Why study Geography at Newcastle? Well one of the really interesting things is that we have
this tradition of making sure our research has an impact in the real world. So, lots of our
researchers work with government practitioners, we work with policy makers and I think students find
it really rewarding that can actually see some of the academic ideas actually having an impact
in changing policy and influencing the way policy happens. We're very much a research-led teaching
practice which means that our research feeds directly into the curriculum that we provide for
the students so if you're a student at Newcastle University you really get to understand and learn
the cutting edge of science and what is going on in our environment today. My research looks
at the ice sheets on earth; so the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet and we
look at how it flows, what it's made of what's underneath it and how it interacts with the ocean.
My current research really reflects a global challenge which is climate change
and understanding the impact of future climate change in particular to our ice sheets and
therefore sea level. My research focuses on the Geography of what we call energy transitions. So,
we're at a point in time where we're trying to move away from carbon intensive energy production
to more climate-friendly renewable sources of energy and we're looking at the the Geography
of this energy transition and what it means for different places and the society more generally.
My research is on housing and urban regeneration, so in particular I'm interested in understanding
the decision making that governments make and how this can lead to inequality around processes of
demolition displacement and gentrification. I do research in the Middle East and what I
do is I've done a series of interviews with the victims of traumatic injury; people who have been
shot or suffered blast and bullet wounds looking specifically at Gaza and Iraq and I'm looking at
that access to health care after the event of injury. So my research is really integral in my
teaching, in particular on a level three module 'Polar environments' where we pull together all
the stuff that I do in my research but also bring in things like ecological change in the arctic,
sea ice change in the arctic, permafrost change in the arctic as well. So yeah, it really is
fundamental to the teaching that I do as well. I think what we do really differently here at
Newcastle is a really personal touch to our teaching. So I work with people who really
really genuinely care for students who daily go the extra mile. We are a world-leading geography
department, but also a community of people who are really passionate about the subject of geography
and I think that comes across through our teaching and the supportive and nurturing environment that
we create here. We are located in the beautiful northeast of England. We have a wonderful city
here; it's very small but very vibrant so you've got everything you need in the city.
But, just on our doorstep is the coastline it's the hills; we have a beautiful landscape which
has a varied amount of different geographical features that we can go out and explore really
quickly and really easily. I think geography has a degree offers a really great foundation for a
number of different future careers and we work very closely with students to develop skills and
both academically but also beyond as they transfer into future careers. I think a geography degree
provides students with the skills that really open up a broad range of career opportunities.
If you think across both human and physical geography and the sorts of skills that we
develop within the degree pathway. I also think it's some of the generic analytical skills
that employers really value and I think these have been evidenced in some of the really
exciting careers that our geography students have gone on to do. Geography is exciting and
worldly discipline more than anything geography I think teaches us to be citizens of the world,
to engage with the world around us to think about the kinds of questions that David Attenborough
asks us in his BBC documentaries; what does it mean to be a human here on planet earth?
And that for me has been so far a lifelong journey and one I would encourage you to take as well.