Dr Elsbeth Robson

Post Nominals	BSc, MA, DPhil, FRGS, SFHEA, UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor
Biography	Dr Elsbeth Robson is a Reader in Human Geography within the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Hull where she leads the ‘Living with Death - Learning from COVID’ research cluster. As an esteemed social scientist Elsbeth has extensive research leadership experience in the areas of social inequality, ethics and social justice, particularly with respect to women, children and youth. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) she has more than two decades expertise teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate geography, development studies and social science programmes in the UK; with significant experience of teaching fieldclasses at home and overseas (Malta, Kenya and Malawi). She is a highly sought-after experienced doctoral supervisor awarded research supervisor recognition from the UK Council for Graduate Education. With a disciplinary background in human and development geography, she firmly espouses critical scholarship as a feminist geographer, an Africanist and children’s geographer. Elsbeth’s approach to research is trans and inter-disciplinary founded on working in collaborative teams to conduct impactful emancipatory research using qualitative, participatory and quantitative methods. Geographically, her research record has for thirty-five years been firmly rooted in sub-Saharan Africa and the global South, while being agile to re-align her research interests more recently in respond to the greatest global challenge of our times - the impacts of COVID in both the Majority and Minority worlds. She has conducted in-person research fieldwork in Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and Ethiopia; as well as worked with multi-country teams in South Africa and Ghana. In the UK Dr Elsbeth Robson has been employed by the University of Hull and Keele University, with previous academic affiliations at Durham, Liverpool and Brunel Universities. In Africa she has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi and the Economic and Social Research Centre at Ahmadhu Bello University (Nigeria). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Zimbabwe, Gothenburg University (Sweden), University of Oulu (Finland) and Leiden University (Netherlands) and guest lecturer at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt Ingolstadt (Germany), the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), and City University New York (USA). Elsbeth has been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for more than three decades and in 2015 she was invited to become a fellow of the African Studies Centre, Leiden University (Netherlands). Elsbeth has a distinguished service record of committee work in scholarly societies and research councils being currently a member of the ESRC peer review college, a former invited Council Member of the African Studies Association UK and committee member of the Society of Malawi. In 2009-10 she contributed to the Child and Youth Institute of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar (Senegal). She has given many years’ service to the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) as founder member of the Geographies of Justice research group and undertaking committee roles for the Development Geographies Research Group (formerly DARG), the Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group (formerly WGSG) and the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group – most recently as co-facilitator of the 2023 week-long writing retreat. In 2016 she was appointed founding chair of Save the Children UK’s Research Ethics and Evaluation Committee (REEC) and is still a serving REEC member. She has been called upon as an expert advisor to UNICEF. She is the author of numerous articles and has co-authored/co-authored three well-reviewed books. Elsbeth has published widely in the fields of geography, development, health and childhood studies. She has made a particular contribution to the discipline of children’s geographies as founding editorial board member (since 2002) and co-editor (2016-2019) of Children’s Geographies journal currently serving as an active editorial board member recently contributing to a statement on the conflict in Gaza. She was an active member of the editorial board of the Journal of Geography in Education for over a decade. She has also been a reviewing editorial board member for Sustainability. Currently, Elsbeth is supporting journals in the Global South as peer reviewer for the Society of Malawi journal and in 2023 was appointed as editorial board member to the Africa Journal of Religion and Culture. Elsbeth is a trained and experienced writing retreats facilitator and has led retreats in the UK, Scotland and Ethiopia for postgraduates, academic staff and international research teams. Elsbeth values the experiences gained from volunteering and has a long history of voluntary roles from working in a Kenyan orphanage during a gap year in 1985-6, being a cultural attaché during the World Student Games in Sheffield 1991 to a City of Culture volunteer in Hull in 2017 and during the COVID pandemic. She is currently a parent governor and director of the Ron Dearing University Technical College in Hull serving on the personal development committee and has been a committee member of the Avenues and Pearson Park Resident’s Association (APPRA) in Hull. As a qualified mountain leader (summer) Elsbeth volunteers as a walking and expedition leader for HFHolidays, Scouts and the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. She has undertaken several long-distance walks and bike rides to raise funds for Shine Relief Malawi and was recently invited to become a trustee for the Friends of Blantyre Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi. PROFESSIONAL ROLES HELD Founding chair Save the children UK Research and Evaluation Ethics Committee ( 2016 - 2019). Co-Editor Children's Geographies journal, Taylor & Francis (2012-2015). Invited contributor to UNICEF Expert round table on children's Care Work, Florence, Italy (2016). Consultant for and contributor to UNICEF Ethical Research Involving Children: International Charter and Guidelines www.childethics.com FRGS (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers, since 1990) Former Member of the Association of American Geographers Council member, African Studies Association UK (2019-2022) SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, since 2015) UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor (2022)
