People
Daniel Bos
Daniel is a doctoral student based in Geography, examining the popular geopolitics of military video games. The research is positioned at the intersection between popular culture and world politics with explicit focus on audience engagements, interactions and consumption of commercial military video games, such as ‘Call of Duty’.
His main interests are in the burgeoning field of popular geopolitics, alongside the intimate relationship between the military and popular culture. Furthermore, Daniel is interested in more-than-representational epistemologies, and aims to direct attention to the visceral, emotive and affective capabilities characteristic of these video games.
Daniel holds a BA (Hons) degree in Geography from Newcastle University (2009) and an MA Human Geography Research (Newcastle University, 2011). Previous research dissertations have focused on audience engagements with military video games and population growth in peri-urban locations. Daniel has experience as a Research Assistant at Newcastle University (2010), working on projects focusing on contemporary military memoirs, military landscapes and an examination of the media coverage of the military repatriations at Wootton Bassett.
Contact Details:
Daniel Bos
School of Geography Politics and Sociology
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Tel: 0191 222 8510
Email: daniel.bos@ncl.ac.uk
K. Neil Jenkings
Neil is Senior Research Associate in the School of Geography Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. He is a currently a Co-investigator on the ESRC funded 'The Value of the University Armed Service Units' project with Dr Alison William and Prof. Rachel Woodward (2012-14). He was recently co-investigator on the ESRC-funded project 'The Social Production of the Contemporary British Military Memoir' (2009-2011). Neil was also the researcher on an ESRC-funded study 'Negotiating identity and Representation in the Mediated Armed Forces' with Dr Trish Winter and Professor Rachel Woodward (2006-07).
As well as military-related studies, Neil has worked on and published a number of workplace studies and studies of work in health, especially in relation to the design and use of health technologies in primary care, secondary care, social care and biobanking. He also undertakes ethnomethodological studies of rock climbing.
Neil holds a BSc(Hons), an MA, and an MSc in sociology and social research disciplines, has a PhD from Nottingham University in ethnomethodological studies of socio-legal decision-making, and did his Post-Doctoral Studies at the School of Pharmacy UCL in socio-medical decision-making. Before joining the School, Neil was a Senior Research Associate in the Sowerby Centre for Health Informatics, and he has also held research posts in Newcastle University's Faculty of Medical Sciences, in the Institute for Health and Society and has also worked as a Research Consultant at the Dept. of Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Leicester.
Contact details:
Dr K. Neil JenkingsSchool of Geography Politics and Sociology
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Tel: 0191 222 3806
Email: Neil.jenkings@ncl.ac.uk
Nina Laurie
I have a long track record in development research. My work interrogates knowledge production and professionalization in development, exploring the ways in which culture and identity intersect in contemporary scenarios. I am currently focusing on these issues in a collaborative project on the military as new development actors. Through teaching and research I have engaged extensively in interdisciplinary collaborations promoting South-North dialogue, including through a number of higher education links funded by the Department for International Development and the British Council with universities in the global South.
I have worked for more than two decades in Latin America, including living and working for extended periods in Peru during the civil war, in the 1980s and 1990s, and more recently in Bolivia where I collaborated on an interdisciplinary MA on ‘Territory, Conflict and Interculturality’ at CESU, San Simon University, Cochabamba and conducted research for an ESRC project on indigenous politics and development, focusing particularly on the Bolivian water wars. For the last few years I have also been working in Nepal as part of a recently completed ESRC project on post trafficking livelihoods. In this work on Nepal, issues of militarisation, de-militarisation and the control of bodies and borders have been of central importance in understanding the ways in which returnee trafficked women are able or not to gain citizenship and makes new lives.
Contact details:
Professor Nina Laurie
School of Geography, Politics & Sociology
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Tel: 0191 222 6346
Email: nina.laurie@newcastle.ac.uk
Staff webpage: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/nina.laurie
Jackie Leach Scully
Jackie Leach Scully is Professor of Social and Bioethics in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, and Co-Director of the Policy, Ethics and Life Sciences Research Centre (PEALS) at Newcastle University.
Her military research interests focus on exploring the social, ethical and political aspects of the identification of soldiers’ remains, and her first work in this area has explored issues around the use of DNA identification techniques following the discovery of the remains of 250 First World War soldiers found in a mass grave in Northern France at Fromelles. Her broader research interests all come under a broad heading to do with the way in which people and societies make sense of the moral implications of new technologies, particularly those developing from the life sciences. Among other things her previous research has examined public attitudes to prenatal sex selection, ethical issues in gene therapy, decisions made by donors of surplus embryos to stem cell research, and the impact of policy regulating assisted conception on beliefs about disability and disabled people.
In addition to the Fromelles work, she is currently principal investigator on an ESRC-funded project on the role that religious identity plays in lay people’s decisions about new reproductive and genetic technologies, with Sarah Banks and Robert Song, Durham University, and Research Associate Jacqueline Haq – details are available here.
