Annual Report 1997: Graduate School 1996-1997

Review by the Director
Graduate School Statistics
Dissertation Titles 1996-1997
Ph.D. Degrees Awarded 1996-1997
Departmental Seminar Programme 1997

Review by the Director

This report highlights some of the main activities of, and issues dealt with by, the Graduate School and its Departmental Committee during the academic year 1996-97 (the fourth year of its existence). The Graduate community in the Department now averages about 90, and during 1996-97 the Graduate School Office handled some 293 applications, almost equivalent to the undergraduate applications of a small Cambridge College. An efficient system is in place for sending these applications out to academic staff in order to obtain decisions about supervision and admission, and the tables on the following pages provide a statistical breakdown of the applications and admissions for the M.Phil. courses and for research. Although there are no longer formal targets for M.Phil. admissions, the Graduate School has in mind to maintain the overall number of graduate admissions in any one year at a level which will produce a slight reduction in the admissions to the Environment and Development course in order to provide the numbers for the M.Phil. in Quaternary Science, and in due course the M.Phil. in Research in Human Geography within the same total. The effect of this will be to broaden the base of teaching support for M.Phil. courses within the Department.

During the year the increasing emphasis on research training by the Economic and Social Research Council has been a continuing issue, which during the year led to planning for a more integrated Research Training Programme for graduate students. It was evident that overlap and duplication existed between some elements of separate training programmes held for M.Phil. and research students, and this problem was addressed in time for October 1997 when a new, integrated and modularised Research Training Programme came into operation. This was also integrated with the inter-Departmental social science research training programme involving Social Anthropology, Criminology, and Social and Political Sciences. During the summer of 1997, the Department had to prepare its case for the ESRC Research Recognition Exercise, and these developments were of considerable value in this context. The outcome of the exercise is still unknown, and the plans for introduction of an M.Phil. course in Research in Human Geography have been placed on hold in order to ensure that they can be adjusted to accommodate any requirements that are signalled by the Research Council.

The Training Programme has for some time included a Graduate Forum in January, when all first-year research students present an outline of their intended research. This is invariably a very successful event, characterised by high-quality presentations and full and helpful audiences. The mastery of educational technology by graduate students (for example, Powerpoint presentations) has become increasingly evident and impressive. The Departmental Seminar Programme has also come to be considered an integral part of the Graduate School's remit, and of the training programme, and in 1997 the programme has provided a varied series covering most major fields of the subject (socio-economic, historical, political, environmental and physical geography). Several leading and distinguished outside speakers were invited. There are plans to thematize the programme in the future, basing parts of the annual programme around pre-selected topics. Of course, this is only one of the seminar series run in the Department; the graduate students themselves run a weekly meeting, and there are Occasional Discussions in Historical and Physical Geography.

The M.Phil. course in Quaternary Science has been developed by the Departments of Geography and Earth Sciences, with contributions from other Departments such as Zoology, Archaeology and the Scott Polar Research Institute. It has the same assessment structure as the other M.Phil. courses run by the Department, so that some sharing of option courses is possible. Inevitably, because the course was formally approved rather late in the academic year 1996-97, the number of applications has remained small, and the one student admitted from October 1997 agreed to switch to the M.Phil. in Polar Studies on the assumption that it would be equally feasible to undertake her chosen dissertation on ice-core analysis in conjunction with scientists at the British Antarctic Survey while taking that course. The future of the M.Phil. in Quaternary Science is likely to be heavily dependent on studentship support from the Natural Environment Research Council, and it has been possible to make a case for this in response to the NERC review of its support for Advanced Courses.

There is no question that the smooth and effective running of the Graduate School Office is very largely due to the efforts of Maria Constantinou, to whom I am grateful as much for getting to know each and every graduate student in order to provide a much valued link between the students and the Department, as for her undoubted secretarial and administrative skills. In the academic year 1997-98 I will be on leave, holding a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship, and Dr Linda McDowell has kindly agreed to shoulder the responsibility of directing the Graduate School once again.

Finally, it is a pleasure to note some of the successes of the graduate community during 1997. Bronwyn Parry has been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at King’s College, Matthew Watson received the C.N. Davies Award of the Aerosol Society for his research into volcanic emissions, and Hazel Jones received the Royal Scottish Geographical Society medal for 1996. Congratulations are due to these graduates, and to those listed overleaf who have successfully defended their theses and moved on to a variety of posts after completing their research.

