Dr Jonathan Prior
Senior Lecturer in Human Geography
- priorj@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4600
- Room 1.79, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA
Overview
I am a human geographer with a broad research interest in nature-society relations. My work is interdisciplinary in approach, spanning environmental philosophy, sound studies, and landscape research. My current research interests include:
- The geographies of environmental and wildlife sound archives, with a focus on The World Soundscape Project (Canada), and European wildlife sound archives
- Environmental values of landscape conservation, restoration, and rewilding strategies, in particular the aesthetics and ethics of ecological restoration
- Phonographic methods in the social sciences, including field recording, listening walks, and sound mapping
Biography
Qualifications
- Fellow of The Higher Education Academy, 2016
- PhD Human Geography, University of Edinburgh, 2012
- MScR Human Geography, University of Edinburgh, 2007
- MA (distinction) Environment, Development and Policy, University of Sussex, Brighton, 2005
- BSc (hons.) Biological Sciences, University of Exeter, 2004
Career
- Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2021 - present)
- Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2014 - 2021)
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh (2013 - 2014)
- Human Geography Teaching Fellow, Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh (2012 - 2013)
Honours and awards
- Winner of the Landscape Research Group Doctoral Student Award, 2012 (Thesis: The roles of aesthetic value in ecological restoration: Cases from the United Kingdom)
Publications
We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.Research interests
My primary focus is studying the relationship between environmental values and the production of environmental policies, as a means to understand what motivates and underpins different ways of conceptualising the more-than-human world (animals, plants, ecological processes) when humans seek to implement conservation, ecological restoration, or environmental management strategies. In particular, I am interested in the role of environmental aesthetic values in policy making.
My second area of research focuses on the intersections between sound and geography. Here, I am working on ways in which geographers can better attend to the sonic components of environments. As part of this, I am developing phonographic methods (listening, soundwalking, audio recording) for geographical and broader social science and arts research. My sound projects can be accessed online.
Media
- Interview with Salomé Voegelin for the Listening Across Disciplines project: "How would I begin to describe the qualities of the sound of thousands of worker wood ants moving across a woodland floor"?
- "Rewilding: Reintroduction extinct species back to Britain will be 'enormous' challenge, study finds", The Independent, 29 August 2015
Supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:
- Environmental conservation, ecological restoration, and rewilding policy, from a social scientific/humanities perspective
- Environmental aesthetics and ethics
- Sonic geography