She teaches a Stage 3 Newcastle University module SOC3074 Sociology of Evil, contributes to the Biology module BIO3015 Social Impact of Biology, and currently co-supervises 3 PhD students Michelle Addison, Alexis Paton, and Erica Timoney.
Jackie joined the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology in 2006, having previously spent several years at the Unit for Bioethics, University of Basel, Switzerland. Her first degree was in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, and her PhD was in Molecular Pathology, from the University of Cambridge.
Contact details:
Prof. Jackie Leach Scully
PEALS
4th Floor Claremont Bridge
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Tel: 0191 222 7520
Email: jackie.scully@ncl.ac.uk
Jocelyn Mawdsley
Jocelyn Mawdsley is a lecturer in EU/European Politics in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University.
Her research interests follow two main themes. Firstly, she works on the political economy of defence and security. This research has led her to investigate defence procurement, armaments cooperation, defence industrial policy, the arms trade, disarmament and export regulation and security and defence research and technology. Her second main research interest is in European security. Here she has worked predominantly on the EU Common Security and Defence Policy but also has published on the security policies of Britain, France and Germany and on nuclear politics. She has a particular interest in democratic legitimacy and security policy.
She is currently working on a project on ‘The Merging of Security and Defence in the EU’, funded by the Flemish Peace Institute, which is investigating the policy implications of the potential overlap between European internal security and defence technologies, industries and users.
Jocelyn joined the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology in 2005. Previously she worked as a temporary lecturer in Security Studies at the University of Manchester and was a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow in Bonn and Brussels. She holds a PhD and MA from Newcastle University and a BA in European Studies from Bradford University.
Jocelyn teaches POL2034 Politics and Policy of the European Union and POL8036 EU as an International Actor and contributes to teaching on the stage 1 Politics module Order and Disorder: The Shaping of the 21st Century.
Contact details:
Dr Jocelyn Mawdsley
School of Geography Politics and Sociology
Politics Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel: 0191 222 7478
Email: jocelyn.mawdsley@ncl.ac.uk
Staff webpage: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/jocelyn.mawdsley
Ann Murphy
Ann's research interests are wide ranging and are reflected through a feminist lens. They encompass all areas relating to military geographies, gender identities and militarization, the woman as warrior and the culture of war and its effects on the home front.
Ann is currently writing a PhD thesis on Army wives and their experiences and perceptions of militarized landscapes.
More generally, Ann has an interest in research ethics, in researcher /participant positioning, and in the emotions of research. Her current research reflects her interests in visual qualitative methods of research, and in particular methods and techniques of photo elicitation and qualitative interviewing.
Ann has an MA in Sociology and Social Research (with Merit) from Newcastle University (2006), and a BSc in Sociology and Social Research (First Class Honours) from Northumbria University.
She is a Postgraduate Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) (RGS/IBG), and also a member of the British Sociological Association (BSA) and the International Visual Sociological Association (IVSA).
Her PhD project website can be found here.
Contact details:
Ann Murphy
School of Geography Politics and Sociology
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Tel: 0191 222 8522
Email: a.l.murphy@ncl.ac.uk or militarywives@ncl.ac.uk
Website: http://www.students.ncl.ac.uk/a.l.murphy/
Dave Passmore
Dave Passmore is currently a Visiting Fellow and a former Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University. He is now a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Toronto Mississauga.
Primarily a physical geographer and geoarchaeologist, Dave is also developing an interest in the military geography, archaeology and heritage management of 20th century (and especially World War II) conflict landscapes in Northumberland and the forests of NW Europe.
Dave holds a PhD in Physical Geography from Newcastle University (Department of Geography, 1994) and has taught on Geography degree programmes since 1993.
His other collaborations include work with Stephan Harrison (Exeter University) on the Ardennes campaign and with David Capps-Tunwell on Second World War Germany Army supply depots in the Normandy forests.
Contact details:
Dr David Passmore
Email: david.passmore@utoronto.ca
Matthew Rech
Matthew is an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape. His current research activity builds upon a recently completed PhD entitled 'A critical geopolitics of RAF recruitment' which considered the means by which British military recruiting practices represent, and allow for the performance of, common-sense geopolitics of the military and the state.
Matthew’s research is concerned with three lines of inquiry:
- Representation and critical analyses of images and texts that mediate war
- Visuality and the politics of perception at spectacular military events (such as military airshows)
- Materiality and the ephemeral nature of everyday and popular British military cultures
Along with his PhD, Matthew holds a BA (Hons) degree in Geography from Newcastle University (2007), and an MA in Human Geography Research (Newcastle University, 2008). Matthew was a Teaching Fellow in Political Geography for the academic year 2011-12 in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, and continues to contribute to teaching and learning across the HASS faculty.
