Research

Since its foundation in 1994 as a formal research unit within Aberystwyth University, the Centre for Glaciology has become one of the leading British research groups concerned with the study of glaciers and their sedimentary products.

The Centre aims to identify and measure cryospheric processes and evaluate their role in past, present and future global environmental change. The emphasis on field research in process glaciology is intended to provide realistic constraints on the development of numerical models, and to underpin the interpretation of past glacial records.

Our core research themes are glacier dynamics, palaeoglaciology and applied glaciology.

Facilities include a Cryoflux system and dedicated laboratory, drilling equipment and a remote sensing/modelling facility.

Our field research covers a broad geographical spread, and we collaborate with colleagues in many countries. In recent years these have included Antarctica, Greenland, Britain, Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia, mainland Norway, Svalbard, the Swiss, Austrian and French Alps, the Nepalese Himalaya, New Zealand, the Peruvian Andes and the Yukon.

To support our research, the Centre offers a PhD programme in glaciology.

The Earth Surface Processes Research Group seeks to understand the processes occurring on the Earth’s surface by quantifying rates of change and their impact on landforms, river channels, soils, carbon cycles, water and landscape evolution.

We welcome and encourage informal approaches to work with us, either as part of a PhD programme, in developing research proposal applications or to study on the MSc Environmental Change, Impact and Adaptation.

The Quaternary Environmental Change Research Group (QECRG) aims to elucidate environmental change and human-environment linkages over timescales extending from tens of years to hundreds of thousands of years. Proxies for climatic change are retrieved from lake-sediment records, loess, coastal and desert dunes and historical archives. The earth observation unit also focuses on characterising terrestrial environments and their recent response to natural and anthropogenic change.

 The group brings together expertise in:

• Luminescence Research Lab
• Palaeoecology (especially pollen and diatoms)
• Tephrochronology
• Volcanic activity.

To enable this research, the group maintains state-of-the-art laboratories for luminescence dating (NERC-recognized), earth observation (including a Definiens Academic Centre of Excellence), palaeoecology and sediment analysis.

QECRG has eight academic staff (Geoff Duller, Henry Lamb, Nick Pearce, Helen Roberts, Sarah Davies, Richard Lucas, Peter Bunting and John Grattan), several postgraduate research students and research fellows.

Members of the group are leading research projects in records of Holocene tropical climate change in Africa and central America, southern African climates and the record of early modern humans, records of dust flux through the late Quaternary, the impact of volcanic activity on human health. Our research in earth observation and ecosystem dynamics focuses on characterising, mapping and monitoring terrestrial vegetation across a range of biomes.

To support training for research, the QECRG offers a PhD and a one-year MSc in Remote Sensing and GIS.

From 1^st January 2022, the New Political Geographies Research Group will become the Society, Place and Politics Research Group

Members: Professor Michael Woods (Convenor); Dr Jesse Heley; Dr Rhys Dafydd Jones; Professor Rhys Jones; Dr Sinead O’Connor; Dr Marc Welsh; Professor Mark Whitehead.

Post-Doctoral Researchers: Flossie Kingsbury (WISERD Civil Society); Dr Siobhan Maderson (ESRC Post-Doctoral Fellow); Amy Sanders (WISERD Civil Society).

Overview:

The New Political Geographies Research Group is concerned with examining social, economic and political relations and their entanglements with place, space and territory. We work at the intersection of political, social and economic geography, and related fields of sociology, in rural and urban settings in Wales, the UK and internationally. Members of the New Political Geographies Research Group are committed to critical theory-engaged scholarship, drawing on political economy, post-structuralist and feminist theory. The Group have also developed and use innovative practices in qualitative, quantitative and participatory methods. The Group place a strong emphasis on real-world impacts, working with policymakers, civil society groups, businesses and communities.

Members of the New Political Geographies Research Group are engaged in collaborative and inter-disciplinary work with geographers, sociologists, economists, political scientists and psychologists at Aberystwyth University and at other institutions. These activities are centred around the Aberystwyth Behavioural Insights centre (ABi), the Centre for Welsh Politics and Society, the AU Rural Futures Hub, and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD).

