case of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Principle supervisor – Professor Alison Brown.
• Lucy Baker (Cardiff University) 2015-2018 (completed), Title: Scripting mobilities in sub-Saharan Africa: A case study of second-hand bicycle networks, Principle Supervisor – Dr Justin Spinney.

Biography

Career

• Reader in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, 2023-present
• Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, 2020-2023
• Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, 2015-2020
• Research Associate, Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth, Sheffield University, 2014.
• Teaching Associate, Department of Geography, Sheffield University, 2012-2014.
• Lecturer, School of Social Justice and Inclusion, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 2012.

Education and Qualifications

• BA Geography, University of Southampton, 2004.
• PCGE Secondary Education, Geography, University of Southampton, 2005.
• MRes Human Geography, University of Glasgow, 2008.
• PhD Geography, University of Glasgow, 2012.

Professional memberships

Fellow: The Royal Geographical Society, Affiliated with the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group, and the Developing Areas Research Group. 

Speaking engagements

1. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., and Lee, M. (2026) Beyond the Map: Integrating Arts-Based and Digital Mapping in Place-Based Youth Engagement in Wales, UK-Ireland Planning Research Conference 2026, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
2. Smith, T.A., Laurier, E., Dunkley, R., Reeves, S. (2026) Foraging and Technologies: A Co-creation Workshop, Cardiff, Wales, UK.
3. Pitt, H., Smith, T.A, and Horton, I. (2025) Bringing Growers and Growing into Welsh Schools, Wales Food and Farming Conference, Bridgend, Wales, UK.
4. Khan, M. and Smith, T.A. (2025) Engaging children with their learning environments: How micro- and macro-mapping can aid in children's experience of places, RGS-IBG, Birmingham, UK.
5. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., Bhuyan, R., Khan, N., Sharma, R. and Roman, D.O. (2025) Co-creating 'safe' communities with children and young people: A study from Bangladesh, RGS-IBG, Birmingham, UK. 
6. Khan, M. and Smith, T.A. (2025) Invited talk: Co-desinging the child- and youth-friendly city, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangaldesh.
7. Khan, M., Bhuyan, M.D., Smith, T.A. et al. (2025) A Rayers Bazar to Grow Up In, Exhibition and Launch Event, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
8. Khan, M. and Smith, T.A. (2024) Four steps to co-creating a child-friendly community planb, Play Wales Conference, Cardiff, UK. 
9. Smith, T.A. and Khan, M. (2024) Wandering on and off the map: Co-creating future neighbourhoods with children and young people throughout Cardiff, Wales, RGS-IBG, London. 
10. Smith, T.A. and Khan, M. (2024) Session Organisers: Co-creating futures with children and young people: Mapping, planning and designing, RGS-IBG, London. 
11. Smith, T.A., Khan, M., Harris, N., Shahab, S., Richmond, J. (2024) Co-production of urban space with Children and Young People, Co-Production at and with Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. 
12. Smith, T.A. (2024) Conference Organiser: Co-production at and with Cardiff University, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK. 
13. Khan, M. and Smith, T.A. (2023) The impact of lockdown in children's lived experiences in Bangladesh, RGS-IBG, London. 
14. Smith, T.A. (2023) Apps Outdoors: Technology, interpretation, navigation and interaction when roaming in the wild, Game on For Nature Conference 2023, Ecosystems Knowledge Network
15. Smith, T.A. and Pitt, H. (2023) Event Organisers: Unfamiliar Landscapes: Book Launch and Discussing Diversity in the Outdoors, Cardiff. 
16. Smith, T.A., and Khan, M. (2023) Conference Organisers: Geographies of Blended Learning: Digital, Outdoor and Blended approaches to learning - experiences in Wales, the UK and Internationally, Cardiff. 
17. Khan, M., Smith, T.A. (2023) Experiences of developing blended learning frameworks at the Bangladesh state level, Geographies of Blended Learning Conference, Cardiff.
18. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., Harris, N. and Gattis, M. (2023) Children's play during the pandemic in urban Bangladesh, International Play Association Conference, Glasgow. 
19. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., Harris, N. and McVicar (2022) Co-designing a greener, fairer, and stronger community for children’s wellbeing, Healthy City Design International Conference, London.
20. Khan, M. and Smith, T.A. (2022), Session Convenors: Disrupted spaces of education in the global South, RGS-IBG,Newcastle.
21. Khan, M., and Smith, T.A. (2022) Children’s negotiation of their everyday spaces during the pandemic in urban Bangladesh, RGS-IBG, Newcastle.
22. Khan, M. and Smith, T.A. (2022) Intersectionality of physical and digital spaces in primary education in Bangladesh during the pandemic: Towards a blended learning framework, RGS-IBG, Newcastle.
23. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., and Harris, N. (2022) Past, present and future of children’s play in Grangetown, RGS-IBG, Newcastle.
24. Smith, T.A. (2021) Leicester Young Ecology Adventurers: Canoeing, Ecology and Heritage in an Unfamiliar Setting, Explorathon 2021, Glasgow University.
25. Smith, T.A. (2021) Informality and construction supply chains: Tracing formal-informal networks of materials, Informal Research Observatory, Cardiff.
26. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., Islam, M.K., Anand, K. and Hossain, T. (2021) Crisis-led approaches to teaching and learning in Bangladesh: Webinar (Workshop 2), Cardiff University
27. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., Islam, M.K., Anand, K. and Hossain, T. (2021) Towards a blended learning framework for post-pandemic Bangladesh, Education in Crisis Conference, University of Oxford.
28. Khan, M., Smith, T.A., Islam, M.K., Anand, K. and Hossain, T. (2021) Crisis-led approaches to teaching and learning in Bangladesh: Workshop 1, Cardiff University
29. Smith, T.A. (2020) Parent mediation of children’s use of mobile technologies in moorland landscapes, MOBSIN 2020, Edinburgh.
30. O’Mahony, K. and Smith, T.A. (2020) Felid tales and more than human scales: Making sense of big can presences in wild(er) UK futures, Social and Cultural Geography Research Group, Cardiff University.
31. Smith, T. A. (2019) Maps n' Apps: What does following people trying to use an App around the countryside tell us about how people get to grips with moorland, PLACE Seminar Series, Cardiff.
32. Smith, T. A. and Pitt, H. (2018) Session Convenors: Introducing Young People to 'Unfamiliar Landscapes', RGS-IBG, Cardiff.
33. Smith, T. A. and Pitt, H. (2018) 'Beefed by a massive swan': Noticing and navigating in negotiating unfamiliar landscapes of youth, RGS-IBG, Cardiff.
34. Smith, T. A. (2018) Technologies of access and activity in young people's perceptions of, and meaningful engagements with, landscape, RGS-IBG, Cardiff.
35. Smith, T. A. (2018) Young people's engagement with nature, technologies and heritage in National Parks: Consequences for wellbeing and access, WISERD Annual Conference. 
36. Smith, T. A. and Pehkonen, S. (2018) How people talk about natural features when planning/setting orienteering courses for others' navigational purposes, MOBSIN 8, Cardiff.
37. Smith, T. A., Jones, S. and Dunkely, R. A. (2018) Using mobile evaluation methods to monitor visitor use of a heritage App 'in the wild': Walking with Romans in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Outdoor Recreation Network Conference: 'New Approaches to Monitoring Participation in Outdoor Research’, Cardiff.
38. Dunkley, R. A. and Smith, T. A. (2018) Representations of identities within mobile applications that seek to interpret dissonant heritage, European Social Science History Conference, Queens University, Belfast.
39. Smith, T. A., Dunkley, R., Reeves, S. and Laurier, E. (2017) Skilled navigation and the techniques of getting lost, HANS2 Workshop, Kuusamo, Finland.
40. Smith, T. A. (2017) The Chief and the Snake: Spiritual-Ecological-Political Assemblages of Sacred Site Protection, RGS-IBG, London.
41. Dunkley, R. A. and Smith, T. A. (2017) Scales of childhood roaming within the ‘educational landscape’ of the National Park, RGS-IBG, London.
42. Jones, S., Smith, T. A. and Dunkley, R. A. (2017) Measuring our interaction with digital heritage apps 'in the wild', Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Wales, Digital Past Conference, Newport 
43. Smith, T. A. (2017) Invited Seminar Presentation: Apps Outdoors: Technology, interpretation, navigation and interaction when roaming in the wild, Digital Technology for Nature Interpretation, Centre for Nature Interpretation, Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
44. Smith, T. A., Dunkely, R. A. and Welch, S. (2016) Invited Workshop Presentation: Cardiff University & Brecon Beacons National Park Authority – Collaborative Research and Evaluation, UK National Park Authorities Outreach and Educators Joint Workshop, Pembrokeshire.
45. Smith, T. A., Dunkley, R. A., Reeves, S. and Laurier, E. (2016) Invited Workshop Presentation: Walking with Romans’: Technology, nature, navigation and interaction in outdoor settings, HANS Workshop, Oulu, Finland
46. Smith, T. A., Dunkley, R. A. and Jones, S. (2016) Measuring our interactions with mobile device applications ‘in the wild’: Can they change visitor behaviour? Association of Heritage Interpretation Annual Conference, Belfast.
47. Dunkley, R. A. and Smith, T. A. (2016) Event Organiser - Evaluating the Outdoor Learning Experience Workshop, ESRC Funded Impact Workshop, Bute Park Education Centre, Cardiff (50 people).
48. Smith, T. A. and Dunkley, R. A. (2016) New frontiers or frustrating distractions? Using innovative technological methods to understand the role of Apps and mobile technologies in children and families interactions within the outdoors, RGS-IBG, London.
