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Centre for Rural Policy Research

People

The Centre for Rural Policy Research is co-directed by Professor Matt Lobley and Professor Harry G West.  The centre administrator is Melissa Hawkins

Name Role Keywords
Professor Matt Lobley Co-Director, Professor, Rural Resource Management Sociology of agriculture; Health and well-being in agriculture; succession and retirement; land and agri-environmental management; agricultural restructuring
Professor Harry G West Co-Director, Professor, Anthropology Political anthropology; history and culture of agrarian societies; food studies; food systems and alternative food networks;  heritage foods; geographical appellations and indications; terroir; artisan cheesemaking.
Melissa Hawkins

Administrator/PA to Directors of CRPR  

 
Dr Paul Brassley Honorary Research Fellow Freelance Researcher
Dr Catherine Broomfield Postgraduate Research Associate Rural sociology, farming and society, farmer public engagement, farmer-nonfarmer relationship, food system transition, sustainable livestock farming
Dr Angela Cassidy Senior Lecturer, SPA  
Dr Paul Cleave Honorary Research Fellow  
Dr Steve Emery 

Senior Lecturer, SPSPA

 
Dr Steve Guilbert

Research Fellow

 
Dr Keith Howe Senior Research Fellow.  
Dr Caroline Nye Senior Research Fellow  
Dr Carolyn Petersen Research Fellow Environmental governance, policy learning and change; nature-based solutions and climate change adaptation; links between environment and health and wellbeing; sustainable tourism
Dr Celia Plender Lecturer, Sociology of Food Anthropology of food; food cooperatives; community organising; mutual aid; food and housing insecurity; everyday politics
Professor Duncan Russel Professor, Politics  
Dr Rebecca Wheeler Research Fellow Health and well-being in agriculture; Environmental land management; Rural sustainability and resilience; Public engagement in farming; Rural sociology
Dr Tim Wilkinson Research Fellow  
Professor Michael Winter Chair of Management Board, Professor, Land Economy and Society Sociology of agriculture; agrarian history; agro-food systems; land use change. 
Name Role Keywords
Professor Stewart Barr Professor of Geography  
Dr David Benson Associate Professor, Politics (Cornwall)  
Professor Steffen Boehm Professor in Organisation and Sustainability (Cornwall)  
Professor Claire Dunlop

Professor of Politics and Public Policy

 
Dr Eleanor Hadley Kershaw

Senior Research Fellow 

 
Dr Nick Kirsop-Taylor

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Policy and Governance

 
Professor Jo Little Professor in Gender and Geography  
Professor Stefano Pascucci Professor in Sustainability and Circular Economy  
Dr Clare Saunders Associate Professor, Environment & Sustainability Institute (Cornwall)  
Dr Joanie Willett Lecturer, Politics (Cornwall)  
Dr Hugh Williamson Research Fellow  
Dr Rosalie Jones Mcvey Research Fellow Anthropology, ethics, morality, mental health, horses, politics, green social prescribing
Dr Charles Masquelier Associate Professor  
Dr Lucy Szaboova Postdoctoral Research Fellow   

Other staff

The Centre for Rural Policy Research receives input from a number of University of Exeter academics from other departments and disciplines, plus visiting staff from other institutions.

The Centre is also home to a number of PhD researchers, and is guided by an expert Advisory Board.

Name PhD title
Alessandro Guglielmo

Mutual Metabolisms: Land, Food and More-than-human Bodies in Rural Sardinia

William Jaggard

Painfully delicious: What producing and consuming chilli says about individual identity in British society

Jill Lidgey

The role and future of town markets in the 21st Century

Aoife Maher

Exploring the barriers to alternative horticultural uses for grazing lands

Hannah Mortimer Human-animal interactions and feeding practices on British farms
Anna Seecharan

Food knowledge in migratory bodies: an embodied approach to taste/smell memories through time and space.

