Overview

I am most interested in geographies of the body and embodiment. There are three main strands to my research. The first of these is in geographies of spirituality and wellbeing. An AHRC small grant allowed me to explore how wellbeing practices such as yoga and mindfulness meditation are situated in contemporary urban lives. This project emerged out of themes explored in my PhD research, which explored health, care and embodied learning through practices such as therapeutic massage and yoga. The second is my interest in geographies of education, which emerges from an ESRC project which looked at the relationship between disability and social relationships. From this I developed particular interests in the kinds of techniques and interventions being used in schools in the areas of emotional and social health and wellbeing (e.g. SEAL, restorative justice). The third is a developing interest in perinatal mental health and the geographies of recovery.

Broad research specialisms:

• wellbeing and health
• embodied practices
• experience
• geographies of inclusion and exclusion
• children’s geographies
• post-structural philosophies
• ethnography and qualitative research.

Please see https://exeter.academia.edu/JenniferLea for details of my publications

Qualifications

PhD University of Bristol (2006)
MSc University of Bristol (2002)
BSc University of Bristol (2001)

Career

Prior to my post at Exeter I worked as a research assistant at Loughborough University, and had teaching posts at Lancaster and Glasgow Universities. Before this I had an ESRC postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Glasgow, working with  Professor Chris Philo.

2009 - 2013 Researcher – ‘Embodied social capital and (dis)ability: connecting macro- and micro- scales of inclusion and exclusion’, Department of Geography, Loughborough University, University of Reading.

2008 - 2009 Lecturer, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University.

2007 – 2008 Teaching Assistant, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow.

2006 – 2007 ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow.

Research group links

• Cultural and Historical Geographies

Back to top

---

Research

Research interests

A series of journal articles and book chapters have explored what practices such as yoga, massage and meditation can tell us about touch, habit, learning embodied skills, reflexive practices, experiences of stillness, and our relationship to (therapeutic) landscapes. This writing draws on my PhD research, which looked at a yoga retreat, a massage training course and the healing field at a music festival. More recent fieldwork was carried out with Professor Chris Philo and Dr Louisa Cadman, looking at everyday spiritual landscapes in the city of Brighton, and was funded by the AHRC. I am currently carrying out some further research into the various geographies of mindfulness meditation.

I have also done work on children's geographies and disability, doing fieldwork in 9 schools. This was part of an ESRC funded project working with Dr Louise Holt and Dr Sophie Bowlby. This has given rise to writing on social capital, emotional norms, and restorative justice.

I have recently developed a new research strand looking at perinatal mental health. I have done some work around service provision in the South West of England which led to Bristol City Council commissioning me to perform a qualitative review of some services for mothers experiencing mental health difficulties. I am really pleased to be involved in this work and to play some part in the provision of high quality services for mothers and babies in Bristol.

Most recently, I have returned to yoga to explore the geographies of new forms of service work. I am really enjoying carrying out in depth interviews with yoga teachers in the South West of England, to explore the kind of work that they do, the ways this labour is structured and organised, and the impacts this has on worker identity. 

Research projects

2019 - Yoga teaching and labour 

2016 - Mindfulness meditation as an embodied practice

2016 - Review of Rockabumps and Rockabye groups for Bristol City Council

2015 - Research into services for postnatal depression in Bristol and North Somerset

2011 - Everyday spiritual practices

Links

• Academia webpage

Back to top

---

Publications

Back to top

---

External Engagement and Impact

Invited lectures & workshops

I have given a number of keynote speeches over the past few years, including at the 'Other Psychotherapies' conference at the University of Glasgow in 2017, the 'Embodying Geographies: research intensive diversity work’ conference at the University of Birmingham also in 2017, and the 'Emerging and New Researchers in the Geographies of Health & Impairment' conference at the University of Exeter in 2019. 

Back to top

---

Teaching

I am the director of the BA undergradute programme in geography. I am most interested in teaching geography through the lens of the body; whether that is everyday practices in first year teaching, geographies of beauty, aesthics and reflexive practices in the second year course, or throughout the third year course (which covers topics such as skills, senses, movement, feeling, embodied methods). 

Modules

2024/25

• GEO1309 - Study Skills for Human Geographers

Back to top

---

Supervision / Group

Postgraduate researchers

Alumni

Back to top

---

Office Hours:

Weeks 0-3 No office hours.

Please contact: Matt Finn (BA Programme Director) – m.d.finn@exeter.ac.uk with any queries.

Back to top

---