Overview
Join us for a PhD in Geography. Our research engages with applied issues and public policy concerns. It also covers more abstract cultural and theoretical issues.
Meet our Geography research students and read more about their research activities
Our research strengths in physical geography include:
- paleoclimatology
- landscape evolution
- applied geomorphology and natural hazards
- Quaternary geochronology
- glaciology
- water science
We carry out research through active collaboration with colleagues in Newcastle University and beyond. Our research takes us to a wide variety of environments across the globe, including:
- the UK
- Greenland
- Iceland
- Patagonia
- Turkey
- USA
- Tibet
- Japan
Examples of recent research projects include:
- new homonid discovery in South Africa
- Lake Suigetsu ultra-high-resolution palaeoclimate project
- impacts of recent catastrophic floods in the North of England
- impact of meltwater floods during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption in Iceland
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funds many of our research projects. We are also a member of the IAPETUS Doctoral Training Partnership.
Our Physical Geography PhD involves advanced study and research into a specific area. You'll undertake fieldwork or lab-based research in topics such as:
- flood impacts on natural and human systems
- fluvial geomorphology and sedimentology
- glacial outburst floods
- glacial geomorphology
- volcano-ice interactions
- tectonic geomorphology
- geoarcheology
Our research in economic geographies is theoretically informed and politically engaged. It covers the production, forms, experiences and impacts of uneven geographies of:
- commodities
- people
- finance
- knowledge
- technology
- intrastructure
Our team of internationally renowned researchers explore 'ordinary', diverse and/or ‘left behind’ economies and subjectivities. They also scrutinise orthodox socio-economic models and practices in the following contexts:
- western industrialised
- post-socialist
- post-colonial
Replace: Economic-geographical research constitutes much of the work in the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS).
In power, space, politics our research focuses on the expression of political power across space and includes topics around:
- borders and boundaries
- critical geopolitics
- international development
- militarism and military geographies
- the politics of representation
- issues of resistance, justice and peace
- the geographies of memory and memorialisation
We conduct research on a range of scales. From the international and national to the individual, with reference to a range of global contexts. Our work is methodologically innovative, drawing on:
- interactional research
- ethnographic research
- discourse analysis
- participatory research
- visual research
- arts-based research
- trauma-informed research
This enables us to produce grounded, empirically informed reflections on the multiple ways in which concepts of power, space and politics intersect.
In geographies of social change we explore and extend an applied, critical and geographical understanding of social justice and transformation by researching:
- identity
- families and households
- health
- welfare and care
- infrastructures
- community
These lead us to connect with issues of:
- gender
- race
- ethnicity
- migration
- youth
- religion
- class
- size
- generation
Find out more about our geographies of social change research
Many of the research opportunities in geography are interdisciplinary and we are keen to encourage supervision across subject areas. For example, there are opportunities for joint supervision with Latin American researchers in the School of Modern Languages.
Important information
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