Graduate Studies 2007 – 2008
Introduction from the Director
The 2007-2008 year saw the Graduate School continue its position as one of the largest MPhil/PhD training programmes in Geography in the UK. 15 PhDs were awarded, as well as 26 MPhil degrees across the four programmes of Environment, Society and Development, GIS and Remote Sensing, Geographical Research, and Polar Studies. 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; over 200 applications were processed in 2007 – 2008, and 36 students admitted. This burden falls heavily onto the Graduate Office, staffed by Gae Matthews, who continues to give magnificent support to staff and students. 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.
Professor R J Bennett
Director of Graduate Studies
Statistics
| Applications | Offers | Admissions (1 Oct, following academic year) |
Passes | Fails | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
PhD |
2004/2005 | 48 | 28 | 14 | * | None |
| 2005/2006 | 50 | 32 | 15 | * | None | |
| 2006/2007 | 38 | 15 | 13 | * | None | |
| 2007/2008 | 60 | 32 | 12 | * | None | |
|
Environment, Society & Development |
2004/2005 | 66 | 66 | 13 | 8 | None |
| 2005/2006 | 64 | 16 | 11** | 10 | None | |
| 2006/2007 | 57 | 19 | 13** | 12 | None | |
| 2007/2008 | 75 | 25 | 14** | 13 | None | |
|
GIS & Remote Sensing |
2004/2005 | 31 | 18 | 9 | 9 | None |
| 2005/2006 | 37 | 21 | 13 | 11 | 2 | |
| 2006/2007 | 24 | 12 | 6 | 5*** | None | |
| 2007/2008 | 25 | 13 | 6 | 6 | None | |
|
Quaternary Science |
2004/2005 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 2 | None |
| 2005/2006 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | None | |
| 2006/2007 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | None | |
|
Geographical Research |
2004/2005 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 6 | None |
| 2005/2006 | 17 | 11 | 8 | 8 | None | |
| 2006/2007 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 4 | None | |
| 2007/2008 | 18 | 11 | 4 | 4 | None | |
|
Polar Studies |
2004/2005 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 5 | None |
| 2005/2006 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 3*** | None | |
| 2006/2007 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | None | |
| 2007/2008 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 4 | None |
* see details below for details of PhDs awarded in 2007/08
** one student intermitted to 2008-09
*** one student left halfway through year
Dissertation Titles 2007-2008
MPhil in Environment, Society, and Development
| Name | Dissertation title |
|---|---|
| Rohini CHATURVEDI | Participation in biodiversity planning: a case of the Indian NBSAP |
| Jack DESHAYES | The social construction of nature at London Wetland Centre |
| Eunice ESHUN | Critically assessing water privatisation in West Africa |
| Rachana JOSHI | Damming the nation: An analysis of the discourses and tactics used by the trans-national pro-dam advocacy network in the Sardar Sarovar Dam Project, Gujarat, India |
| Scott KNACKSTEDT | The scientific narrative in Central African Development. Conservation and sustainability |
| Shailesh NAGAR | Biofuel in India: Context, Actors and Discourses |
| Tobias NYUMBA | Coping with human-elephant conflict in Laikipia District, Kenya |
| Jacob PHELPS | Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation: examining the forest carbon partnership facility pilot in democratic Republic to Congo |
| Marguerite RAVN | Environmental impacts of refugee camps; the impact of refugees on forests and wildlife |
| Peter SIGRIST | The political ecology of architecture in Dharavi |
| Salamat TABBASUM | Local institutions and conservation: a comparison of two UNESCO World Heritage proposals in Soloman Islands |
| Nok Ki YEUNG | Politics of Shark Fin – A case study on Hong Kong |
| Olivia R RENDON THOMPSON | Promotion of oil palm as biofuel feedstock and conservation strategies in Honduras |
MPhil in Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing
| Name | Dissertation title |
|---|---|
| Alimi TEMITOPE | Comparative analysis of associations between air pollution and stroke in four countries in the United Kingdom |
| Emma GATTI | Nitrogen species in volcanic plumes: an investigation based on differential optical absorption spectroscopy |
| Thomas GILBERT | Global wind-wave climate |
| Ekaterina SHIPIGNIA | Spatial variation in land cover change using multi-temporal satellite images of the Kola Peninsula, Russia |
| Samantha WALKER | Exploration of GIS and ABM methods with Time Series Analysis |
| Yu WANG | GIS-based spatial analysis on human birth defects and related geographical risk factors in China |
MPhil in Geographical Research
| Name | Dissertation title |
|---|---|
| Tania KOSSBERG | Cross-cultural factors in the interpretation of suicide |
| Jacob LEVY | The Impacts of Swedish Sex work legislation – An applicable model? |
| Ben TAYLOR | Ethiopia’s Growth set to bloom: GPN Analysis of a Neoliberal Experiment |
| Tatiana THIEME | Poverty and the new role of business: from rhetoric to action |
MPhil in Polar Studies
| Name | Dissertation title |
|---|---|
| Rachel Carr | The effects of ocean temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet |
| Alasdair Graham | Moose River flood event sequence and the 8,200 BP cold-event |
| Sylvan Long | Modelling the hydrology of a Greenland outlet glacier |
| Nicola Stiastny | Images of the Indigenous in Modern Media |
PhDs awarded 2007-2008
| Alexander Antonarakis | The potential of LiDAR in recovering physical data on floodplain vegetation to parameterise flow resistance |
| Clint Ballinger | Institutions vs. Geography in Economic Development |
| Shiri Breznitz | Geography of de-vertical industrial districts |
| Gemma Burgess | The Ethiopian Women’s Movement: women’s rights organisations and the role of legal change |
| Andrew Currah | Software formats, the internet and the restructuring of the Hollywood studio system |
| Fiona Danks | GIS and remote sensing applied to reindeer ecology in the European Arctic |
| Louise Driffill | Discussion, Deliberation and Decision-making: A Case-Study of Citizen Participation in Land-Use Planning |
| Sarah Farquhar | Astronomically Calibrated Late-Cenozoic History and Biostratigraphy of Eastern Mediterrranean Sea using Dinoflagellate Cysts |
| Rory Gallagher | Queering Sex Tourism: The Geographies of Gay, Transgender and Female Sex Tourism in South-East Asia in the Time of HIV |
| Will Harvey | International Migration, Social Networks, and Getting Jogs: British and Indian Scientists in Boston |
| Joel Jennings | Hidden Faces – Scaled Spaces: Latinos in the Heartland |
| Danijel Mekic | Collaboration of British Chambers of Commerce and University of Cambridge |
| Zerihun Mohammed | Resource Competition and inter-ethnic relations: the Case of Arsi Oromo and Sidama in South-Central Ethiopia |
| Francesca Moore | Beyond the Ideal: Motherhood in Industrial Lancashire 1860 -1937 |
| Ruth Mugford | Numerical Modelling of Sediment Delivery from Tidewater Glaciers to the Marine Environment |
| Konstantinos Oikonomou | A study of small business growth: evidence and models from Greece |
| Jongsoon Park | An integrated application of GIS and Remote Sensing |
| Hugo Rienert | |
| Georgina Sawyer | Open-path spectroscopy of gas emissions from lava lakes |
| Ivan Scales | Forest Frontiers: The Political Ecology of Landscape Change in Western Madagascar |
| Izak Smit | The Impact of artificial surface water sources |
| Matthew Wilburn | Political Ecology of Mangroves in Southern Honduras: The emergence and evolution of environmental conflict in the Gulf of Fonseca 1973-2006 |