News

GAP's Dr Ian Shuttleworth analyses the results of the 2011 Census and what it tells us about patterns of residential segregation in Northern Ireland on BBC's 'The View'.

Click here and scroll to 14:00.01 

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Professor Bruce Campbell has been invited to deliver the Ellen McArthur Lectures at the University of Cambridge on 4th, 6th, 11th and 13th February 2013.

The lectures are given triennially and are funded by a bequest to the University of Cambridge by Ellen McArthur (1862-1927).

Ellen McArthur was educated at Girton College, Cambridge, where she later became Tutor in history. In 1893 she became the first female lecturer at the University of Cambridge Local Examinations and Lectures Syndicate. She was the first woman to receive the degree of Doctor of Letters (Litt. D.) from the University of Dublin, under ad eundem arrangements.

Previous Ellen McArthur lecturers include some of the most distinguished names in economic history and include Alexander Gerschenkron (1968), Edward Miller (1970), Eric Hobsbwam (1972), Carlo M. Cipolla (1975), Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie (1979), Francois Crouzet (1983), Sir Tony Wrigley (1987), Herman van der Wee (1989), Lord Briggs (1992), Nobel prize winner Robert Fogel (1996), Jan de Vries (2000), Charles Feinstein (2003), Ken Pomerantz (2006), and Nick Crafts (2009).

To have been invited to deliver the 2012/13 lectures is therefore a very considerable honour. Moreover Professor Campbell is the first medieval economic historian to have been asked to give these lectures since Herman van der Wee in 1989.

All lectures are open to the public and will be delivered in Lecture 3 of the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms, Cambridge.

The lectures will also be filmed and made freely available as podcasts on the www.

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We invite applications from suitably qualified students for a 3 year, fully-funded (UK/EU fees and maintenance) Leverhulme Trust PhD studentship.

Closing date: 15 March 2013.
The funded doctoral project available is: 

"Stories of subsistence: People and Coast over the last 6000 years in the Limfjord, Denmark “ (PDF)

Supervisors: Prof. Paula Reimer and Dr Eileen Murphy (School of GAP), Dr David Ryves (Loughborough University). Advisor: Dr Jesper Olsen (Aarhus University)

The Studentship is available to students both from within and outside the EU, but fees are only covered at the UK/EU rate; EU and non-EU students must fulfil a residency requirement to be eligible for full awards. Leverhulme studentship stipends have been set to £13,658 per annum (pa) for 2013-14, plus UK/EU tuition fees.   The project is expected to start on 1 April 2013, but the studentship can start on May 1^st 2013.  The applicant must therefore be available to start on this date or as soon as possible thereafter. Questions on the project can be directed to Prof Reimer (p.j.reimer@qub.ac.uk), whilst questions on the application process can be directed to the Postgraduate Co-ordinator, Dr Nicki Whitehouse (n.whitehouse@qub.ac.uk)

Online application is available via Queen’s University postgraduate applications portal.

The application process for the Strategic PhD studentships involves submitting, via Queen’s University postgraduate application portal, a written research proposal (1000 words, in applicant’s own words), together with a CV and covering letter, all of which must be uploaded via the portal as a single document. The short proposal must be written by the applicant (i.e. not a verbatim copy of the project proposal document) and must demonstrate the applicant's knowledge and understanding of the proposed project. The covering letter must map students’ own experience/education/interests onto the specific project.

As well as these two key documents, other standard applicant details, such as CV, educational qualifications, transcripts, references, etc also need to be uploaded via the QUB portal. Applicants should read the university postgraduate application guidelines carefully.

Prospective applicants should discuss their applications with the project supervisors (Prof Reimer, Dr . Murphy, Dr. Ryves or Dr. Olsen) before submitting their application and also must be prepared to attend an interview held in the School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology at Queen’s University after shortlisting.

Further details on the application and shortlisting processes may be found at the end of this web page.

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Alberto graduated with MSc (Earth Sciences) from Simon Fraser University, then PhD (Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) from the University of Alberta. He is currently interested in developing stratigraphic, geomorphic, and geochemical records of climate change and associated earth system impacts during late Cenozoic warm intervals, particularly Pleistocene interglaciations.

Current research themes include:

-Extent of the south Greenland Ice Sheet during Pleistocene interglaciations (with colleagues at Oregon State University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

-Paleoclimate potential of Cenozoic sub-fossil wood from the northwestern North America (with colleagues from University of Alberta, Swansea University)

-Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy and paleoenvironments in unglaciated Yukon & Alaska (with colleagues from University of Alberta, University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Recent publications:

Jensen, B.J.L., Reyes, A.V., Froese, D.G., Stone, D. (in press) The Palisades is a key reference site for the middle Pleistocene of eastern Beringia: new evidence from paleomagnetics and regional tephrostratigraphy. Quaternary Science Reviews.

