Spring/Summer 2012 issue - School of Geography - Queen Mary ...

Spring/Summer 2012@QMULGeographyNews on Geography andEnvironmental Science atQueen Mary, University of Londonwww.geog.qmul.ac.ukStudying Geography at QMULopened my eyes to…Follow @QMULGeographyGeogSoc: A verysocial societyThis picture by Beata Nagy (ThirdYear, BSc Geography) was the winningentry in this year’s photographycompetition. Asked to submit a picturewhich completes the caption ‘StudyingGeography or Environmental Scienceat QMUL opened my eyes to…’,students offered great pictures ofplaces both near and far, and of thehuman and physical environments (seethe winning entries on our website:www.geog.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate).Beata’s winning entry was takenwhile on fieldwork in Cornwall for herfinal year Independent GeographicalStudy. The judges liked the waythat a beautifully composed imagecould capture the problem ofenvironmental pollution.As Beata says “Studying Geographyopened my eyes to some of theimpacts that careless humanbehaviour can have on theenvironment. The increasing amountof litter on our beaches not onlycreates an aesthetic issue, it alsoposes a threat to wildlife, can be ahazard to human health and costsmillions to clean up.”The QMUL Geography Society hashad a great year. Between makingfriends, exploring new areas andgoing out it’s a wonder we had time toget our coursework done! ‘Cocktailsand Colouring in’ was our first eventand was a great success. It gave thefreshers a chance to socialise withother like-minded students, as well astheir colleagues in the school. Halfwaythrough the first semester we daringlyleft London for beautiful Epping Forest;exploring the area in our best walkingboots and anoraks in true Geographystyle.The next destination for the Societywas a late night trip to look roundthe Science Museum. As well aslearning about the science of spaceexploration, we danced the night awayin the silent disco, and cooled offafterwards with a walk through WestLondon. Sports has played a crucialrole in the society this year with thesociety football team going fromstrength to strength after beating theLaw Society football team.The year ended on a high with a pubquiz that was so popular the pub ranout of seats! Despite their academicprowess, the lecturers lost out to thesharp minds of the students. As asociety we are really looking forwardto 2012/13 and all the fun that it willbring.GeogSoc Committee: Bel Sadgrove,Lizzie Daish and Rosy Smith

Will the Olympics improve London’s Health?East London playshost to the OlympicGames this summer,and researchersfrom the School ofGeography led byProfessor Steve Cummins areinvestigating what the Games’legacy will be for the city.As Professor Cummins says, over thepast decade health and life chancesin urban environments have seenincreasingly large differences growingbetween the richest and poorestpeople and between the richest andpoorest areas. With over half of theof the world’s population now livingin cities, understanding how urbanenvironments shape the health ofpopulations is a top priority for nationaland local governments, researchersand non-profit organisations. Tacklingthe risks to health where we live, workand play may play a key role in helpingameliorate the widening health ‘gap’between people and places.So an interdisciplinary group of QMULresearchers from across the social,medical and life sciences, led by theSchool of Geography, have cometo together to think creatively abouthow changing the social and physicalenvironments of cities might contributeto improving health. The new Centrefor Urban Health at QMUL will conductbasic science in order to betterunderstand the urban environmentalrisks to health, and crucially, undertakeevaluations of interventions that aim toimprove the health and life chances ofurban communities.A current flagship project for theCentre is the £2 million ORiEL Study,which seeks to evaluate the healthand social legacy of the 2012 LondonOlympics. This project will follow thelives of approximately 3000 familiesover the next five years to investigateif the 2012 games, and its legacy ofchange in East London, will have alasting impact on their lives.Geography and Community: The Big Society?Professor Jane Willsof the School ofGeography is beingfunded by the LeverhulmeTrust to studythe government’sdrive to encourage local communityinvolvement in politics, part of what iscalled “the Big Society”.Her project Place and Politics:Localism in the United Kingdom willexplore how far the new Localism Actprovides scope for local authoritiesand local communities to develop agreater role in planning, local servicesand community-based assets (likelibraries, community centres andparks). The project will chart theoutcomes of top-down and bottom-uplocalism and determine whether it isproducing democratic renewal in theUK. Jane plans to conduct interviewswith national policy makers, andidentify case study locations wherepeople are mobilising around localismto try and effect change in their03areas. She hopes this will allow her tocontribute to policy debate about thedemocratic deficit, the Big Society andthe role of localism in the UK.The project reflects Jane’s widerinterests in community organising.She has got second year studentsin the School of Geography involvedin running research projects forcommunity organisations and sheconvenes the first ever Mastersprogramme in Community Organising.Students study communityorganising in small-groupseminars, but they alsocomplete a practicalassignment working asa volunteer communityorganiser for 5 months withCitizens UK, the network ofcommunity alliances thatincludes London Citizens,Citizens:MK and NottinghamCitizens. The studentsalso work with expertsin film studies to make ashort film about their experiences(see our website). Experiences haveincluded working with the Chinese andCongolese communities in London;focusing on black-majority churchesin London; the launch of new alliancesin North London and Shoreditch;campaigning for a green-man crossingin West London; mapping civilsociety in Goodmayes; and makinglinks between health services andcommunity organising in South London.www.geog.qmul.ac.uk

