The Dept. of Geography and Earth Sciences at Brunel University in the UK
is slated for closure. The formal process has begun but it is not too
late to appeal to the Council and VC. Please write letters of support
NOW (especially today, if you are able) to
[log in to unmask] (Vice Chancllor of Brunel)
[log in to unmask] (Chair of Council)
with copies to the Head of Department, [log in to unmask]
The postal address is
Brunel University
Uxbridge
Middlesex
UB8 3PH
England
Telephone (01895) 274000; +44 (1895) 274000 (International)
The activities of the Department can be found at
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/depts/geo/
Why does this matter?
Geography & Earth Sciences at Brunel University
GES emerged from the small Department of Geography and Geology at the
West London Institute of Higher Education. Successful in training
hundreds of geography teachers and students, it had also developed a
signigicant national research presence and begun postgrad courses by
the mid 1990s, so that following a merger with Brunel, it was given
full Depaertmental status. Prominent geographers and geoscientist staff
associated with this era included Bill McGuire, Prof of Geosciences at
University College London, Callum Firth, Prof at Brighton, and Sue
Buckingam, a widely published author and radio presenter on gender and
environment and who is the current Head of Department. Other staff to
have passed through Brunel's doors include Andy Cundy (Sussex), Iain
Stewart (Glasgow), Jon Binnie (Manchester Met), Warwick Murray
(Wellington NZ), Simon Batterbury (Arizona), Kate Theobald
(Northumbria) and many more, some listed at top of email. The current
staff include Alan Patterson and Fiona Smith working on labor and
children's geographies, Nicola Ansell and Lorraine Young with interests
in Africa and youth, and Phil Collins (no relation) and Prof. Susanne
Leroy (paleoecology). Two geologists D Rust and S Kershaw allow the
teaching and research to span into Earth Sciences. There are 10
permanent staff.
Brunel's research is rare among British geogrpahy Departments since is
is mostly policy-focused and applied. They obtained a 3a in the last
RAE exercise, but are widely recognised (ask Panel members if you know
them) to have been under-sold in that exercise. From 2001-date (3.25
yrs) the Dept.has earned £700,000 in grants, being £21,978 per person
, an average figure associated with grade 5 RAE departments. THis is
NOT a teaching-only focused Department. Here are some of them:
2003
Evaluation of Third Round Childcare Programme
(New Opportunities Fund: £80,000, 2003) Fiona Smith and John Barker
with SQW limited.
Training Needs of Mothers with Children under 5
(West London Learning Skills Council: £70,000, 2003) Fiona Smith and
Susan Buckingham
Evaluation of Childcare Partnership Managers
(Department for Work and Pensions: £65,000, 2003) Fiona Smith and John
Barker
2002
The Impact of Out of School Childcare on Children and Parents
(DFES: £40,000, 2002) Fiona Smith, John Barker and members of the
Child-Focused Research Centre
Gender differentiated impacts of waste management policies and practices
(European Commission: £27,500, 2002) Susan Buckingham.
Lives in Transition: Street Children in Post-Socialist Societies
(BRIEF: £13,500, 2002) Lorraine Young.
Gendered achievement in Geography & Earth Sciences
(Brunel University Learning & Teaching Research Unit: £8,000, 2002)
Susan Buckingham-Hatfield.
Young AIDS migrants in southern Africa: dissemination
(DFID: £6,404, 2002) Nicola Ansell and Lorraine Young.
Negotiating Boundaries: the Lives of Ethiopian Bar Girls
(Nuffield Foundation: £5,917, 2002) Lorraine Young.
Feasibility of Yellow School Buses
( London Borough of Enfield: £5,000, 2002) John Barker.
Global-local dialogue in responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis in Lesotho?s
education sector: meeting vulnerable children?s needs?
(RGS: £2,000, 2002) Nicola Ansell.
I2004-2005, ICSU Grant, category I, on ?Dark nature: rapid natural
change and human response?. PI: S. Leroy.
May 2003 Leverhulme Trust pilot project on ?Earthquake limnology:
Holocene seismic signature in lakes along the North Anatolian Fault,
Turkey". Suzanne Leroy. A research assistantship will be advertised in
the near future to support this project.
