People

Dr Sarah Collins

Dr Collins' work on the Wastes and Strays project involves researching the past dimensions of four English case studies in Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Brighton and Bristol. She is conducting cartographic and quantitative analysis in GIS, as well as exploring the project's research themes that include enclosure, urbanisation, land use, and contestation of space.

Her research specialism focuses on the urban history of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth century British-Atlantic. She argues that existing models of eighteenth and early-nineteenth century cities are limited to discussion of 'improvement' and lack research foregrounded in urban spatial analysis. By understanding the complex and intertwined character of multiple forms of urban space within a GIS, Dr Collins counters top-down models of urban management structures and hierarchy as it relates to the built form of cities. Work to date features comparative spatial/digital history of Newcastle upon Tyne and Charleston, South Carolina.