Contact details:
Dr Matthew F. Rech
ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape
Email: m.f.rech@ncl.ac.uk
Websites:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/guru/staff/profile/m.f.rech#tab_profile
Justin Sikora
Justin is a final year PhD candidate at the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University. His research deals with on-site interpretation at historic battlefields and how this contributes to conceptualising the perceived value of battlefield heritage.
He is currently working as a research assistant with Prof. Rachel Woodward on the AHRC-funded exploratory study, Caring for post-military futures: alternative development futures for former military sites in the UK. This projects explores 'forgotten' military sites throughout the UK, and their related heritage management issues.
Justin holds a Master of Arts degree in World Heritage Studies from the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus, Germany and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville in French with a Minor in History.
Contact details:
Email: j.p.sikora@ncl.ac.uk
Alison Williams
Alison is a Lecturer in Human Geography, based in the School of Geography Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University.
Alison's research interests are predominantly concerned with seeking to understand how aviation (primarily military aviation) is used, and acts, to project power across space. Within this her work has extended to elucidating how the incursions of military aircraft into foreign airspace affect notions of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and considerations of how military aviation is used to enforce and maintain international boundaries (using Iraq's and the US-Mexico borders as case studies) and how they are being increasingly used to violate them. Primarily, however, this research has been focused through two major projects. The first of these, and the subject of her PhD research, focused upon analysing the use of aviation (both military and civil) to territorialise the Pacific as US space during the inter-war period. The second, for which she held an ESRC Research Fellowship (2008-2011), concerns how UK military airspaces are represented, how they are enacted, and how their military users experience them. This project has led to a number of publications, including papers for Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers and Political Geography (see publications).
Alison has an interest in boundary issues that encompass and go beyond her specific interests in aviation. To this end, she has written about the use of military aviation to enforce and violate boundaries, and with John Donaldson (IBRU, Durham), on the boundary-related work of the political geographer Stephen B Jones, and about maritime boundary security issues in the East China Sea (see publications).
Alison also has research interest in the emerging graduate skills agenda, especially as it relates to student armed-service unit experiences. Within this she is currently working on two projects. The first is concerned with analysing the graduate skills which student members of the University's armed service units are able to gain through their membership of these organisations. A report from this project is available here. The second builds from this to look at the ‘value’ of university armed service units more widely across civil society.
Alison joined the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology in 2008. Prior to this she was Lecturer in Human Geography at Liverpool University, and before that Research Associate in the International Boundaries Research Unit, Durham University. Alison holds a PhD in Human Geography from University of Hull, an MA International Relations from Keele University, and a BA (Hons) Geography from Liverpool University.
Alison leads the Stage 3 Newcastle University module GEO3102 Geopolitical Thought and Practice, and teaches on the Stage 2 GEO2047 Political Geography and GEO2015 Military Environments and Landscapes modules. She currently supervises two PhD students. Matthew Rech's PhD analyses the critical geopolitics of RAF recruitment and Daniel Bos’ PhD investigates the critical geopolitics of military first-person-shooter video games.
Alison is currently Vice-Chair of the RGS-IBG Political Geography Research Group and a member of the Northumbrian Universities Military Education Committee.
Contact details
Dr Alison Williams
School of Geography Politics and Sociology
Daysh Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
UK
Tel: 0191 222 8489
Email: alison.williams1@ncl.ac.uk
Staff webpage: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/alison.williams1
Rachel Woodward
Rachel Woodward is Professor of Human Geography, and is based in the School of Geography Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University.
Her research interests are in two broad areas. The first is the study of the ways in which military activities and militarism are geographically constituted and expressed. This work includes studies of the politics of military land use, military environmentalism and representations of conservation and environmental protection on the defence estate, the development consequences of the conversion of military sites into to post-military uses, and military landscapes. The second research area is the sociology and culture of armed forces, which includes studies of gender politics in the armed forces, soldier identities, and the representation of military personnel in text and image.
Rachel has recently finished an ESRC project on the social production of the contemporary British military memoir (with Neil Jenkings), on the representation and interpretation of military landscapes, and is working on research on the 'value' of the university armed service units (with Alison Williams and Neil Jenkings).
She teaches a Stage 3 Newcastle University module GEO3063 Militarism: Space and Society, and on a Stage 2 module GEO2105 Military Environments and Landscapes Fieldcourse. Her PhD supervision includes co-supervision of Ann Murphy and Matthew Rech.
Rachel joined the School of Geography Politics and Sociology in 2005. Prior to this, she worked for nine years in the Centre for Rural Economy and the School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development (both Newcastle University), and has also held research posts at Leicester University and University of Wales, Lampeter. She holds a PhD from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, and a BA degree in Geography from the University of Exeter.
Contact details:
Prof. Rachel Woodward
School of Geography Politics and Sociology
Daysh Building
Newcastle University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Tel: 0191 222 6434
Email: r.e.woodward@ncl.ac.uk
Staff webpage: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/r.e.woodward