Dr Ron Martin
Director, Graduate School

Graduate School Admissions Statistics

M.Phil in Environment and Development

YEAR	APPLICATIONS	OFFERS	ADMITTED	PASS	FAIL
for 1996-97	171	59	25	22	3
for 1997-98	147	52	15*

* one withdrew

M.Phil. in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing

YEAR	APPLICATIONS	OFFERS	ADMITTED	PASS	FAIL
for 1996-97	51	38	7	6	1
for 1997-98	59	39	14

M.Phil in Quaternary Science

YEAR	APPLICATIONS	OFFERS	ADMITTED	PASS	FAIL
for 1996-97	-	-	-	-	-
for 1997-98	4	2	1*

*transferred to M.Phil. in Polar Studies

Research Student Applications and Admissions

*Year*	*Applications*	*Offers*	*Admitted*
for October 1996	88	49	24
for October 1997	87	33	12

Graduate School Information

M.Phil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing: Dissertation Titles 1996-97

NAME	TITLE
Alkides, Mr C	Safeguarding the architectural heritage: GIS in the management of listed buildings located in the walled city of Nicosia, Cyprus.
Anderson, Ms C F	GIS in visitor management at the Avebury World Heritage Site
Cooper, Mr P A W	Remote sensing and tropical coastal management - use and assessment of aerial photography
James, Mr G F Z	The use of a GIS in assessing partisan bias in local authority districting solutions: the London Borough of Enfield as a case study
James, Mr T D	Optimisation procedures for stereo-matching aerial photography over complicated topography
Nakornthab, Mr E	The use of GIS in mapping and monitoring telecommunication activities in Thailand
Toutoubalina, Ms O V	Remote sensing methods for study of industrial impact on vegetation in the Russian Arctic

M.Phil in Environment and Development: Dissertation titles 1995/96

NAME	TITLE
Agate, Ms J	Restoration measures for mineral and aggregate extraction sites in the United Kingdom: permanent solutions or temporary disguises?
Dicey, Mr W D	Greening engineering: do engineering students perceive the need for a broader approach to engineering education
Du Toit, Ms E	Conservation and development: conflict, co-existence or symbiosis? - A case study of mining and ecotourism in the Madimbo Corridor, South Africa
Evans, Mr A B	A critical comparison of indicators adopted by different sustainable development discourses
Gao, Ms L	The role of environmental impact assessment in decision-making in developing countries: a case study of energy resource planning in Beijing
Goh, Ms C-L E	Developing the Mekong: Transnational institutions and environmental regime formation in a shared river basin
Gonzalez-Lutzenkirchen, Ms A K	Environmental regime building within an international free trade system - a case-study of the World Trade Organisation
Hurlston, Ms L-A M	Economic development and environmental management in a lagoon ecosystem, Grand Cayman, British West Indies
Lee, Ms S N	Threatened environment in Hong Kong and its conservation
Long, Ms J	Seeds of diversity: a study of an indigenous agricultural science
Marx, Mr A	The politics of environmental standard-setting: the case of the urban waste water treatment directive
McGeorge, Mr D J	An investigation into the use of hydrological modelling as an aid to environmental regulation formation
Morgan, Mr D J	The snowmobile and Saami culture - nature relations
Murray, Mr J S	Ecological modernisation and landscape management: a case study of the Great Ouse Valley near Huntingdon and St Ives, Cambridgeshire
Noble, Mr T	Partnership, competition for urban, and sustainable resource use. A case study of Glasgow
Nunez Trebol, Ms I	The politics of environmental management: a case study of the Tambopata-Candamo Reserved Zone (Peru)
Price, Mr R L	The suitability and use of windpower in isolated communities
Risby, Mr L A	Barriers to community conservation, Katonga Wildlife Reserve, Uganda
Roberts, Ms D A	From conservation to sustainable development: a critical evaluation of logging policy in Guyana
Robertson, Mr E C	Constructing wilderness: re-inventing nature within conservation practice
Scotting, Mr D M	Mediating environmental knowledge or sensationalising environmental doom? How accurate is mediation of climate change knowledge through popular scientific press?
Temis, Mr P	A critical evaluation of the use of market mechanisms to control pollution; RECLAIM as a model for future programs?
von Graevenitz, Ms S	Sustainable development - more than rhetoric? A case-study of foreign aid in the Polish energy sector
Wright, Mr M G	Institutional and legislative failure as impediments to the viability of national Parks and protected areas: a case study of Negril, Jamaica
Zheng, Ms S	Carbon Dioxide emissions reduction in the United Kingdom