Kaufman, D.S., Jensen, B.J.L., Reyes, A.V., Schiff, C., Froese, D.G., Pearce, N.J.G. (2012) Late Quaternary tephrostratigraphy, Ahklun Mountains, SW Alaska. Journal of Quaternary Science 27: 344-359.

Wolfe, A.P., Csank, A.Z., Reyes, A.V., McKellar, R.C., Tappert, R., Muehlenbachs, K. (2012) Pristine early Eocene wood buried deeply in kimberlite from northern Canada. PLoS One .

Colville, E.J., Carlson, A.E., Beard, B.L., Hatfield, R.G., Stoner, J.S., Reyes, A.V., Ullman, D.J. (2011) Sr-Nd-Pb isotope evidence for ice-sheet presence on southern Greenland during the last interglacial. Science 333: 620-623.

Reyes, A.V., Cooke, C.A. (2011) Northern peatland initiation lagged abrupt increases in deglacial atmospheric CH4. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108: 4748-4753.

Reyes, A.V., Zazula, G.D., Kuzmina, S., Ager, T.A., Froese, D.G. (2011) Identification of last interglacial deposits in eastern Beringia: a cautionary note from the Palisades, interior Alaska. Journal of Quaternary Science 26: 345-352.

Reyes, A.V., Froese, D.G., Jensen, B.J.L. (2010) Permafrost response to last interglacial warming: field evidence from non-glaciated Yukon and Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews 29:3256-3274.

Reyes, A.V., Jensen, B.J.L., Zazula, G.D., Ager, T.A., Kuzmina, S., La Farge, C., Froese, D.G. (2010) A late-Middle Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stage 6) vegetated surface buried by Old Crow tephra at the Palisades, interior Alaska. Quaternary Science Reviews 29: 801-811.

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The School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology invites applications from suitably qualified students for two fully-funded (fees and maintenance) DEL Strategic award Studentships, for the following 2 research projects:

1. Tracking lake eutrophication in UK lakes: the potential of testate amoebae. Supervisors: Dr Helen Roe (GAP), Dr Helen Bennion (UCL), Dr Chris Harrod (QUB)

2. Trace element abundance and renal disease. Supervisors: Dr Jenny McKinley (GAP), Dr Ulrich Ofterdinger (SPACE), Dr Damian Fogarty, Centre for Public Health, QUB, Chair of the UK Renal Registry Committee. External supervisory collaboration: Prof Peter Atkinson, University of Southampton.

Closing date: 12th February 2013

More information

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Dr. Ian Shuttleworth, an expert on census analysis, has made a number of media appearances to help make sense of recently released 2011 census figures. His contribution to BBC Radio’s Good Morning Ulster can be listened to here (scroll to 1.06:25). His analysis has also been reported in the Belfast Telegraph;  the Newsletter ; the Irish Examiner ; the Irish Independent ; the Guardian and others.

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The latest NSS survey shows excellent results for GAP in the 2012 census period.

Headline results

• Archaeology students are 100% satisfied with their course – the best result in the country, making GAP number 1 in this category.
• Both Geography and Archaeology show GAP better by up to 12% than other UK universities in all categories, and always above the average of all our comparison subjects.
• When all questions are averaged, Archaeology is the joint top of the subject in the UK.

Details

Scores of 100% were achieved in the following categories:

• Staff are good at explaining things
• Staff have made the subject interesting
• Staff are enthusiastic about what they are teaching
• The course is intellectually stimulating
• I have received sufficient support in my studies
• Any changes to the course or teaching were communicated effectively

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The Head of School cordially invites you to attend the GAP LECTURE by Professor John Agnew:

“Territorial Politics after the Financial Crisis”

Monday 19th November 2012 at 4:00pm. Main Lecture Theatre (0G 029), Elmwood Building and afterwards to a reception in Room 01 009 (Elmwood Building).

RSVP to Stacy Gilmore, (028) 9097 3829, stacy.gilmore@qub.ac.uk.

Download poster (TIFF)

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It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Prof Bernie Smith (Professor Emeritus, Queen’s University Belfast) on 31st October 2012 at the age of 61 years.  Bernie died peacefully at home after a long and debilitating illness and will be greatly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Bernie described himself first and foremost as a Geographer who practised Geomorphology in its broadest sense.  He was proud to be a Geographer and in my many conversations with him over the years he was at pains to emphasize the unique nature of a discipline, which focuses on providing explanations of how the human and physical environments operate and the complexity of their interactions.  He always felt privileged to be able to earn a living from his ‘hobby’, a ‘hobby’ which required him to travel the world and experience first-hand many of the planet’s most impressive landscapes and the peoples that inhabited them.

