Research and scholarship
Research and scholarship
My research career has been built on extended ethnographic fieldwork in the global South and also with migrant communities from developing areas who have moved into the world's global cities. These methods are surprisingly resilient and adaptable in marginalised areas of the global North, too.
Empirically, I am interested in community economies and environmental activism, citizen social science and citizen science where they are brought to bear on themes like laundry, plastic litter, and community-led nature recovery. My current work is delivered in interdisciplinary teams, working closely with scientists and community partners on key challenges in the sustainability transition.
I’m interested in supervising projects on topics including….
- Environmental geography: community-led and urban rewilding
- Environmental geography: Plastic pollution, its recycling and clean-up
- Development geography: Sustainability in global clothing and textile supply chains and managing textile waste
- Social geography: domestic clothing care, wardrobe studies, discards and vintage or second-hand shopping
Methods: interviews, observations, policy analysis, questionnaires, mixed qualitative/quantitative approaches
You can find public synopses of my work on The Conversation https://theconversation.com/uk/search?q=Deirdre+mckay
Current projects
- Unravelling Fibreshed – exploring natural textile fibres as an environmental pollutant, with League of Artisans CIC
- Wilder Connections – supporting community-led nature recovery in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, with Urban Wilderness CIC
- Beaches, beach finds and belonging – examining community efforts to manage, clear and classify marine litter on the Isle of Skye with Skye and Lochalsh Environment Forum, Skye Beach Cleans and Loughborough University
Past Projects
- 2011 - 2014 Indiana University Press/Mellon Foundation Fellow, Framing the Global Publication Project for monograph, Archipelago of Care
- 2012 - 2013 ASEASUK/British Academy PIThe Traffic in Things: How Indigenous Filipinos Appropriate Material Remittances
- 2011- 2013 Higher Education Academy UK PI Reading the World: Innovative Strategies for Building Textual Skills in the Curriculum
- 2011- 2013 British Academy PI Everyday Objects: the Making and Un-making of Filipino Crafts as Art
- 2007 - 2010 Senior Research Fellow AHRC In the Footsteps of Jesus and the Prophet: Sociality, Caring, and the Religious Imagination in the Filipino Diaspora
- 2003 - 2008 CI Australian Research Council with AusAID Negotiating Alternative Strategies for Regional Development, Indonesia and the Philippines
Current Postgraduate Supervision
Agata Lapinska, Phd, Human Geography (2023 – 2027)
Staying or moving on among Ukranian migrants to Poland
Philip Jones, PhD, Human Geography (2022 – 2026)
Ethical recruiting for nurses migrating to the UK
Kristel Fourie, PhD, Human Geography (2021 – 2025)
‘Africanising’ community participation in disaster risk reduction planning
Izelque Botha, PhD, Human Geography (2021 – 2025)
Social media and environmental awareness among South African youth
Past Advisees
Dr Lei Xiaoyu, PhD, Human Geography (2017 – 2021)
Creative arts and plastic waste
Zahid Mughal, MRes Human Geography (2015 – 2020)
Cosmopolitanism in Hong Kong
Dr Kenneth Masowo, PhD Social Policy (2012 – 2018)
Dynamics of community participation in development: Evidence from practice in Botswana
Stephanie Moore, MPhil Human Geography (2013 - 2018)
Why differentiate day visitors? Lessons for managing tourism in the Peak District National Park
Dr Denry Machin, PhD Social Policy (2013 - 2016)
The hybrid professional in international educational leadership.
Dr. Juliette Hallaire, PhD Human Geography (2010 – 2014)
Constructing Maritime Geographies: The Pragmatic Mobility of Senegalese Fishermen
Dr. Michael Fabinyi, ANU Anthropology (2004 – 2009)
Fishing for Fairness: Poverty, Morality and Resources in the Calamianes Islands, Philippines.
Dr. Hannah Bulloch, ANU Anthropology (2004 - 2009)
In Pursuit of ‘Progress’: the cultural-politics of development on Siquijor Island, Philippines
Dr. Michelle Carnegie, ANU Geography (2003 - 2008)
Place-based livelihoods and post-development challenges in eastern Indonesia
Dr. Jessica Weir, ANU, Resource and Environmental Studies (2004 -2008)
Cultural flows: an ecological dialogue with traditional owners from along the Murray River
Dr. Martina Jaskolski, ANU Geography (2003 - 2008)
Envisioning Balinese futures: engaging local and global discourses of 'sustainability' in secondary education.
Dr. Katharine McKinnon, ANU Geography (2000 - 2004)
Locating Post-development Subjects: Discourses of Intervention and identification in the Highlands of Northern Thailand
Dr. Catharina Williams, ANU Geography (2000 - 2003)
Maiden Voyages: Eastern Indonesian Women on the Move
