Our Research

Geography staff at Canterbury Christ Church University are actively engaged in research that encompasses the breadth of the geography and aspects of environmental science, and directly informs our teaching, including chances for students to study real-world issues in the field.

Our expertise spans human and physical geography and our reputation has national and international standing, particularly within the cartographic, environmental, and urban economic geography research communities, and our engagement with sustainability education.

Staff regularly present their research at national and international conferences and publish in peer-reviewed research journals (see staff profiles for details) and are always keen to share their expertise.

Research in Geography falls under the following themes:

• Maps and society
• Sense of place/cultural landscapes*
• Urban economic geography
• Woodland, forest ecology and ethnobotany
• Geomorphology and Quaternary Science

Research outputs in Geography contributed to the Politics and International Studies Unit of Assessment (UoA) in REF2014, with the majority of the cluster’s submissions classed from ‘world leading’ to ‘internationally recognised’.

The Geography Research Group (GRG) coordinates activities related to the research environment, such as research seminars and local conferences.

* The 'Sense of Place Special Interest Group' is a theme group within the Geography Research Group (GRG). It includes several members of staff with specific interests in cultural landscapes, and sense of place and belonging, and works closely with other staff in the university, in History, English and other areas of the humanities. The group has run or contributed to a number of key events at Christ Church; including the recent 'Landscape, Space, and Place: Arts and Humanities Faculty Research Conference', (May, 2018), and the 'Sense of Place: Imagination and the landscapes of Kent', Geography Research Group Conference and Field Event (June 2017).

PHD Profiles

Ian Byrne The strategies used for, and depiction of, service station locations on promotional road maps – an in-depth review from the earliest examples to the era of online mapping.	PROFILE
Martin Davis The Cartographic Output of the Military Topographic Directorate of the Soviet Union	PROFILE

Geography Internships

We offer a range of paid internships to our Events, Leisure and Tourism students, offering the chance to collaborate with us on important research. 

Michael Boorman Michael Boorman investigated the ways in which maps are portrayed in the broadsheet media. During his internship he studied a range of newspapers to look at exactly how maps are presented via media outlets. He looked at the size, colour and style of the maps, and used this information to add to the University's research in this area.	PROFILE
Alex Bass Alex is working as a research assistant this summer (2019) on the Meaningful Maps project. The aim of the project is to involve children from diverse backgrounds and geographical settings in the UK in mapping the places that matter to them http://meaningfulmaps.org/. The project, based in Geography, is endorsed by Geographical Association (GA) and the British Cartographic Society (BCS). Alex is involved in managing the archive of maps and developing a typography to help us understand the meanings invested in the maps by the children that drew them.