Ph.D. Degrees Awarded 1996-97

NAME	TITLE OF THESIS
Brock, Mr B	Seasonal and spatial variations in the surface energy balance of valley glaciers
Christie, Miss H E	Gender and mortage default in Swindon
Cole, Mr T	The ghettoisation of the Jewish community in Budapest during the Second World War
Gillingham, Ms M E	Gaining access to water indigenous irrigation on Mount Kilimanjaro
Goddard, Mr J S	Between technocracy and democracy: decentralisation and the challenge of urban governance in Santiago, Chile
Jewitt, Ms S.L.	Tribal development or populist impasse? Agro-ecological knowledges and forest management in the Jharkhand, India.
Jones, Mr E W G	Remote sensing of environmental change in Crete
Mawdsley, Ms E E	Non-Secessionist Regionalism in India: the demand for a separate state of Uttarakhand
Megaw, Mr C C	Engaging the grassroots: indigenous non-governmental organisations in Northern Ghana
Ogu, Mr V	Housing and environmental services in Benin City, Nigeria
Reimer, Ms S M	Geographies of fragmentation: the restructuring of employment in public sector services
Sinha, Mr S	Pollution and environmental policy in the Ganga Basin: a case study of heavy metal pollution by tanneries near Kanpur, India
Sleeman, Mr M	The geography of citizenship strategies in a rural South Australian aboriginal community 1940-1993
Williams, Mr G.O.	Socialist development? Economic and political change in rural West Bengal under the Left Front Government.

Destinations of Ph.D. Students after Completing Degree, 1996-97

NAME	DESTINATION/JOBS
Brock, Mr B	University Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Dundee, Dundee
Christie, Miss H E	University Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Strathclyde
Cole, Mr T	University Lecturer, Department of History, University of Bristol
Gillingham, Ms M E	NGO, Tanzania.
Goddard, Mr J S	Banking, London.
Jones, Mr E W G	Strategic Consultant, Mercer Management Consulting
Mawdsley, Ms E E	University Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Durham
Megaw, Mr C C	Strategic Consultant, Bain UK Inc & Co
Ogu, Mr V	Research Fellow, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, Nigeria
Reimer, Ms S M	University Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of Hull
Sinha, Mr S	United Nations Development Programme, New Dehli, India
Sleeman, Mr M	Training as a Minister of Religion in Oxford
Williams, Mr G.O.	University Lecturer, University of Keele

Departmental Seminar Programme 1997

16 January	DR RON MARTIN (Department of Geography, University of Cambridge) ‘Geographical aspects of Europe’s unemployment crisis’
23 January	PROFESSOR MIKE KIRKBY (School of Geography, University of Leeds) ‘The art of modelling: a tale with many scales’
30 January	PROFESSOR PAUL WHITEHEAD (Department of Geography, University of Reading) ‘Environmental hydrology, modelling and magic: some new developments in linked modelling for environmental risk assessment’
6 February	DR STUART LANE (Department of Geography, University of Cambridge) Chaos, complexity and the challenged concept of environmental control’
13 February	DR GERRY KEARNS (Department of Geography, University of Cambridge) ‘The impact of the Irish famine on Liverpool 1847-51’
20 February	DR ALAN BAKER (Department of Geography, University of Cambridge) ‘Fraternity among the peasantry? The historical geography of voluntary associations in rural France 1815-1914’
27 February	DR KAY ANDERSON (Department of Geography, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy) ‘A walk on the wild side: toward a critical geography of domestication’
6 March	DR JULIAN MURTON (Department of Geography, University of Sussex) ‘Pleistocene significance of thermokarst sediments and structures, Mackenzie Delta area, Western Canadian Arctic’’
24 April	PROFESSOR MERIC GERTLER (Department of Geography, University of Toronto) ‘The convergence of industrial cultures’
1 May	DR NIGEL ARNELL (Department of Geography, University of Southampton) ‘Climate change and water resources: a European Perspective’’
8 May	PROFESSOR CHARLES WITHERS (Department of Geography, University of Edinburgh) ‘An historical geography of paradise’
9 May	PROFESSOR ALLAN PRED (Department of Geography, University of California at Berkeley) ‘Racisms, racialized spaces and the popular geographical imagination in Sweden’
15 May	PROFESSOR KEVIN COX (Department of Geography, Ohio State University) ‘The politics of scale’
23 October	dr Shannon Peckham (University of Cambridge) ‘Exoticism of the Familiar: European Travellers to Greece in the 19th Century’
30 October	DR Philip Brookes (Rothamsted Experimental Station) ‘The Leaching of Soil Phosphorus: About 150 Years of Getting it Wrong’
6 November	Dr Eric Swyngedouw (Department of Geography, University of Oxford) ‘Modernity and Hybridity: The Production of Nature, Modernisation and the Spanish Waterscape’
13 November	Dr Alistair Kirkbride (Department of Geography, Lancaster University) ‘Mega-geomorphology and the hydrodynamics of late-glacial dambreak flooding, Altai Mountains, Siberia’
20/21 Nov	Professor Manuel Castells (Centre for W European Studies, University of California, Berkeley) To discuss his recent studies of networks
27 November	Professor Adrian McDONALD (Department of Geography, University of Leeds) ‘From catchments to customers: the research impacts of the great Yorkshire drought’
4 December	Dr Andy Charlesworth (Department of Geography, Cheltenham and Gloucester College) ‘Spielberg's List: Schindler, Videotapes and the Lie of Landscape’