Review by the Director
The 2000 – 2001 year saw the Graduate School maintain its position as one of the largest MPhil/PhD training programmes in Geography in the UK. Seventeen PhDs were awarded, as well as thirty-two MPhil degrees across the three programmes of Environment and Development, GIS and Remote Sensing and Quaternary Science. In addition, an M.Phil was established in Geographical Research, intended as a first year training and preparation for the PhD. This was formally intiated in 2001, with the first students ariving in 2002. Fomal ESRC recognition was gained for the MPhils in Environmental Development, GIS and Geographical Research. Our students continue to achieve excellent job placements across the academic world, industry, research and government agencies. The list of topics testifies to the breadth and depth of the Department’s research base.
The process of administering this wide range of activity would be impossible without the help of many people; 273 applications were processed in 2000 – 2001, and 46 students admitted. This burden falls heavily onto the Graduate School Office, staffed by Elisabeth Burmeister until September 2001. Considerable thanks for her efforts. The administration process also relies heavily on the directors of each MPhil and on the Degree Committee, to whom the Department owes a great debt.
During 2001, the Graduate Training Programme was redesigned and an integrated MPhil/PhD Handbook produced for the first time. The Graduate Training Programme is now formally developed in conjunction with other Social Science Departments for human geography, and discussions are underway to work more closely with Earth Sciences and other departments of physical geography. A major development has been the strong participation of geography in the Social Science Research Methods training course, develped for ESRC recognition purposes, and presently directed by Professor R J Bennett.
Over the year changes to the organisation of PhD student rooms were intiated to improve their IT resources and bring students more closely into the department’s main research groups.
Professor R J Bennett
Director of the Graduate School
August 2002
Graduate School Statistics
MPhils
MPhil |
Year |
Applications |
Offers |
Admitted |
Pass |
Fail |
Environment and Development |
1999-2000 |
160 |
52 |
14 |
14 |
0 |
2000-2001 |
160 |
31 |
18 |
18 |
0 |
Geograpical Information Systems and Remote Sensing |
1999-2000 |
71 |
49 |
11 |
11 |
0 |
2000-2001 |
44 |
15 |
12 |
12 |
0 |
Quaternary Science |
1999-2000 |
14 |
8 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
2000-2001 |
10 |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
Research Student Applications And Admissions
Year |
Applications |
Offers |
Admitted |
October 2000 |
52 |
20 |
15 |
October 2001 |
88 |
33 |
18 |
Dissertation Titles 2000 – 2001
MPhil in Environment and Development
Name |
Dissertation Title |
Collier, Ms J |
The Arctic Council: issue linkage in a regional environment and development organisation |
Cowan, Ms C |
Game preservation or nature conservation? The move towards National Parks in colonial East Africa |
Edmunds, Ms M |
Examininng the effect of community strategies on the environmental policy and process of the Local Agenda 21 scheme in Britain. |
Fell, Mr C |
Community forestry in South Africa: a case study |
Gannon, Ms S |
Privatisation of the Irish gas and electricity sectors and living up to Kyoto commitments: will greater economic efficiency help? |
Graham, Mr M |
Implications of human land use and settlement patterns for elephant conservation |
Grahn, Mr R |
Sustaining livelihoods through reducing vulnerability to extreme natural events |
Johnson, Mr A |
Water resource conservation in the UK: a case study investigation into success of intervention to alleviate low river flows |
Kumar, Mr A |
Impact of integrated watershed development project on sustainable livelihoods – an India case study |
Laity, Mr D |
The health status of Palestinian refugees: the impacts of levels of social conflict over time |
Maclean, Ms K |
The role of local knowledge in participatory natural resource management: practice or rhetoric |
Mbithi, Ms C |
The 1998-2000 drought: a case study of vulnerability and coping mechanisms of rural communities in Konza and Kaputei settlements, Kenya |
Mital, Mr R |
Rural renewable energy: an Indian case study |
Naidoo, Ms S |
Official development assistance to South Africa 1994-2000 – towards a South-African led process |
Omambia, Ms A |
Sanitation in urban slums: perceptions, atitudes and behaviour – a case study of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya |
Peeks, Ms H |
An ethnographic investgation of current perceptions of Africa |
Pradhan Mr M |
Eco-tourism – reality or rhetoric: a case study of Annapurna conservation area |
Reinhard, Mr M |
When climatic changes shape new landscapes: socio-economic adaptations in the Swiss Alps |
MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing
Name |
Dissertation Title |
Aryal, Mr A |
An optical and SAR remote sensing investigation of Alayta Volcano, Ethiopia |
Caine, Ms S |
Photogrammetric monitoring of a small experimental basin |
Katz, Mr I Y |
Integrated GIS and HIV/AIDS prevalence, population and sexual behaviour in Uganda for investigating the reason of the HIV declines |
Keith, Mr A |
A geological intepretation of the Tebesti Volcanic province, Nothern Chad, based on remote sensed data |
Kendall, Ms C |
Vegetation change deduction in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, using remote sensed imagery from 1972 – 2000 |