2003-2007 UNESCO-IGCP 490 project grant on ?The role of Holocene
environmental catastrophes in human history?, Suzanne Leroy leader
with I. Stewart.
2003-2007 ? UNESCO-IGCP 481 project grant on ?Dating Caspian Sea Level
Change?, leader: prof. S. Kroonenberg, deputy project leader: S.
Leroy.
Dec. 02-Nov. 04: EU-RELIEF (EV1-CT-002-00069) ?Large earthquake
faulting andimplications for the Seismic hazard assessment in Europe:
the Izmit-Duzce earthquake sequence of Aug.-Nov. 1999 (Turkey, Mw 7.4,
7.1)?, partner 3 , S. Leroy.
01-05-02 to 30.04.04 NATO-CLG, Byzantine seismic catastrophe from a
multidisciplinary sediment analyses in lake Ulubat (Turkey)? S.
Leroy
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Publications are hardly slouching either - look at last two years.
2004
Ansell N and Young L (in press) 'Children's migration as a
household/family strategy: coping with AIDS in Malawi and Lesotho'
Journal of Southern African Studies
Ansell N (in press) ?Secondary schooling and rural youth transitions
in Lesotho and Zimbabwe? Youth and Society
Ansell N (in press) ?Secondary schooling and Basotho women?s
involvement in community organisation? Review of Southern African
Studies
Ansell N (forthcoming) Children and youth in the Third World Routledge,
London
Ansell N (in press) ?AIDS and migration? in Gibney M and Hansen R
Global Migration in the 20th Century: An Encyclopedia (ABC-CLIO,
Oxford)
Ansell N and Young L (2004) 'Enabling households to support successful
migration of AIDS orphans in Southern Africa' AIDS Care 16(1) 3-10
Buckingham S (in press June 2004) 'Ecofeminism in the 21st Century' The
Geographical Journal
Kershaw S and Antonioli FA (in press) Tidal notches at Taormina, east
Sicily: why is the mid-Holocene notch well-formed, but no modern notch
is present in the same locality? In: Antonioli F (ed) Contribution of
the analysis of palaeoshorelines to understanding recent tectonic
movements, Messina Straits, Italy Proceedings of an international
conference, University of Messina, Sicily, 5-8 May 2003, 15 pages
Li, Y., Kershaw, S. and Mu, X. (in press) Ordovician reef systems and
settings in south China before the Late Ordovician mass extinction.
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Smith F (in press) '"It's not all about grades": accounting for gendered
differences in Geography at Brunel University' Journal of Geography in
Higher Education
Young L (in press) 'Journeys to the street: the complex migration
geographies of Ugandan street children' Geoforum
2003
Aldridge TJ, Patterson A and Tooke J (2003) ?Trading Places: geography
and the role of Local Exchange Trading Schemes in local sustainable
development? in: Buckingham S and Theobald K (eds) Local
Environmental Sustainability (Woodhead, Cambridge) 169-194
Altunel E, Stewart IS, Piccardi L and Barka A (2003) 'Earthquake Rupture
at Ancient Cnidus' Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences
Antonioli F, Kershaw S, Rust D and Verrubbi V (2003) 'Holocene sea-level
change in Sicily and its implications for tectonic models: new data
from the Taormina area, northeast Sicily' Marine Geology, 196, 53-71
Batchelor A and Patterson A (2003) ?Sidelining sustainable
development: ?political modernisation? and the implementation of
local sustainable development in Britain? in: Proceedings of the
International Sustainable Development Research Conference (ERP
Environment, Shipley) pp55-62
Barker J (2003) ?Passengers or Political Actors? Involving Children in
Transport Policy?, Space and Polity 7(2) 135-152
Barker J and Weller S (2003) ?Is it Fun?? Developing Children
Centred Methods? International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
23(1) 33-58
Barker J and Weller S (2003) ?Never Work with Children? Methodological
Issues in Children?s Geographies? Qualitative Research 3(2) 207-227
Buckingham S and Theobald K (eds) (2003) Local Environmental
Sustainability (Woodhead Press, Cambridge)
Buckingham S (2003) 'Allotments and community gardens: a DIY approach to
environmental sustainability' in Buckingham S and Theobald K Local
Environmental Sustainability (Woodhead Press, Cambridge)
Giralt S, Julià R, Leroy S and Gasse F (2003) 'Cyclic water level
