Overview

Catherine is a human geographer whose work is unified by an interest in landscape, place, identity and social relations in space. Most recently, Catherine’s research has followed two main strands looking at: i) social innovation and volunteering in place; and ii) landscape and climate change. 

Social Innovation and Volunteering in Place: Catherine's research asks how social innovation is linked to the particular configurations of people, energy, resources, agencies, and organisations in place. She also looks at the role of volunteers in social innovation. She is co-director of the Social Innovation Group (SIG), with Michael Leyshon. SIG research focuses on place-based, person-centred approaches to care, however broadly care is defined. The SIG team currently work on several EU-funded projects with Volunteer Cornwall, local housing associations, local GPs, the Eden Project, and other organisations in Cornwall and beyond. 

Landscape and climate change: this work focuses on and the particular challenges of managing culturally iconic and ecologically important landscapes through multi-agency working with different knowledge communities. Catherine works with Natural England, the National Trust and other organisations in the Linking the Lizard partnership. 

Catherine has extensive experience of working with research partners and stakeholders including Natural England, the National Trust, the AONB partnership, Cornwall Council, Age UK, Volunteer Cornwall, NHS Kernow, and others. She has research collaborations with colleagues at the University of Hamburg and elsewhere in the EU.

Outside the department, Catherine is a member of the Board of Trustees of Volunteer Cornwall (2012-date).

Personal Interests

Catherine likes to run and she has completed many half marathons and four marathons. In 2013, Catherine took up sea swimming and is trying to devise a means of zipping a hot water bottle into her wetsuit. When she is not running or swimming, Catherine enjoys baking cakes. Her particular specialisms are lemon drizzle cake and fruit cake but she has recently developed a recipe for salted caramel cupcakes that are life-changingly delicious. She also likes baking bread and trying new recipes. Catherine likes to read restaurant reviews, cook books, and novels. She has recently rediscovered her childhood love of Sci-Fi novels. In terms of superheros, Catherine is 100% Marvel, not DC. Catherine is especially vigilant about the misuse of apostrophes, having been converted to their proper use in her twenties. With the zeal of the converted, Catherine is also critical of the improper use of 'less' instead of 'fewer'. Catherine dislikes shopping, except for cooking ingredients. She has an excellent dog. Probably the best one ever. 

Qualifications

BA (CNAA),
MA (Toronto),
PhD (Bristol)

Career

Catherine became interested in historical and cultural geography as an undergraduate and pursued this interest through an MA by research at the University of Toronto. In 1996 she was appointed as a Lecturer in Human Geography at Exeter. Her research is unified by an interest in landscape, place, and identity. She has researched landscape, national identity and regional identity; geography and film; geography and literature; geography and religion; cultural landscapes and climate change; and cultural ecosystem services; volunteering and resilient communities; place-based, person-centred approaches to care.

Research group links

• Cultural and Historical Geographies

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Research

Research projects

Social Innovation Group - SIG

Catherine Leyshon is the co-director of the Social Innovation Group. Our work focuses on social innovation at every scale, from the individual in communities to big organisations. We work across different sectors, including health and social care, housing, employment and the environment. Our project partners include Volunteer Cornwall, the Voluntary Sector Forum, several housing associations, and charities devoted to supporting people in communities.

Managing Cultural and Natural Landscapes
Building on work that has been ongoing since 2009, Catherine has been exploring the management of cultural and natural landscapes, focused on the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, UK. Catherine works with Natural England and other agencies in the Linking the Lizard Countryside Partnership to explore i) the envisioning of climate impacts on landscape and the development of environmental knowledge; ii) the challenges of multi-agency working with different knowledge communities; iii) the various conceptual approaches to landscape management including the Ecosystem Services approach, the Ecological Network Approach, Landscape and Seascape Characterisation (both natural and historical). Catherine is a regular contributor to the blog of the Linking the Lizard Countryside Partnership: http://www.the-lizard.org/  

Catherine also collaborates in research on coastal change, landscape management, cultural heritage, landscape, and identity with colleagues at the University of Hamburg.

