Taylor Butler-Eldridge (He/Him)

Following my background in digital design and outdoor learning, alongside my research interests in outdoor swimming, contemporary psychogeography, and environmental health, I am now undertaking an ESRC SWDTP-funded PhD in Human Geography. My PhD supervisors are Prof Stewart Barr, Prof John Wylie, Dr Jennifer Lea, and Prof Jo Little, and I am part of the Cultural and Historical Geographies Research Group (CHGRG). I also recently completed an ESRC-funded placement as a Communications and Engagement Assistant for The Freshwater Biological Association, a collaboration with illustrator Bethan Thorsby on a research zine titled 'Swimming with Care at Windermere', and I hosted the 'Windermere Science Evening: Dips, Depths, and Directions' and the 'Outdoor Swimming Research Forum 2024'.

My PhD research traces the different health motivations, responses, and complications of outdoor swimming at Windermere, England’s largest lake in the Lake District National Park. Specifically, the research questions the different bodily, socio-cultural, political, and environmental factors that shape these relational experiences of ‘healthy’ outdoor swimming practice. The wet ethnographic fieldwork was situated at two popular public bathing sites (Rayrigg Meadow and Millerground) at Windermere, across a full 12-month season. The methods included observing general swimming and lake activity, monitoring water and weather conditions, critically reflecting on personal embodied swim responses, and recording separate one-to-one ‘swim-along interviews’ with outdoor swimmers/dippers.

The research intends to make novel methodological contributions to health geographies and other transdisciplinary outdoor swim research, whilst encouraging broader public engagement with existing (and potential) communities invested in Windermere. For more information about the research, please visit: www.swimdermere.com