49. Smith, T. A., Dunkley, R. A., and Jones, S. (2016) Invited Workshop Presentation: Interactions with mobile device applications ‘in the wild’: Can they change behaviour? Association of Heritage Interpretation and Brecon Beacons National Park Authority Workshop: Interpretation in Remote Landscapes, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, Brecon and Trecastle.
50. Smith, T. A. (2016) Invited Discussion Panel: Project Wild Thing, Speaking on: Young People and Environmental Education, Cardiff SciSCREEN, Cardiff University.
51. Smith, T. A. and Dunkley, R. A. (2016) Roaming and nature, creativity and technology: experimenting with contrasting qualitative methodologies and impact in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Innovative Research Methods with Children and Young People Conference, School of Social Sciences, University of Cardiff.
52. Smith, T. A. and Dunkley, R. A. (2016) Roaming and nature, creativity and technology: experimenting with contrasting qualitative methodologies and impact in the Brecon Beacons National Park, South West Qualitative Research Symposium, University of Bath.
53. Sutherland, M., Stack, N., Smith, T. A., Tungaraza, F. (2016) Invited Seminar: Navigating the shifting terrain between policy and practice for gifted learners in Tanzania, Glasgow Centre for International Development, Glasgow University.
54. Dunkley, R. A. and Smith, T. A. (2015) At home in the Park: exploring resident young people’s interactions with nature within Brecon Beacons National Park, The Great Outdoors? Children, Young People and Families in Natural and Rural Spaces Conference, The University of Northampton.
55. Smith, T. A. (2015) Invited Presentation: Witchcraft, Spiritual Beliefs and Environmental Management in Tanzania, Sustainable Places Research Institute (PLACE) Seminar Series, Cardiff University.
56. Sutherland, M., Stack, N., Smith, T. A., Tungaraza, F. (2014) Contextualised Pedagogy for High Ability, 14th International European Council for High Ability Conference, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
57. Smith, T. A. (2014) The student is not the fisherman: Temporal displacement of young people’s identities in Tanzania,Centre for the Study of Childhood and Youth (CSCY) International Conference. Sheffield.
58. Smith, T. A. (2014) – Session Convenor: Witchcraft, spiritual beliefs, and the co-production of development knowledges and practices in the Majority World, RGS-IBG: Developing Areas Research Group (DARG) sponsored session, London
59. Twyman, C., Smith T. A. and Arnall, A. (2014) What is Carbon? Conceptualising carbon and carbon capabilities in the context of community-based sequestration projects in the global South, Green Economy in the South: Negotiating Environmental Governance, Prosperity and Development, University of Dodma, Tanzania.
60. Smith, T. A. (2013) Invited Presentation: Local knowledges and witchcraft in urban and rural Tanzania, Sheffield Geography Department Human Geography Seminar Series, Sheffield University
61. Smith, T. A. (2013) Invited Presentation: The dominant/marginal lives of young Tanzanians: Spaces of knowing at the intersection of Children's Geographies and Development Geography, Sheffield Institute for International Development Lecture Series, Sheffield University
62. Smith, T. A. (2012) ‘Other’ childhoods: negotiating ethical terrain across borders, RGS-IBG, London.
63. Smith, T. A. (2011) The origin of my research: thoughts on originality, RGS-IBG Postgraduate Conference, Durham University
64. Smith, T. A. (2011) The student is not the fisherman, RGS Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group (GCYFRG) ‘Young People’s Identities’ Conference’, Plymouth University
65. Smith, T. A. (2010) Spaces of knowledge, participation and empowerment: young people as environmental actors in Tanzania, RGS-IBG, London.

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students in any of the following areas:

• The geographies of children, young people and educational spaces
• Environmental, outdoor and sustainability education
• Co-design and co-production projects with children and young people
• Environmental conservation and sustainability
• Work, employment, livelihoods and housing with an international focus
• Studies of social interaction, particularly in outdoor settings, or focused on technologies in outdoor settings
• Navigation, and outdoor recreation skills

Current supervision

Nia Ffion Rees

Nirushan Sudarsan

Sam Croot

Rosie Havers

News articles

Research project piloted in Cardiff expands to community in Bangladesh capital

04 June 2025

Young people in Rayer Bazar have a say in their neighbourhood

A Grangetown to grow up in

03 August 2022

Young people give their vision for a child-friendly community after COVID-19

Children’s views to drive a better future for their community

16 March 2022

Project explores the impact of urban planning on the youngest members of society

Exploring spirituality and magic’s impact on development practices

02 March 2018

Journal special issue represents a significant intervention into thinking on witchcraft, spirituality and development

Fantastic beasts and why to conserve them

24 August 2017

Much to gain from acknowledging people’s spiritual, magical and cultural beliefs, according to study