Bernie graduated with his PhD from the University of Reading in 1975 and relocated to Nigeria with Dorothy his wife, where he taught in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.  On his return to the UK Bernie took up a lecturing position in Queen’s University Belfast in 1979 and held the Chair in Tropical Geomorphology from 1998.  Bernie continued in post up until illness necessitated his early retirement in 2011.

Bernie supervised the launch of many geomorphological careers (my own included) with his thoughtful and generous PhD supervision and influenced the career decisions of many of the undergraduate students who came into contact with him.  Bernie was an inspiring teacher who believed that it was essential for the future of geomorphology that all students and practitioners should have a thorough understanding of the history and development of the subject.

His research interests were wide and varied but were rooted in his love of hot deserts and tropical landscapes and his desire to better understand the processes that shape them.  Whilst the interpretation and exploration of landscapes formed the central core of Bernie’s career, his fascination with process studies and weathering processes in particular led him onto some of his most significant geomorphological work and establishment of the Weathering Research Group in the early 1990s in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology at Queen’s.

The focus of this group was on improving our understanding of stone weathering in both natural and built environments and resulted in Bernie’s involvement with local conservation architects and the wider building conservation community in the UK, Europe and further afield. He really enjoyed this work because of the many wonderful historic and archaeological structures that it gave him access to.

In the last decade or so, Bernie’s core interest in landscape interpretation came back to the fore as he became increasingly involved with UNESCO initially through his advisory role for Northern Ireland’s own World Heritage Site at the Giant’s Causeway and then on a broader global stage as a world heritage evaluator.

Throughout his career Bernie’s quiet advice has influenced so very many people in many different disciplines and he leaves a significant legacy of research and publications that will undoubtedly continue to influence the direction of future Geographical and Geomorphological research.  He will be sorely missed.

Patrica Warke

1 Nov 2012

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A warm welcome to Dr Iestyn Barr, Lecturer in Environmental Change, who joined GAP at the beginning of September 2012.

Iestyn's research interests lie in the application of remote sensing and GIS methods within the fields of glaciology and Quaternary environmental change, with particular focus upon the dimensions, dynamics and distribution of both modern- and palaeo-glaciers. He is also interested in applying remote sensing methods to the study of landscape evolution, particularly where glacial and volcanic processes have dominated (such as upon the Kamchatka Peninsula).

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The Ulster Archaeological Society visited the 14CHRONO Centre for a tour of the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) dating facility on Monday 6th August 2012. The 14CHRONO Centre operates a NEC compact model 0.5MV AMS for carbon dating. Ron Reimer explained to an interested audience just how radiocarbon dating is done, via the AMS system, and how this compares to older methods.

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Archaeology and Palaeoecology student Gavin Bradley has been awarded the Canadian Memorial Scholarship for the upcoming academic year. This highly competitive award, run by the Association of Commonwealth Universities group, commemorates those Canadians who fell during the First and Second World Wars, and offers a final year undergraduate student one fully funded academic year in the pursuit of a Masters degree at a Canadian University. After being shortlisted from hundreds of applicants from all over the UK, Gavin successfully came through an interview stage in the Canadian High Embassy in London, to be offered the scholarship. The award, chosen based on academic achievement, leadership potential and the presentation of a potential research project, hopes to strengthen the cultural bonds between the UK and Canada through the exchange of students from a wide variety of disciplines. Having completed a successful second year of his BSc at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, through the Queen’s exchange programme, Gavin will now be returning to the same institution, where he will be working towards an MSc in Dinosaur Palaeobiology, under world-renowned palaeontologist Dr. Philip Currie.

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Jonny Elliot, a geography graduate (2011) has been selected from more than 350 applicants to participate in the Washington Ireland Program (WIP). WIP is a cross-community charity which offers young leaders from Ireland and Northern Ireland the opportunity to live and work as an intern in Washington D.C, while completing leadership training and public service projects. WIP awards each student a prestigious 2-month internship ranging from Capitol Hill to government agencies, entrepreneurial businesses and the non-profit sector. In light of his success, Jonny commented that “I am particularly excited to get this opportunity to develop personally and professionally alongside 30 of the most promising young leaders in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This program provides an unparalleled level of exposure to key influencers in society and I’m determined to make the most every second of it.”

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The Irish Medical Times - a magazine for practicing health care professionals in Ireland – has reported on a recent article by Jonny Geber and Eileen Murphy entitled 'Scurvy in the Great Irish Famine: Evidence of Vitamin C deficiency from a mid-nineteenth century skeletal population' published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology 147 [DOI 10.1002/ajpa.22066].