Giulia Nicolini

Eating seaweed in the U.K.: Understanding how culture intersects with the environmental sustainability of food

Jo Furtando

Predicting future cultural and natural heritage scenarios on common land

Nina Serbedzija

Farming heritage: Native breed 'revitalisation' in Istria and South West England

Skylar Collins 

Understanding Mental Health, Wellbeing and Risk in UK-small scale fisheries 


 

Recently completed PhDs

Name PhD title
Catherine Broomfield

Making it work here: enabling grassland farming communities to develop a place-based response to the global challenge of living within planetary boundaries

Oliver Moore Feeding time at the zoo: post-war to present day
Jessica Fagin

Boundary and Identity making in “Conventional” and Halal Sheep Slaughter in England

Jed Hilton

The Chef as Activist: The Changing Role and Activism of Contemporary Chefs

Megan Larmer

Towards an edible ethic: land-use, gastronomy, and the politics of rurality in the Hudson Valley 

Eimear Mc Loughlin Slaughterhouse Culture: An Ethnography of Animal Slaughter in Denmark
Hannah Chiswell Rising to the Food Security Challenge:  An Investigation into the Impact of the Food Security Agenda on Farmers and their Successors in the South West of England.
Charlotte-Anne Chivers Exploring the credibility, relevance and legitimacy of environmental advice provisioning surrounding diffuse water pollution from agriculture
Jen Clements  The Cornish agri-environment: attitudes, values and behaviour in uncertain times
Beth Dooly  The Rowan Johnstone PhD Studentship: Reorientating change: an ethnographic look at how farmer discussion groups within the South West promote social learning and build resilience
Adrian Colston Stakeholder attitudes to the Dartmoor Commons: tradition, conflict and the search for consensus in an age of atmospheric pollution and climate change
Georgina Crossman The Organisational Landscape of the English Horse Industry: a Contrast with Sweden and the Netherlands.
Pedro Andrés Garzon Delvaux Woodfuel Supply Chain Integration in the South West of England; A Transaction Costs Approach to Bioenergy Development
Nicholas Kirsop-Taylor Land use Futures - An Ecosystem Services Approach to the 'Land between the Moors'
Gordon Morris People Helping People - An Assessment of the Market Towns and Related Initiatives and the Extent to Which they Addressed Rural Poverty.
Polly Lord The application of employment law in agriculture
Colin Nolden Building Capacity for Climate Change Actions in Rural Communities.
Caroline Nye The John Oldacre Foundation PhD Studentship: Agricultural Labour in the UK: Change and Challenge in the Transition to Sustainable Intensification
Lauren Parry Policy and Practice for the Sustainable Carbon Management of Moorlands.
Celia Plender Food Co-ops in Austerity Britain: Negotiating politics, aid and care in changing times
Tom Richardson
(Tremough)
Science and the Politics of Sustainability: An Analysis of Four Research-Council Funded Bioenergy Projects.
Virginia Thomas Navigating the landscapes and boundaries of rewilding
Tim Wilkinson Perceptions of Exmoor
Cheryl Willis Harnessing Nature’s Benefits: Problems and Prospects for Recognising the Environmental Basis of Regional Tourist Economies.
Name Position Organisation
HONORARY APPOINTMENTS  
Andrew Bell Honorary Research Fellow North Devon Biosphere and Forestry Commission
Professor Adrian Collins Honorary Professor Rothamsted Research
Dr Adrian Colston  Honorary Research Fellow   
Dr Katharina Graf Honorary Research Fellow SOAS Food Studies Centre
Professor Rosie Hails Honorary Professor The National Trust
Dr Jilly Hall Honorary Research Fellow SPSN: Supporting the People who Support Nature
Kaley Hart Honorary Senior Research Fellow IEEP
Dr Matt Heard Honorary Professor The National Trust
Dr Oliver Moore Feeding time at the zoo: post-war to present day  
Dr Phil Le Grice Honorary Research Fellow Rothamsted Research
Professor John McInerney Emeritus Professor  
Richard Soffe Honorary Senior Research Fellow Duchy College Rural Business School
Dr Anne Stobart Honorary Research Fellow  
Sir Harry Studholme Honorary Professor Chair of the Forestry Commission
Dr Virginia Thomas
Honorary Research Fellow  
 ASSOCIATES  
Dr Allan Butler Research Associate Environment Agency
Dr Beth Dooly  Research Associate  
Dr Jessica Fagin

Research Associate

 
Alessandro Guglielmo

Research Associate

 
John Harvey

Research Associate

 
Dr Jed Hilton

Research Associate

 
Dr Gordon Morris Research Associate Freelance Researcher

Hear from some of our members