People

Professor Clare Holdsworth

SURF Director
Professor of Social Geography

I am a social geographer who uses innovative and varied methods (from creative autoethnography through to quantitative analysis of longitudinal data) to study different aspects of everyday life. Potential projects for SURF include youth transitions in the rural and responsibility and everyday practices (e.g in relation to noise, access or light pollution).

Dr Ben Anderson

SURF Co-Director
Senior Lecturer in Environmental History

I am an award-winning environmental historian with research interests that keep coming back to the rural. My research encompasses histories of outdoors leisure in Britain and Europe, technological infrastructure in rural places, and late-twentieth century environmental crises. I often employs creative or participatory research methods alongside traditional historical research, and I would love to supervise any projects on anything related to the above.

Dr Emma Allen

Lecturer

I am a Lecturer in Keele Law School. I specialise in public international law, but other areas of expertise include climate law and environmental law. I would be keen to be involved in the supervision of PhD students looking to explore the legal aspects (broadly defined) of sustainable rural futures.

Dr David Amigoni

Professor of Victorian Literature

I have research interests in the lived experience of ageing in rural and urban locations, as well as rural space as a route to improved health and wellbeing. I am also researching the cultural history of rural heritage and its complex historical relationship to industrialisation through work on L.T.C. Rolt and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. 

Dr Pawas Bisht

Senior Lecturer in Media, Communications and Creative Practice

My expertise lies in the fields of environmental communication, cultural memory and creative storytelling. Methodologically, I am interested in inter-disciplinary approaches bringing together qualitative social science and collaborative arts-based research. As part of SURF, I am interested in supervising projects exploring cultural pathways to inclusive and just rural futures.

Dr Toby Bruce

Professor of Insect Chemical Ecology

My research seeks new, sustainable ways to protect crops from damage by pests. We study insect-plant interactions to discover how to enhance plant defence and improve biological control. There is a need for innovation to find new ways to manage pests that have fewer off target effects than current pesticides.

Dr Philip Catney

Senior Lecturer in Politics

My interests are in local governance, political economy (particularly regeneration/levelling-up), environmental policy (particularly land, air and water pollution), energy policy and governance, and the intersection of British politics and rural politics. I'm happy to supervise SURF projects in any of these areas.

Dr Christian Devinish

Lecturer in Ecology and Environment

My research involves measuring biodiversity, especially species' occurrences and abundances, using technology such as audio recorders, as well as more traditional survey methods. I am interested in linking biodiversity to wider landscape and habitat characteristics, including human impacts, often derived from remote sensing, using statistical models and GIS. Peatlands and solar farms have been part of my research recently.

Professor Brian Doherty

Professor of Political Sociology

My research is on the political sociology of environmental protest, including opposition to new infrastructure in rural sites and by farmers on fuel prices. I have supervised PhDs on sustainable food growing, and am interested in supervising students working on environmentalism, both in theory and as a prefigurative practice.

Professor Mark Featherstone

Professor of Social and Political Theory

I am particularly interested in peri-urban communities, sprawl, rural suburbia, and the experiences of those living on the edge of urban spaces, and I would be delighted to supervise projects in these areas.

Dr Kathryn Francis

Lecturer in Psychology

I am a moral psychologist interested in understanding people’s judgments about what is right versus wrong and how these predict their actions in morally-conflicting situations. I am particularly interested in applying moral psychological theories to guide pro-social and pro-environmental behaviour change. For example, how do moral emotions such as guilt and regret drive pro-environmental behaviours?

Dr Marit Hammond

Lecturer in Politics (Environmental)

Marit's interests lie in environmental governance, democracy/participation/deliberation, the meaning of sustainability, environmental political theory, meaning-making, culture.

Dr Dmitry Kishkinev

Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Behavioural Neuroscience

I am an ecologist doing research at Keele's renewable energy (RE) site (12.5k solar panels and 2 wind turbines), and studying a long-term impact of RE on biodiversity and the behaviour of animals. Our study focusses on birds, mammals, and bumblebees, and offers excellent doctoral training using visual observations, bioacoustics, cutting-edge radio tracking, and advanced data analysis.

Professor Deirdre McKay

Professor of Sustainable Development

My projects explore the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. I work with ethnographic and arts-based methods. My current interdisciplinary projects investigate how communities can lead the design of biodiversity uplift, how laundry is contributing to textile fibres pollution, and how marine litter and coastal clean-ups reshape community economies.

Professor Ceri Morgan

Professor of Place-writing and Geohumanities

I am interested in: (a) contemporary ('new') nature writing and environmental humanities writing, thinking about hybrid forms, critical-creative writing and multi-modal writing and (b) via literary and cultural geographies, reflecting on understandings of the 'rural' and its margins, at a time when most urban growth occurs on the peripheries of cities.

Dr Masi Noor

Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Psychology

After over a decade studying political forgiveness, my current research focusses on the psychology of political lies. Using mixed-method research, I study what count as political lies among rural communities, how such lies are detected, perceived and experienced by rural communities, how such lies affect rural communities psychologically, and how people in these communities resist, challenge, or tolerate and forgive political lies.

Dr Ian Oliver

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and School Internationalisation Director

One of my favourite research topics is the use of recovered waste materials (water treatment residuals, biochar from agricultural wastes, paper pulp, etc) as soil conditioners for fertility enhancement and remediation.  I evaluate the effects of this process on plant yield, earthworm abundance and biodiversity, microbial function, soil's physical and chemical properties, and the mobility and ecotoxicity of contaminants.

Dr James Peacock

Reader in American Literature

My research focusses on literary engagements with gentrification in a range of places. Alongside recent developments in geographical and sociological accounts of gentrification in rural settings, I am interested in supervising research on how literary texts are representing gentrification in rural areas, as well as the gentrifying urban neighbourhoods that have for many decades been of interest to writers.

Professor Simon Pemberton

Professor of Human Geography

I am a Professor of Human Geography at Keele. I have 25 years worth of research experience on rural issues and have published extensively on issues relating to rural development and regeneration, rural governance, rural enterprise, rural migration, rural poverty and social exclusion and rural planning. I can offer supervisory expertise in all of these areas.

Dr Steven Rogers

Senior Lecturer in Geology

For much of my career I worked in "traditional" geological sciences. More recently, I have focused on human, social and pedagogical elements of geology. My interests in SURF focus on how the geology around us shapes  our lives, and how geology is essential to understanding society's Grand Challenges, such as extraction and extinction. Work in this area doesn't require a geology or STEM background, but does rely on an inter- and trans-disciplinary approach.

Professor Ghulam Sorwar

Professor of Finance and Head of Economics, Accounting and Finance Group

Amongst other areas, I specialise in Green and Sustainable Finance.  As my background is also quantitative, my research focusses on the modelling aspects of sustainability.  I welcome PhD applications from candidates who are interested in exploring the financial and economic aspects of Sustainable Rural Futures.  I also have an interdisciplinary background which allows me to provide supervision across multiple disciplines.

Dr John Taylor

Lecturer in Astrophysics

Alongside my primary research on measuring the properties of planets and multiple-star systems, I have interests in liaising with amateur astronomy groups, public outreach and sonification, connecting me to the rural sky at night.

Dr Ellie Harrison

Lecturer in Ecology

My research encompasses a diverse array of topics spanning environmental toxicology to ecology. I focus on exploring anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity, employing various techniques from audio detection to traditional survey methods like mark-release-recapture. My interests lie in understanding the ways in which human activities affect biodiversity, ranging from pollution (such as plastics) to changes in land use and artificial night at light.