People

Academic Staff

Dr David Adams

Dr David Adams

Lecturer in Urban Planning

Dr David Adams has research interests in urban planning and urban geography.  He has a Geography BSc (2002) from Loughborough University, an MA in Spatial Planning (2008) and a PhD (2014) in planning from Birmingham City University.  He taught planning at Birmingham City University from 2008 until 2017.  In 2015, he became the programme lead for Birmingham City University’s ...

Email
d.adams.4@bham.ac.uk

Dr Rakib Akhtar

Dr Rakib Akhtar

Lecturer in Urban Planning

Dr. Rakib is an interdisciplinary scholar with a research focus on technology-oriented urbanisation, infrastructure development and their interconnection with right-wing nationalism. Rakib is a chartered Architect and a Town Planner with extensive knowledge and practical experiences across countries. His research interests sit at the intersection of Urban Planning, Political Economy and ...

Email
r.akhtar.2@bham.ac.uk

Dr Katia Attuyer

Dr Katia Attuyer

Assistant Professor in Urban Planning and Environmental Management

Dr. Attuyer's research advances debates in urban geography with a focus on community engagement with the redevelopment of their neighbourhood, neoliberalisation of urban development policies in different geographical contexts , and financialisation. 

Her second area of expertise lies in well-being and the urban environment, with a particular emphasis on how the social and physical ...

Email
k.attuyer@bham.ac.uk

Dr Austin Barber

Dr Austin Barber

Senior Lecturer in Urban Development and Planning

Austin is an experienced teacher, researcher and writer who brings a passion for cities and urban life to all aspects of his professional work. He has played a leading role in development of planning education at the University of Birmingham and has established a research profile in the planning and regeneration of city centres and inner cities in Britain, Europe and North America.

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 2984
Email
a.r.g.barber@bham.ac.uk

Dr Susanne Boerner

Dr Susanne Boerner

Assistant Professor in Human Geography

Dr Susanne Börner is Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on youth everyday agency, emotions and urban well-being in the context of interconnected urban crises. She also researches on the interconnections of climate change and mental health as well as decolonial perspectives on human-nature relations, individual and planetary healing ...

Email
s.borner@bham.ac.uk

Dr Julian Clark

Reader in Political Geography

Julian Clark is Reader in Political Geography at the University of Birmingham. His research informs and extends debates focussed on critical geographical understandings of the state, and the governance of natural resources. In these domains Julian examines questions of how states are materialized and stabilised over space and time, including through geographies of diplomacy; and critical ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6262
Email
j.r.a.clark@bham.ac.uk

Dr Natasha L. Cornea

Dr Natasha L. Cornea

Associate Professor in Human Geography

Dr Natasha Cornea’s research sits at the intersections of urban and development geographies, focusing on urban environmental governance and politics in Indian and Zambian cities. Conceptually her research draws on post-structuralist and situated approaches to urban political ecology, the everyday state and everyday governance.

Dr Natasha Cornea is part of the Birmingham ...

Email
n.l.cornea@bham.ac.uk

Dr Gethin Davison

Dr Gethin Davison

Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

Gethin Davison is an interdisciplinary researcher and educator with a background in human geography, planning and urban design. He has published widely in the fields of urban planning, design and housing, and has a particular interest in the governance of design and the relationships between people and place.

Email
g.t.davison@bham.ac.uk

Dr Rosie Day

Dr Rosie Day

Senior Lecturer in Environment and Society


Rosie Day is an environmental human geographer interested in various aspects of peoples experience of, and engagement with, the wider environment. Much of her work has been in the area of environmental inequalities and environmental justice where she has developed a particular theme on ageing and environmental issues. She is currently largely focused on research to do with energy ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 41 48096
Email
r.j.day@bham.ac.uk

Dr Dilum Dissanayake

Dr Dilum Dissanayake

Associate Professor in Human Geography and Transportation Planning

Dr. Dilum Dissanayake is an experienced academic with particular interest in transport planning and human Geography. Her passion for educating STEM careers means that she devotes time in developing research careers at Postdoctoral, PhD, as well as Postgraduate and Undergraduate degree levels. Dr Dissanayake’s ambition is to further advance knowledge and skills in transport planning and data ...

Email
d.dissanayake@bham.ac.uk

Dr Andrea Frank

Dr Andrea Frank

Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning

Dr Andrea Frank is an urban planning scholar regarded for her work on community engagement in planning as well as researching and advancing planning education and pedagogies particularly in respect to international and community-engaged (socially responsible) co-learning. She is regularly invited as keynote speaker on education for spatial planning issues.

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6976
Email
a.i.frank@bham.ac.uk

Dr Sara Fregonese

Dr Sara Fregonese

Associate Professor of Political Geography

Dr Fregonese is a political geographer with a background in Middle Eastern Studies. Her research is about the relations between geopolitics, security and urban space, and how geopolitical situations and events impact on the everyday life of cities, their built environment and residents. 