Research in the New Political Geographies Research Group is focused around five key themes:

• Behaviour Change, Policy and Sustainability: Research examines the influence of psychological sciences, smart technologies, and forms of knowledge mobilization on public policy, businesses, social relations and individual behaviour. These include ideas of behaviour change, mindfulness and neuroliberalism, as applied to issues around sustainability, climate change, health and language. Activities include theoretical and applied research through the Aberystwyth Behavioural Insights centre (ABi), and current and recent projects: Rethinking Freedom in the Neuro-liberal Age (ISRF), Translating Behaviour Change (Leverhulme Trust), Negotiating Neuroliberalism (ESRC), and High-TEK: Using beekeepers' environmental knowledge to enhance sustainable agriculture and land management (ESRC Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship).
• Civil Society, Participation and Governance: Studies explore various dimensions of civil society and governance, including patterns of participation, volunteering and social mobilization, and the engagement of civil society networks and organizations with respect to issues such as political polarization, migrant rights and environmental change. This work is primarily conducted through the ESRC WISERD Civil Society Research Centre, in collaboration with colleagues at Bangor, Cardiff, Swansea and South Wales universities. Specific DGES-led work packages in the current WISERD Civil Society programme are concerned with elites and patronage in civil society; the role of civil society in reproducing and countering political polarization; and new repertoires of social movement activism, building on work in the previous programme (2014-2019) on redefining local civil society in a global age; the civil society networks of migrant workers in Wales; education, language and identity; and volunteering by older people. Other standalone projects include research on voluntary action responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the four UK jurisdictions (ESRC), and a DGES-led ESRC/IRC networking grant on ‘Civil Society in Turbulent Times’, involving researchers from Ireland and Wales.
• Global Rural Change: Research investigates the dynamics and politics of contemporary change in rural communities, including the impacts of globalization, Brexit and COVID-19. The group is especially active in research on rural Wales, but its scope also extends globally with recent research in other parts of Europe, North America, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, China and parts of Africa. Work by the group contributes to theory-building and debate in rural studies, but also to rural policy and the practice of rural development. Current and recent projects include ROBUST (Horizon 2020) on rural-urban synergies, involving collaboration with the Welsh Local Government Association in developing a Rural Vision for Wales; and GLOBAL-RURAL (ERC Advanced Grant), which examined diverse aspects of globalization in rural localities in over 30 case studies across 15 countries. Other projects include work on the impact of Brexit on fisheries communities in Wales and Brittany, a DGES-led ESRC/MOST networking grant on ‘Transnational Theory-Building for Researching the Global Countryside’ with researchers in the UK and Taiwan, and contributions to the UK-Ireland Rural Futures Network (ESRC/IRC).
• Identity, Migration and Community: Work explores various dynamics and experiences of migration and their intersection with rural and urban communities, as well as wider questions of national, local, ethnic and religious identity. Research by group members includes work on EU migrants in Wales and Ireland, refugee resettlement, domestic migration and gentrification, international student mobility, and precarious rural cosmopolitanism, as well as a long-standing concern with the reproduction of Welsh national identity. Elements of this research have been funded as part of grants including IMAJINE (Horizon 2020), GLOBAL-RURAL (ERC Advanced Grant) and the ESRC WISERD Civil Society Research Centre.
• Spatial Justice and Inequalities: Research is concerned with the patterns and politics of social and territorial inequalities, in particular viewed through the conceptual framework of ‘spatial justice’. Interests include understanding the drivers of inequalities and perceptions of spatial (in)justice, but also analysis of policies to address inequalities and reframe approaches (such as the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act in Wales) and of connections between spatial (in)justice and disruptive politics, including Brexit and the rise of populism. Work on this theme has primarily been undertaken through the DGES-led Horizon 2020 project IMAJINE on territorial inequalities and spatial justice in Europe.

The New Political Geographies Research Group also hosts a vibrant cohort of postgraduate students and we welcome enquiries about PhD supervision on subjects within the above themes. Examples of current and recently completed PhD topics include: Spatial justice and the governing of future wellbeing in Wales (Greg Edwards); corporate-led behaviour change (Will Collier); mindfulness, decision-making and engagement in public policy-making (Rachel Lilley); the slow food movement and translocal assemblages (Emanuele Amo); health as social practice (Lauren Powell); land-grabbing in Liberia (Fidel Budy); radical political activism in Wales (Rhodri Aled Evans); faith-based international volunteering (Beth Saunders); and migration discourse and right-wing politics in rural Sweden and Wales (Ellen Hjort).

Sociologists in the department examine the following key themes in their research: feminist theory, gender, disability, care and precarity. Sociology staff take an intersectional approach to age, disability, class, and gender/sexuality, and apply sociological theory to key contemporary issues of precarity (like the crisis in health and social care, or the welfare state) to have real world significance. These and further vital themes, such as the social and cultural dimensions of digital society, and the related social changes, form part of our research.