Geographies of Religion
Catherine has worked with Dr David Harvey and Dr Adrian Bailey on a project entitled "Geographies of Religion: The role of Methodism in Cornish cultures, c.1830-1930" which examines the influence of Methodism in the formation of communal identities during the 19th and early 20th centuries in Cornwall. Drawing from existing literature on the geographies of religion, this project seeks to understand the dynamics of place-based identities and the role of Methodist religion (both formal and informal) in the construction and historical development of communities in Cornwall. This work was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and has been published widely (see publication list).

Understanding Landscape
Catherine has recently completed a project funded by the AHRC under their Landscape and Environment Programme on Understanding Landscape. This Networks and Workshops programmes starts from the view that, traditionally, geographers have been interested in landscape but have not been very successful in understanding how people create a sense of place and attachment to landscape through literature. When literary scholars, on the other hand, study literature and landscape, they tend to do this in abstract or purely theoretical terms. They also focus on published novelists and poets and have not traditionally paid attention to ordinary, real people who express their identities in part through writing about themselves and their everyday lives. A series of workshops and conferences explored these issues. 

Geography and Film
Catherine has worked with Dr Michael Leyshon on geography and film, looking in particular at deviant ruralities. They have also produced work on British War film. See publications list for more details.

Research grants

• 2016 Reading Agency
  The research is a small qualitative study evaluating the attitudes and perceptions held by users of the Adult Reading Well Books on Prescription scheme available through public libraries across England. The research will also examine the potential to involve community based volunteers in supporting people to engage and use books on the scheme and activate wider community support.
• 2016 ESRC Impact Acceleration Award
  This Impact Cultivation Award will fund a focused two-day workshop with project partners, to: 1. Explore the knowledge and capacity-building needs of UK-based environmental charities, such as the RSPB and the WWT, for enabling and promoting inclusive onsite sensory, physical, social and intellectual experiences in nature-based settings for people living with visual impairment (Day 1). 2. Examine how these charities can best realise and evidence the social and economic benefits of promoting these socially inclusive multisensory nature experiences (Day 2).
• 2016 European Regional Development Fund
  SMARTLINE is a research and innovation project aimed at supporting the growth of eHealth and eWellbeing of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector in Cornwall through the identification and support for products, processes and services that will improved the health and wellbeing of social housing tenants and build the cohesion of their communities. This is a partnership project involving the University of Exeter, Coastline Housing, Volunteer Cornwall and Cornwall Council.
• 2009 ESF
  From climate to landscape - imagining the future

Links

• Linking the Lizard Countryside Partnership

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Publications

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External Engagement and Impact

Committee/panel activities

AHRC:

Peer Review College (2008-2015)

Knowledge Exchange College (2012-date)

Strategic Reviewers' Group (2013-date)

AONB: Partnership Board of the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (2013-date)

Volunteer Cornwall: Board of Trustees (2012-date)

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Teaching

• LES2002 Workplace Learning
• GEO3437B Climate Change and Society
• GEO3438 BA Dissertation in Geography
• GEO3472 Geography, Environment and Society Field Course (Scotland)
• I am also dissertation coordinator for GEO3438, 3439, 3450, 3513

Postgraduate modules:

• GEOM157 Dissertation
• GEOM163 Transdisciplinary Methods for Sustainability Science

I am the programme director for Flexible Combined Honours programmes in the Centre for Geography and Environmental Science.

Modules

2023/24

• GEO3437B - Climate Change and Society
• GEO3438 - BA Dissertation in Geography
• GEO3439 - BSc Dissertation in Geography
• GEO3513 - Dissertation in Environmental Science
• LES2002 - Workplace Learning

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Supervision / Group

Postdoctoral researchers

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

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Office Hours:

2023-2024

For term three office hour appointments, please email me: cbrace@exeter.ac.uk

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