Profile

Overview

Jennifer is a researcher on the ESRC-funded Nature Recovery and Regional Development (NaRReD) project. She is affiliated with the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) in Penryn, and works remotely from North Yorkshire.

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Research

Research interests

Jennifer's research interests relate broadly to the cultural geographies and environmental politics of agriculture, animals, and nature-friendly land management. Throughout her work, she has also become increasingly interested in digital ecologies and visual methodologies, both of which were central conceptual elements to her PhD research.  

Following Brexit and the UK's departure from the Common Agricultural Policy, Jennifer has worked closely on the development of England's new agri-environment policy and in particular the co-design of the Environmental Land Management schemes. This work has included continued engagement with farmers across the country as a part of the Sustainable Farming Incentive National Pilot, and innovative mechanisms for the delivery of environmental public goods, including results-based and collective approaches. Jennifer is extremely passionate about incorporating the knowledge and experience of rural communites into the development of agri-environment policy and practice. 

Research projects

At Exeter, Jennifer's research is focused on the NaRReD project. In Phase One, this research will involve large scale analysis of Nature Recovery strategies and approaches across the Britain's Leading Edge Networrk of rural Local Authorties in England. This research will be conducted through detailed analyses of existing literature and documentation relating to regional nature recovery, alongside over 100 interviews with key practitioners involved in the delivery of these approaches across England.

Jennifer's PhD research focused on the digital, cultural, and environmental geographies of rural landscapes. Her thesis examined the extent to which dominant representations and mediations of the Lake District National Park as a romanticised rural landscape have been continued through contemporary digital mechanisms of communication such as social media. The overarching aim of her thesis was to develop a digital ecology of the '#LakeDistrict', by exploring how these powerful imaginaries may be contested by local rural communities whose perspectives are absent in digital media, namely the fell farming families whose Herdwick sheep are often the subject of intense debate regarding the Lake District's management. Jennifer's research utilised a diverse range of experimental research methods, from large-scale digital analyses of existing online #LakeDistricts, to collaborative digital image elicitation with rural communities. Her studies address how social media inherits and transforms power relations between media and rural space, and how we might rematerialise a local, everyday account of the rural in the contemporary English context.

Research networks

Jennifer is a member of the Digital Ecologies working group, a collection of early-career researchers interested in the relationship between digital technologies and more-than-human environments.

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Office Hours:

Monday - Wednesday

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