Leah Shackman

In 2022, Leah started her PhD in Human Geography at the University of Exeter. This research is titled ‘Towards a Cultural Geography of Queer Collective Biography’. This project is funded by the ESRC South-West Doctoral Training Partnership and supervised by Dr Cordelia Freeman (Geography, Exeter), Professor Jana Funke (English and Sexuality Studies, Exeter), and Dr Nichola Harmer (Geography, Plymouth). This project sits at the intersection of cultural geography and literary studies, drawing on relational literary geographies to explore queer life writing, collective biography, LGBTQ+ representation, and LGBTQ+ education.

Before this, Leah completed the MRes Critical Human Geographies at the University of Exeter, also funded by the ESRC SWDTP. Her dissertation explored the emotional geographies of the AIDS crisis in queer television.

In 2019, Leah graduated from the University of Nottingham with an MA by Research in Geography with a distinction, with a thesis titled ‘Reckonings with The Past: A Cultural Geography Of (Re)Narrating Women’s Histories Through Popular Culture’. Part of this thesis provided the inspiration for her PhD project. Previous to this, Leah graduated from her undergraduate degree in 2018 with a first-class honours in BA Geography, also from the University of Nottingham.

Qualifications:

BA Geography (University of Nottingham)

MA by Research Geography (University of Nottingham)

MRes Critical Human Geographies (University of Exeter)