Research Interests	Engagement with policy and practice underlies my research / consultancy and I have considerable experience of knowledge exchange ensuring policy relevance and maximum impact. My research and consultancy while resident in Malawi ( 2004-2013) involved collaborating internationally with universities, government and non-governmental organizations. Recent consultancy has engaged with UNICEF and Save the Children UK ; while being informed by political economy and feminist theoretical approaches (with a concern for ethics). RECENT RESEARCH PROJECTS: Co-I, REIMAGINE: Recognising and supporting informal Mhealth in Africa through grassroots interventions, MRC 2024-2026 £621,824 PI Prof Kate Hampshire (Durham) PI, Living with Death: Learning from COVID research cluster, University of Hull, 2021-2029 £348,960 equivalent (5 fully funded PhD studentships & support), hull.ac.uk/covidcluster Co-I, REACH: Research on factors influencing community health workers' effectiveness, Save the Children, Care, AMREF Health Africa, GSK 2019-2020, £84,639, PI Kate Hampshire (Durham) Co-I, IMAGINE: Building an Evidence Base to Support and Enhance Community Health Workers' (informal) use of Mobile Phones in Ghana, Malawi and Ethiopia, MRC-Wellcome Trust-DFID-ESRC 2018-2019 £197,472 PI Prof Kate Hampshire (Durham) PI, Malawi scoping activity - Hospital Patient Guardians in sub-Saharan Africa, GCRF 2018, £3,593 CoIs Liz Walker & Mayeso Lazaro Co-I, Social Cash Transfers, generational relations and youth poverty trajectories in rural Lesotho and Malawi, ESRC-DFID PI Prof Nicola Ansell (Brunel), CoIs Robson, van Blerk, Hajdu, Mwathunga, Hlabana 2015-2019, £338,000 https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Projects/cash-transfers-youth# Malawi collaborator, Mobile Phones and Youth in Africa ESRC-DFID PI Prof Gina Porter (Durham) co-I Kate Hampshire (Durham) et al 2012-2015, £460,000, https://www.dur.ac.uk/child.phones/ Malawi collaborator, Children, Transport and Mobility in Sub-Saharan Africa Developing a Child-Centred Evidence Base to Improve Policy and Change Thinking Across Africa, ESRC-DFID PI Prof Gina Porter (Durham), co-I Kate Hampshire (Durham) et al 2006-2009, £353,932, https://www.dur.ac.uk/child.mobility/ Co-I, Averting 'New Variant Famine' in Southern Africa: building food-secure livelihoods with AIDS-affected young people, DFID-ESRC £201,757 2007-8 PI Prof Nicola Ansell (Durham), Co-Is Lorraine van Blerk (Dundee) & Elsbeth Robson
Teaching and Learning	My teaching in human geography spans from Level 3 to Level 7. Current module contributions and leadership include: 400145 Exploring Worlds Around Us 400146 Interpreting Environments 400150 Development and Change (module leader) 500182 Field Study (UK) 600266 Dissertation in Human Geography 600256 Conservation in a Changing World 600250 Food, Space & Society 600249 Cities and Regions 700208 Contemporary Research in Human Geography (module leader) 701285 DTP Doctoral Training Year 1 (module leader) 700449 Dissertation Geography (module leader) Previous recent teaching contributions include: 330114 Introduction to Geography (module leader) 16671 Worlds of Connection and Difference 16984 Professional Consultancy Project 16273 Research Methods 2 500189 Frontiers in Human Geography 16372 Children's Geographies (module leader) 16343 Advanced Field Study - Malawi (module leader) 600254 Global South (module leader) 581628 MSc Environmental Change Management Dissertation
Scopus Author ID	7006811836
PhD Supervision Availability	Yes
PhD Topics	I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students in these areas of research interest (and beyond): Pandemics & Viral Geographies Sub-Saharan Africa & Global South Global Development Challenges Children, Youth Gender and Feminism Ethics, Inequalities, Justice & Inclusion COVID-19, Health & Well-being Digital Geographies CURRENT PHD STUDENTS Mavuto Banda (University of Hull studentship 2020-2023/4) 'Unintended victims of modern humanitarian ant-slavery bans: An evaluation of child labour bans in Malawi's commercial agriculture' (Lead supervisor) Lucia Crowther (Wellcome Trust Doctoral Studentship 2021-2024/5) 'Exploring 'the domestic' in contemporary hospice architecture: A critical examination of the architecture and design of in-patient palliative care facilities in England' (Acting lead/third supervisor) Saira Mian (University of Hull studentship 2022-2024/5) 'Mapping geographical intersectional inequalities in deathscapes and topographies of bereavement' (lead supervisor) Emmanuel Abalo (ESRC WRDTP studentship 1+3 2021-2024/5) 'The governance and politics of plastic waste management in Ghana' (lead supervisor) Thandie Hlabana (Leverhulme Centre for Water Cultures scholarship 2022-2025/6) 'Gendered survival: Women and water crises in Southern Africa' (lead supervisor) Ryan Clarke (University of Hull studentship 2022-2024/5) 'Learning from historical disease pandemics about strategies for memorialising remote deaths' (third supervisor) Stephen Nachibi (ESRC WRDTP studentship 1+3 2022-2025/6) 'Ethnobotanical knowledge and sustainable food systems in Africa' (second supervisor) Dzifa Puplampu (ESRC WRDTP studentship 1+3 2022-2025/6) 'Gendered perspectives of climate change in informal settlements of Accra, Ghana' (second supervisor) COMPLETED PhDs (Lead Supervisor) Nicola Ansell 1999 ‘Southern African secondary schools: places of empowerment for rural girls? Cases from Lesotho and Zimbabwe', Department of Environmental Social Sciences: Keele University. (now Professor in Human Geography, Brunel University). Mayeso Lazaro 2018 (University of Hull studentship 2015 -2018) ‘Grandfathers caring for orphaned grandchildren in rural Southern Malawi: Invisible in plain sight?' (now Lecturer in Human Ecology, University of Malawi). Bronia Cross 2019 (University of Hull studentship 2014 - 2017) ‘The historical geographies of European Childhood in Colonial Africa: Children's lives in Nyasaland 1889-1964'. Kalliopi Kaparounaki 2019 (University of Hull studentship 2014 - 2017) ‘Caregiving children in Malawi: Children's work within families affected by illness and disability' (now Lecturer in social work, Dundee University). Mbali Pewa 2020 (Commonwealth Scholarship 2015 - 2019) ‘Household Waste Management in a South African Township' (now Senior Lecturer, Department of Geography, University of South Africa UNISA, Pretoria, South Africa)