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 3635
Email
s.fregonese@bham.ac.uk

Dr Charles Goode

Dr Charles Goode

Teaching Fellow in Urban and Regional Planning
International and Year Abroad Tutor (GEES)
Postgraduate Planning Dissertation Lead

Charles is a Geographer and trained planner with research and teaching interests in strategic planning/regional governance, community involvement, housing supply/affordability and planning history. His ESRC-funded doctoral research focused on the Green Belt, England's housing crisis and the planning system and is published in a range of practitioner and academic outlets. Charles' research is now ...

Email
c.goode@bham.ac.uk

Dr Melanie Griffiths

Dr Melanie Griffiths

Birmingham Fellow

Dr Griffiths is a social scientist, working on mobility and immigration enforcement in the UK. She has been a Birmingham Fellow at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences since February 2018, after completing an ESRC Future Research Leaders grant at the University of Bristol.

Email
m.griffiths.3@bham.ac.uk

Professor Sophie Hadfield-Hill

Professor Sophie Hadfield-Hill

Professor of Human Geography

Sophie Hadfield-Hill is a Professor in Human Geography at the University of Birmingham. Principally a Children’s Geographer, Sophie’s expertise is children and young people’s everyday experiences of urban change in diverse contexts.  Her research portfolio spans young people’s lives in the UK, India and Brazil; she has been Principal and Co-Investigator on numerous ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 8147
Email
s.a.hadfield-hill@bham.ac.uk

Dr Lloyd Jenkins

Lecturer in Historical and Cultural Geography: teaching-focused

Dr Jenkins is a Historical Geographer, with an interest in landscape change and people’s relationship with the past.

Telephone
0121 414 8544
Email
l.jenkins@bham.ac.uk

Professor Phil Jones

Professor Phil Jones

Professor in Cultural Geography

Phil Jones - Research in 60 seconds videoDr Phil Jones is a cultural geographer who focuses on issues related to the city.  His work deals with a number of research areas including urban regeneration, cycling and the arts.  He has a particular interest in research methods, including qualitative GIS, mobile interviewing and arts-based approaches.

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 5546
Email
p.i.jones@bham.ac.uk

Dr Kärg Kama

Dr Kärg Kama

Associate Professor in Human Geography

Dr Kärg Kama develops critical social science perspectives on natural resources development, specialising in unconventional fossil fuels, at the intersection of political geography, science and technology studies, and economic sociology. Dr Kama currently holds an ESRC Future Research Leaders award to study the scientific and political controversies of shale gas development in Europe. She is ...

Email
k.kama@bham.ac.uk

Professor Peter Kraftl

Professor Peter Kraftl

Chair in Human Geography

Professor Peter Kraftl is best known for his research on children’s geographies, focusing on children and young people’s experiences of and interactions with environmental processes – such as sustainable urban design, environmental resources and pollution. He also publishes on geographies of education and architecture. He is currently national co-lead for the Children, Young ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 5524
Email
p.kraftl@bham.ac.uk

Dr Irina Kuznetsova

Dr Irina Kuznetsova

Associate Professor

Dr Irina Kuznetsova's research expertise includes areas of migration, forced displacement, health, and critical urbanism. Her recent projects focus on social consequences of population displacement in Ukraine, Russia, Rwanda, Nigeria and Japan, including mental health and well-being, and the impact of migration on rural communities.

Email
i.kuznetsova@bham.ac.uk

Professor Patricia Noxolo

Professor Patricia Noxolo

Professor in Human Geography
Chair in Postcolonial Geographies

Pat Noxolo is an award-winning researcher and teacher, whose work brings together the study of international development, culture and in/security, and uses postcolonial, discursive and literary approaches to explore the spatialities of a range of Caribbean and British cultural practices. She has been lead researcher on the Caribbean In/securities and Creativity (CARISCC) research network, funded ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 7421
Email
p.e.p.noxolo@bham.ac.uk

Professor Jessica Pykett

Professor Jessica Pykett

Professor of Social and Political Geography

Jessica Pykett is a social and political geographer with research interests in governance, knowledge practices, policy innovation and political subjectivities.  Her research has focused on affective and emotional techniques of governance, and the influence of neuroscience and behavioural science on public policy and economic theory. Current work is on the intersections of neuroscience and ...

Email
j.pykett@bham.ac.uk

Dr Paul Richardson

Dr Paul Richardson

Associate Professor in Human Geography

Paul Richardson’s research and teaching is at the intersection of political and historical geography, with regional interests in Russia and Eurasia. His research activities focus on national identity, nationalism, borders, sovereignty, and territory, which have been supported by funding from the ESRC, AHRC, British Academy, and Leverhulme Trust. He is author of At the Edge of the Nation: ...