Koirala, Ms S |
Visualisation and validation of digital sensing elevation model (DEM) in the study of coastal geomorphology |
Lee, Mr P Y |
Object orientated geospatial data modelling for multi-disciplinary GIS |
Merlo, Ms S |
3D GIS implementation for the recording of historic buildings |
Otoo, Mr E |
Spatio-temporal analysis of urban growth using GIS and remote sensing techniques |
Simbiwen, Mr T |
Using remotely sensed Landsat TM data and GIS in mapping landcover and agricultural productivity potential in the Wosera area of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea |
Witham, Ms C |
Volcanic erutions through crater lakes and resultant Lahar formation: a simple model using GIS for Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand |
MPhil in Quaternary Science
Name |
Dissertation Title |
Bennett, Ms J |
Pleistocene deposits in the Portsmouth area: an investigation into their chronology and the correlation with neighbouring areas |
Speller, Mr G |
Palaeoenvironmental analysis of a colluvial sequence from a Roman villa and Rock, Brighstone, Isle of Wight |
PhD Degrees Awarded 2000 – 2001
Name |
Dissertation Title |
Allard, Ms D J |
The sub alpine fir forest zone of Lamjung Himal, Nepal: vegetation types, forest dynamics and human impacts |
Babejova, Ms E |
Space, politics and identity in Bratislava, 1867-1914 |
Bratton, Mr W |
SMEs and local economic development |
Cameron, Ms L J |
Anthropogenic natures: Wicken Fen and histories of disturbance (1923-1943) |
Gitas, Mr I |
Geographical information systems and remote sensing in mapping and monitoring fire-altered landscapes |
Glaister, Mr C G |
Palynology of late pleistocene marine sediments in North Jutland |
Herman, Mr W M |
The re-suspension of fine sediment by estuarine waves: implications for managed retreat flood defences |
Hyams, Ms M |
The spaces of adolescent latina gender identities |
Johnson, Mr N P A S |
Aspects of the historical geography of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic in Britain |
Jones, Mr A M |
Deconstructing globalism: an investigation in the nature of transitional business activity in the investment banking and management consultancy industries |
Karlekar, Mr I |
Liberalisation in India: foreign investment in the autos sector |
Lau, Mr S S |
Statistical and dynamical systems investgation of shallow lake eutrophication |
Perkins, Mr E W |
The spatial dynamics of the transmission of communicable disease in displaced and refugee populations |
O’Beirne-Ranelagh, Ms E G |
Biodiversity and horse grazing: The ecology and management of pastures in Cambridgeshire in relation to fertiliser use |
Tabone-Adami, Ms E |
GIS based modelling of nutrient transfers from land to coastal waters for understanding eutrophication patterns |
Tarras-Wahlberg, Mr N H |
Metal contamination, water quality and environmental policy |
Watson, Mr I M |
Remote sensing of tropospheric volcanic plumes |
Wiart, Mr P A M |
Quaternary volcanism in North-East Africa |
Departmental Seminar Programme 2001
18 January |
Professor J Powell (Monash University, Australia) ‘Colonial Translations: Peasants and Parsons in Nineteenth-Century Australia’ |
25 January |
Professor S Whatmore (University of Bristol) ‘Transgressing Objectivity: the disorderly space of GM foods’ |
1 February |
Professor G Wadge (University of Reading) ‘Remote Measurement of Evaporation from Playas’ |
8 February |
Professor M Bravo (Scott Polar Research Institute) ‘From Geography to Anthropology: rethinking the Social Origins of the Seasons’ |
22 February |
Dr M Hulme (University of East Anglia) ‘Climate Change Risk and Sustainability’ |
1 March |
Professor I Reid (Loughborough University) ‘Unpredictable yet predictable – desert geomorphological processes’ |
8 March |
Dr D Brockington (University of Cambridge) ‘Commons and Corruption, Village Resource Management in Tanzania’ |
15 March |
Dr K Willis (University of Liverpool) ‘Gendering Trans national Communities: Singaporena and British Expatriates in China’ |
26 April |
Dr P French (Royal Holloway, University of London) ‘Managed Coastal Retreat’ |
3 May |
Dr D Scott (University of Natal, Durban) ‘Environmental Identity and Social Transformation: Experiences from South Durban, South Africa’ |
10 May |
Dr E Mawdsley (University of Durham) ‘Getting a voice in the Global Development – information knowledge and ideas’ |
17 May |
Professor M Heffernan (University of Nottingham) ‘History, Geography and the French National Space: The Question of Alsace-Lorraine, 1914-1918’ |
11 October |
Dr J Duncan (University of Cambridge) ‘Another country: Latino labour and the politics of disappearance in a New York suburb’ |
18 October |
Professor PAUL Williams (University of Auckland) ‘Reconstructing climate change: Palaeoclimate records from New Zealand speleothems and implications for interhemispherical synchronicity’ |
25 October |
Dr M Durham (University of Durham) ‘Urban morphology but not as we know it: the shape of electronic space’ |
1 November |
Dr B Walter (Anglian Polytechnic University) ‘Whiteness, hybridity and the Irish diaspora’ |
8 November |
Dr D Gilvear (University of Stirling) ‘Fluvial processes and riparian habitat diversity on wandering gravel bed rivers’ |
15 November |
Dr C Barnett (University of Bristol) ‘Media transformation and ‘The politics of shame’ in South Africa’ |
22 November |
Dr M Storper (London School of Economics) ‘The economic geography of the internet age’ |
29 November |
Dr H Southall (University of Portsmouth) ‘Redefining the national memory: the Great Britain historical GIS project’ |