Deirdre McKay

Biography

I have an interdisciplinary background which brings together environmental geography and Area Studies. I began my career in the School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. I joined Keele to teach and research on the impacts of global migration on migrant-sending communities and landscapes in Southeast Asia, connecting that work to transformations in the UK. I have published monographs on migration experiences and articles on its environmental impacts.

I’ve co-directed Keele’s Institute for Social Inclusion and served as Chair of the Executive Committee for the Associations of Southeast Asian Studies UK (2017 - 2022) and on REF 2021, SP 25 Area Studies.

My current projects explore everyday environmental concerns via a global lens. This encompasses collaborative research on microfibres shed from synthetic and natural textiles, on urban biodiversity uplift, and on the impacts and management of marine litter.

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

2021 – 2022 PI Restorying Riverscapes with Fashion Revolution https://www.fashionrevolution.org/restorying-riverscapes/
2017 – 2018 CI for Newton Fund Tech4Dev at http://newtontechfordev.com/
2016 – 2018 CI for AHRC Curating Development https://www.beyondmyself.net

2011 - 2014 Indiana University Press/Mellon Foundation Fellow, Framing the Global Publication Project for monograph, Archipelago of Care
2012 - 2013 ASEASUK/British Academy PI The 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