Email
p.b.richardson.1@bham.ac.uk

Dr John Round

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

John Round is a socio-economic geographer whose main research interest is concerned with how people/households develop tactics to cope with marginality in all its forms. His PhD examined how senior citizens survive in the Russian far north east city of Magadan in the face of extreme economic marginalization and hostile climatic conditions.  After this he researched the experiences of middle ...

Telephone
+44 (0)121 41 45530
Email
j.round@bham.ac.uk

Dr Yuli Shan

Dr Yuli Shan

Associate Professor in Sustainable Transitions
GEES Sustainability Lead

Dr Yuli Shan is an expert in Climate Change and Sustainable Transitions. His interdisciplinary research aims to reveal how human activities affect global and regional climate change. He also seeks alternative low-carbon approaches towards the achievement of climate targets and a net-zero emission society. 

He is a Global Highly Cited Researcher (since 2020) and a Fellow of Royal ...

Telephone
0121 414 5525
Email
y.shan@bham.ac.uk

Adam Sheppard

Adam Sheppard

Assistant Professor

Adam is an Assistant Professor of urban planning, specialising in development management matters inclusive practice, theory, and history.

Email
a.j.sheppard@bham.ac.uk

Dr Fraser Sugden

Dr Fraser Sugden

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
International Lead (Research)

Dr Fraser Sugden is a human geographer who has written extensively on shifting class, gender and generational relations in agriculture, and their interaction with contemporary environmental, political and economic stresses.

He has conducted intensive rural fieldwork across South and East Asia, with a focus on Nepal and the Eastern Gangetic Plains, and was based in this region for most of the ...

Email
f.sugden@bham.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Researchers

Dr Marija Antanavičiūtė

Dr Marija Antanavičiūtė

Research and Policy Fellow

Dr Marija Antanavičiūtė works in international ethics and organisational studies. She is particularly interested in how ethics is practised in the public sector and international organisations. In her research, she explores how norms and values translate into organisational practices, structures, and professional roles.

Email
m.antanaviciute@bham.ac.uk

Dr Rita Gayle

Research Fellow

Dr Rita Gayle is the Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the Conjunctures Strand of the Stuart Hall Archive Project. 

Rita is a historical-cultural-geographer working at the intersection of race, gender and the city. 

Prior to her postdoctoral appointment, Rita completed a PhD at Birmingham which was concerned with the emergence of the Millennial Generation of Black women in Britain who ...

Dr Natalia Kogut

Dr Natalia Kogut

Research Fellow

Dr Kogut is researching a Post Socialist Britain Research and Futures of Ukraine: youth, mobility and post-war reconstruction, migrants and refugees’ welcoming, historical memory of migrants, aspiration and hopes of migrants, Eastern European migrants and cultures. She is also a specialist in human rights, right to life and health, comparative analyse of health care systems in different ...

Telephone
0121 414 5985
Email
n.kogut@bham.ac.uk

Chang Liu

Chang Liu

Postdoctoral Researcher

Chang is an urban and regional researcher in human geography in school of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences. Researching the internal migrants' engagement with public spaces in Chinese cities, her research focuses on how public space solves the social problems caused by the antagonism between rural-urban and urban-rural migration; she explores this topic both globally, as there are ...

Telephone
+44 7393588214
Email
cxl029@student.bham.ac.uk

Dr Inga Ulnicane

Dr Inga Ulnicane

Research Fellow

Dr. Inga Ulnicane is an interdisciplinary social scientist working at the intersection of policy research, political science and social studies of science and technology. She has published extensively on topics such as politics and policy of Artificial Intelligence, governance of emerging technologies, Grand societal challenges and Responsible Research and Innovation.

Email
i.ulnicane@bham.ac.uk

Emma Widdop

Emma Widdop

Research Fellow

Built upon a foundation of art practice and educated in architecture, landscape and urban design, Emma’s work crosses disciplinary boundaries to place the human experience at the center of the design rationale. She has spent the past decade as a design practitioner, delivering projects in healthcare, education, and heritage sectors across the UK. 

Email
e.widdop@bham.ac.uk

Postgraduate Research Students

Diletta Accardo

PhD student

Diletta Accardo is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Prof. Dominique Moran on a project focussed on Carceral Geography. 

