I am a human geographer researching social vulnerability and resilience to disasters, with a particular focus on earthquakes and landslides. My research cross-cuts social, political and development geography, with theoretical work grounded in empirical research in South and Central Asia (Nepal, Northern India and Kazakhstan).

Recent research as part of the NERC/ESRC-funded ‘Earthquakes without Frontiers’ project has explored:

• the politics and practice of disaster risk management at the national and local ‘community’ level in Nepal with Dr Samantha Jones (Northumbria)
• economic development, livelihoods and resilience in developing rural Asia with Prof. Jonathan Rigg (Bristol)
• the concept of disaster resilience in the post-Soviet Second World, drawing on research in Kazakhstan with Prof. Greg Bankoff (Hull)

Informed by critical physical geography, I also work closely with natural science colleagues to rethink how we do hazard and risk research. As part of this, I am currently a Co-Investigator on a NERC/DFID-funded Science for Humanitarian Emergencies and Resilience (SHEAR) project, focusing on post-earthquake reconstruction in Nepal in the context of wider social, political and economic change. This project brings together natural and social scientists in Nepal and the UK, NGOs People In Need (PIN) and NSET-Nepal, and the National Reconstruction Authority, Government of Nepal.

Prior to joining Northumbria University in September 2019, I was Assistant Professor (Research) in the Department of Geography at Durham University.

• The social production of vulnerability to disasters
• Disaster risk governance