Field trips: Florida and IrelandStudents on the BSc Geographyand BSc Environmental Scienceprogrammes can elect to takethe module ‘Coastal and AquaticManagement’ in their third year.An important component of thismodule is a 10 day field trip tosouth Florida, USA.“Our field trip to Florida took us fromMiami, through the Everglades, upto the Kissimmee River and LakeOkeechobee and finally to TampaBay. We studied a range of projectsand programmes focussing on therestoration and management of aquaticand coastal environments, includingsub-tropical wetlands, mangroveforests and estuaries. We metscientists at the Everglades NationalPark, Loxahatchee Wildlife Refugeand Tampa Bay Estuary Program,providing us with a great insight intothe complexity of water managementand the issues faced by the restorationof natural habitats. We even spoke toa farmer who was managing his dairyfarm in a water and pollution consciousway. This came as a bit of a shock tomany in the group as he was just asworried about his impact on the localriver as the productivity of his dairyfarm. In addition to these talks, wespent an afternoon canoeing througha restored mangrove environment,which was not just informative butgreat fun. This module tied in with alot of others and greatly widened ourscope and understanding of manymanagement issues. Overall thishas without a doubt been the mostenjoyable and interesting field tripmost of us have ever been on and wewould recommend it to anyone takinga Geography or Environmental Sciencecourse at QMUL.”Rhiannon Jones and Will O’MahoneyThe beach and dune systems at Fort Desoto, South FloridaStudents on the BA Geographyand BA Human Geographyprogrammes can elect to takethe module ‘Geography, Identityand Belonging’ in their second orthird year. The module includes aweek-long trip to Ireland.“Our fieldcourse took us to Dublinand Belfast on a highly memorableand enjoyable trip. In Dublin wefocused on issues of heritage; ourinvestigations took us round the citysights, to the infamous KilmainhamGaol, Collins Barracks, and TrinityCollege Dublin. However, we were alsoable to experience a side of the cityrarely seen by tourists; the Monto,and hear a personal account of thearea’s legacy. Whilst we were stayingin the city we also performed groupinterviews to explore particular aspectsof Irish identity which, for many of us,was our first experience of real-worldresearch. We also got a taste of theIrish countryside as we travelled northto Belfast and all marvelled at theseeming absence of a border betweenthe two countries! Then we jumpedright back in with a city coach tourthat took us to prominent locations ofthe Northern Ireland conflict. As wellas receiving lectures from Queen’sUniversity Belfast we gained aninvaluable education from social andcommunity groups dealing with theongoing conflict. Our final stop wasperhaps the most anticipated: the StPatrick’s Day parade in Belfast. Notonly were we able to observe thecelebrations but we also took part inthe festivities; all in all it was a greatcraic!”Emily Nash04News on Geography and Environmental Scienceat Queen Mary, University of London