Maryam Al Obaid

PhD student

Maryam Al Obaid is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Prof. Jon Oldfield on a project that explores the  design of a transformational policy appraisal model that would uplift the capacity in developing robust public policies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Somaia Alhaso

PhD student

Somaia Alhaso is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Fraser Sugden on a project that explores migration in Indonesia

Abdullah Faisal A Alturki

PhD student

Abdullah Faisal A Alturki is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Rakib Akhtar on a project titled: "Urban Regeneration Policies for Slums in Madinah, Saudi Arabia"

Maya Breau

Maya Breau

Doctoral Researcher in Human Geography

Maya is a doctoral candidate in human geography. Her project examines the impact of military checkpoints on the civilian population’s perception of security in Lebanon. Her research interests include checkpoints, urban and political geography, militarism, and civil-military relations in post-conflict societies, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

Email
mxb1204@student.bham.ac.uk

Naya Cinantya Drestalita

Naya Cinantya Drestalita

PhD student

Naya is a PhD student at the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Her research project focuses on urban subjective wellbeing and its relations to urban planning, active travel, and public transport use in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Email
ncd280@student.bham.ac.uk

Safiya Hamis

PhD student

Safiya Hamis is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Natasha Cornea on a project titled: "Breaking Barriers: Muslim Women and the Fight for Women's Rights and Gender Equality in Northern Nigeria."

Yihang Huang

PhD student

Yihang Huang is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr David Jaroszweski on a project titled: "The impact of weather on transport system and individual's travel behavior in a temporal and geographic context."

Lihui Ji

Lihui Ji

Doctoral Researcher

Lihui Ji is an urban geographer with wide-ranging interests in issues related to urban transformation. Her research focuses on gentrification, neighbourhood change, socio-spatial inequality, and urban tourism, particularly how changing urban spaces are experienced, influenced, and imagined in the digital age.

Email
lxj351@student.bham.ac.uk

Terence R Johnson

Terence R Johnson

Terence Johnson is a successful Passenger Transport Manager with extensive experience in business transformation. He has embarked on a cutting-edge PhD research project with the University of Birmingham, examining energy transitions in the road passenger transport industry

Email
trj086@student.bham.ac.uk

Thomas Lewis

Thomas Lewis

PhD Student

Tom Lewis is a PhD Candidate in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. His research focuses on the interactions between counter-terrorism and pandemic urbanism, and on questions of the affective and atmospheric dimensions of emergency governance and post-disaster urban environments.

Telephone
07903545613
Email
txl216@student.bham.ac.uk

Jianchang Li

Jianchang Li

Postgraduate Researcher

Jianchang Li is a PhD Candidate in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University of Birmingham. He focuses on and stay interested in research projects related to Global Key Industry Emission, Emission Accounting, Decarbonisation and Net-Zero.

Email
jxl1845@student.bham.ac.uk

Ruby Maka Shrestha

Ruby Maka Shrestha

PGR

Ruby, currently a PhD Candidate at the Department of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, is dedicated to investigating the intersection of political economy and spatial geography in relation to air pollution exposure within low-income communities in Nepal's Kathmandu valley. 

Email
rxm623@student.bham.ac.uk

Priyanka Mokale

PhD student

Priyanka Mokale is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Surindar Dhesi on a project titled: "Understanding the Infrastructure accessing challenges of Homeless people – Study of Homeless Scheduled Caste communities of The Mumbai City."

Nooreeza Nabi

PhD student

Nooreeza Nabi is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Adam Ramadan on a project titled: "Return & Reintegration: Exploring the experiences of refused  Pakistani asylum seekers."

Pablo Rivas Castillo

PhD student

Pablo Rivas Castillo is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Rosie Day on a project titled: "Generation of energy poverty, social and environmental inequalities caused by the implementation of the public decontamination plan in the city of Coyhaique, southern Chile."

Charlene Rose

PhD student

Charlene Rose is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Prof Patricia Noxolo on a project titled: "How post-war immigration has shaped the Linguistic Landscape of Erdington, Birmingham through independent commercial business signage and window displays in the area."

Kritika Singh

PhD student

Kritika Singh is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Natasha Cornea on a project titled: "Water access by marginalised populations in India."

Nushrat Tashmin

PhD student

Nushrat Tashmin is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Fraser Sugden on a project titled 'Climate Change Induced Migration; Sustainable Crisis Management and Resilience of Vulnerable Climate Migrant Communities'

William Thurbin

PhD student

William Thurbin is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Prof Dominique Moran on a project focussed around Carceral Geography.

Jingting Yao

Jingting Yao

PhD Student

Jingting Yao is a PhD student in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. Her project focuses on the intersection of 3D reconstruction and affective computing. Broadly, she is interested in understanding how multimodal pre-training based on affective computing can be applied to reconstruct and optimise virtual scenarios.

Email
jxy372@student.bham.ac.uk

Jamila Musa Wakawa Zanna

PhD student

Jamila Musa Wakawa Zanna is a PhD candidate in Human Geography, supervised by Dr Surindar Dhesi on a project titled: "Navigating uncertainty : A phenomenological exploration of the lived experiences of internally displaced women in Nigeria."