Dr Bethany Simmonds is Senior Lecturer and Programme lead for Sociology. Bethany’s research expertise is in the sociology of ageing and health. She recently published a book entitled Ageing and the Crisis in Health and Social Care (2021) in the ‘Ageing in a global context’ series in Bristol University Policy Press. It examines the impact of globalisation, neoliberalism, austerity policies and ageism on health and social care systems in the UK, Sweden and Germany. It came to the conclusion that the pandemic drew attention to some precarious systems and some which do not provide a dignified service for older people. The book discusses some of the applied health research she carried out as a Research Associate in the Department of Social and Community Medicine (and other departments) at the University of Bristol. She is currently developing some of the themes which emerged from her book, including moving towards a feminist ethics of care instead of necropolitical state decision-making of ageing/death in health and social care systems, and exploring the use of the concept of ‘precarity capitalism’ to galvanise intergenerational grievances around climate justice.

Dr Emma Sheppard is Lecturer in Sociology. Emma’s research expertise is in critical disability studies, particularly the lived experience and sociocultural understandings of pain and fatigue. She has recently published her first book, Chronic Pain, BDSM and Crip Time as a part of Routledge’s ‘Interdisciplinary Disability Studies’ series. In this, she explores how thinking about chronic pain and fatigue with ‘crip time’ exposes normative, ableist, assumptions underlying both how pain and the ideas of cure and recovery are understood. Her wider research encompasses disability futurities, time, and joy.

Dr Yvonne Ehrstein is also Lecturer in Sociology. Yvonne’s research expertise is in the sociologies of gender, work and the digital. As a feminist sociologist, her work is animated by questions about inequalities and power relations. In her current research, she explores what the ‘digital turn’ means in particular for mothers and people with caring responsibilities. Her work on gender, social reproduction and digital parenting is published in the journals ‘Feminism & Psychology’ and ‘European Journal of Cultural Studies’, and in the edited book ‘Neoliberalism in Context’. Yvonne’s broader research interests centre around social, cultural and (post)feminist theory, the neoliberalisation of culture, conceptualisations of care and work-life balance across the online-offline spheres, as well as digital and innovative social research methods.

Postgraduate Studies in Sociology

Sociology staff can also offer supervision on a number of unique and contemporary topics, such as digital feminism, necropolitical decision making, and queer-crip theory. If you are interested in a PhD in Sociology have a look at the following page which details how to apply. A number of potential funding routes exist to support your PhD research, including the Welsh Graduate School of Social Sciences funding and the AHRC South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. Alternatively, you could also apply via the university scheme AberDoc, or as a self-funding student.

If you’re not quite ready for a PhD but want to study Sociology at postgraduate level, there is a Masters course entitled Society, Space and Place, which includes a sociological pathway taken through a combination of mandatory core modules and selected optional modules which reflect the breadth of research interests across multiple departments. The course is a recognised training pathway by the ESRC Wales DTP, making it ideal if you are considering a PhD, or aiming to develop a career in government, public bodies, or research institutes.

ICEM's goal is to investigate the occurrence and activity of microorganisms and associated biogeochemical processes and their interactions with earth materials (waters, rocks and soils) in extreme environments (cold, hot, high pressure, high metal concentration). We utilise this understanding for geoengineering solutions to environmental, energy, health and resource issues with key stakeholders. Research themes include applied biomineralisation for carbon storage, glacier geomicrobiology and biogeochemistry, antibiotic discovery, and the bioremediation of metals and radionuclides.

The Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Research Group (IGSRG – AberGender) is a crossdepartmental research group based at Aberystwyth University. It draws together research on genders, sexualities, society, politics and intersectionality across the University, providing an interdisciplinary hub for collaboration and knowledge exchange within Aberystwyth and beyond.

The goal of the group is to bring together students and members of staff from different departments within Aberystwyth University who have common interests.  We offer a transdisciplinary forum for discussion, networking, personal and professional development, and a more general exchange of ideas. Beyond the immediate realm of Aberystwyth University, we also aim to establish further networks with interested people studying or working in other universities and institutions, including activists and artists. Such dialogues raise both awareness and questions for the themes present in our research.  

Following on from the success of our re-launch in May 2024, we seek to consolidate and further relationships with individuals and groups working on issues relating to gender.

E-mail: gender@aber.ac.uk  

Interim Co-convenors

Yvonne Ehrstein, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, yve@aber.ac.uk

Megan Talbot, Department of Law and Criminology, met32@aber.ac.uk