oscillations of the KaraBogaz Gol - Caspian Sea system' Earth and
Planetary Science Letters
Kershaw S and Guo L (2003) 'Pleistocene cyanobacterial mounds in the
Perachora Peninsula, Gulf of Corinth, Greece: structure, and
applications to interpreting sea-level history and terrace sequences in
an unstable tectonic setting' Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology,
Palaeoecology, 193, 503-514
Leroy S, Kazanci N, Ileri O and Emre O (2003) 'Are an early Byzantine
seismic event (recorded in Lake Manyas sediment, N-W Turkey) and the
end of the Beysehir Occupation Phase linked?' Extended abstract for
NATO workshop, Belgium, May 2003
Leroy S and Simms M (forthcoming) Iron Age to Medieval entomogamous
vegetation and Rhinolophus hipposideros roost in south-eastern Wales
(UK). Special issue on ?Advances in the interpretation of pollen and
spores in coprolites? Owen K Davis (ed) Palaeogeog., Palaeoclimat.,
Palaeoecol.
Li Y and Kershaw S 2003 'Reef construction after extinction events of
the latest Ordovician in the Yangtze Platform, South China' Facies, 48,
269-284
Marret F, Leroy S, Chalié F and Gasse F (in press) New organic-walled
dinoflagellate cyst genus, species, morphotypes and assemblages, from
South Caspian Sea basin sediments (Last glacial and Holocene) Rev.
Palaeobot. Palyn.
Rust D (2003) 'Palaeoseismology in steep terrain: the Big Bend of the
San Andreas fault, Transverse Ranges, California'Tectonophysics,
Special Volume on Palaeoseismology
Westgarth-Smith AR (2003) 'Teaching natural history in undergraduate
biology courses' Biologist 50 (3) 103
Young L (2003) 'The 'place' of street children in Kampala, Uganda:
marginalisation, resistance and acceptance in the urban environment'
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 21, 607-627
Young L and Ansell N (2003) 'Fluid households, complex families: the
impacts of children's migration as a response to HIV/AIDS in southern
Africa' The Professional Geographer 55(4) 464-479
Young L and Ansell N (2003) 'Young AIDS Migrants in Southern Africa:
policy implications for empowering children' AIDS Care 15(3) 337-345
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Undergraduate intake has improved with an average Alevel score just
short of 18 points. Undergraduate placement is excellent, and there is
a thriving PhD programme as well as a Masters.
In many ways the usual story of university corporatism applies - two
working days before the meeting of Senate on 9th March, GES staff
learned that the Department was to be wound down and closed over the
next three years. No staff member was involved in preparing a document
for submisison to the Senate. The issues involved may have been :
Research performance - but see above - few complaints there
Size - but there are 10 ?permanent? academic staff, plus two
lecturers on short-term contracts, and six contract research officers.
The Student/Staff Ratio is 16.9
Budget - But the 2002/03 year ended with a small surplus.
On a personal note - this is the most convivial environment for
undergraduate teaching in Geography I have ever experienced - masses of
student support and amazing reviews from students. Good people and good
research, too. Certainly there have been staff departures to greener
pastures and hard work is required to balance the books, but just look
at that research income!!Closure is madness - with continued efforts,
GES could easily conform to the corporatist model by complying with the
(externally induced) RAE and teaching expectations, and is already
doing so. Remember this is the university that closed the Depts. of
Chemistry and Physics in the 1990s under Mike Sterling, the popular VC
who later went to Birmingham and closed Cultural Studies.
While it seems the VC is not anxious to find a home for GES in an
internal reorganization, the time to act is now. Please write. Thanks.
--
Dr Simon Batterbury
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Geography and Regional Development
The University of Arizona
409 Harvill Building, Box #2
Tucson, AZ 85721-0076, USA
Phone: (520) 626-8054
Fax: (520) 621-2889
http://geog.arizona.edu/~web/faculty.htm
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