About
Title of PhD: Social Fallout: marginalized communities and state-society relations in post-Chernobyl Ukraine
Supervisors: Dr John Round and Dr Dominique Moran
Thom Davies is undertaking CEELBAS funded doctoral research into the ongoing social and economic fallout of the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine. He continues to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in and around the Chernobyl border region, as well as more broadly within Ukraine. He is using qualitative methods, including in-depth interview, participant-observation and photographic participation techniques to investigate how Chernobyl impacts upon everyday life in Ukraine. Through de Certeau's emphasis on ‘everyday life’ (1984) and Agamben’s notion of ‘bare life’ (1998), Thom examines state-society relations in post-Chernobyl society.
He recently presented his research at an international multi-disciplinary conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Qualifications
(MSc) in Enterprise, Environment and Place, Geography Department, University of Birmingham
(BA) First Class hons in Geography, University of Birmingham
Biography
Thom completed his BA in Geography in 2008 and was awarded a first class honors. He achieved an MSc in ‘Enterprise, Environment, and Place’ in 2009 writing a dissertation titled ‘A Warm Glow: Chernobyl Children and their Charities’. He will be completing his PhD at the University of Birmingham in early 2013.
Research
Research interests
Chernobyl, Informal Economies, Post-Socialist transitions, Border Geographies, Photographic methods
Other activities
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Thom teaches on field courses in Berlin (2nd year undergraduates) and Moscow (third year undergraduates)
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Thom Davies is a published photographer
Publications
Davies T. (2011) Nuclear Mushrooms: attitudes to risk and the state through food consumption in the Chernobyl Border Region
Davies T. et al (2012) Panic on the Streets of Birmingham? Struggles over space and belonging in the Revanchist City Criminal Justice Matters