The IMT article can be read in full here.

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Manchester University Press has just published The Rural War: Captain Swing and the Politics of Protest by Carl Griffin, Lecturer in Human Geography at Queen’s. Beginning in Kent in the summer of 1830 before spreading throughout the country, the Swing Riots were the most dramatic and widespread rising of the English rural poor. Seeking an end to their immiseration, the protestors destroyed machines, demanded higher wages and more generous poor relief, and even frequently resorted to incendiarism to enforce their modest demands. But occurring against a backdrop of revolutions in continental Europe and a political crisis, Swing was perceived to represent a genuine challenge to the existing ruling order, provoking a bitter and bloody repression. In the first systematic study of ‘Swing’ in over forty years, Griffin places the movement into the wider context of social relations in the early nineteenth-century countryside and shows that the protests were more organised, widespread, intensive and politically-motivated than has hitherto been thought. The result is a landmark book that forces us to rethink the impacts of industrialization and commercialization on rural society, histories of the changing British state, social welfare, criminality and gender.

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The Queen’s Postgraduate Centre organised the first ever Postgraduate Week during 30 April to 4 May 2012. Two of the individual competitions for research students during the PG Week 2012 were ‘Three Minute Thesis’ and ‘Excellence with Impact’.

The ‘Three Minute Thesis’ involved presenting one’s research in a three-minute pitch with the aid of one PowerPoint slide. The grand finale with 14 finalists selected through Faculty heats was held in the Great Hall in the forenoon of 3 May 2012.

The judging panel chaired by Professor James McElnay. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Postgraduates) selected three ‘Overall Faculty Winners’. Ajith Kaliyath, final year PhD Student from School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology was selected as the ‘Overall Faculty Winner’ from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences for his doctoral project on “Land as a Critical Ecological Resource for Sustainable Cities: A Case of Chennai, India”

The competition ‘Excellence with Impact’ involved a 500 word written submission setting out the importance and potential impact of one’s research for the society. Ajith Kaliyath’s research on the Sustainable City of Chennai was declared as the ‘Overall Faculty Winner’ from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. Besides the citation, he also received cash awards in each of the two categories.

Ajith is from the Society, Space and Culture Research Cluster (Human Geography) and is supervised by Dr. M. Satish Kumar and Prof. Stephen A. Royle. 

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GAP's International Professor of Political Geography, John Agnew, has now joined the School. He is one of the world’s leading political geographers with a reputation extending far beyond the boundaries of the discipline into political science, international relations, sociology and economics. Professor Agnew has published over twenty-five books and a huge range of scholarly articles, he is warmly welcomed to the school.

More...

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The 2012 Eaton Lecture will be held on Wednesday 23 May at 19.00 in the Canada Room It is to be given by:

Bill Blaikie

Bill is Adjunct Professor of Theology and Politics at the University of Winnipeg and Director of the Knowles-Woodswoth Centre for Theology and Public Policy following long service in the Canadian House of Commons.

 

Download poster (pdf)

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On March 30th 2012, the School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology (GAP), at Queen’s University Belfast, played host to a group of thirteen students and two members of staff from St. Mary’s High School, which is based in Manchester.
The group was led by a former School of GAP Geography graduate, and Teacher at St. Mary’s, Mr Andrew McGeown.

Dr Alastair Ruffell, the Director of Education for Geography, welcomed the visitors to the School and to the University, and provided them with a brief introduction to the School and an itinerary for the visit.

Following on from this Dr Satish Kumar delivered a presentation on the role of Geography in International Development, based on the successful Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DELPHE) that currently operate in West Bengal.
The importance of arsenic remediation was discussed, at some length as part of this topic and this talk was followed by a lively Q&A session on this subject.

Dr Carl Griffin presented the students with a general overview of the Geography degree course at Queen’s and went on to explain how we deliver modules, run field courses and interact with other disciplines both within the School and across the University, most especially with Archaeology and Palaeoecology.

The group concluded their visit to GAP and QUB with a tour of the McClay library, which was hosted by GAP’s subject librarian, Ms Carol Dunlop.

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A successful EPSRC project workshop (www.qub.ac.uk/greening) on climate change and the algal 'greening' of new-build and heritage masonry took place in the Derrygonnelly Field Studies Council centre, Co. Fermanagh (19th - 20th April). Co-organised and hosted by project partners Prof. Heather Viles (Oxford University Centre for the Environment) and Dr Stephen McCabe (School of GAP), along with postgraduate Daniel McAllister (School of GAP), the workshop brought together international experts from science and conservation backgrounds to discuss climate change impacts on stone structures, raising awareness and developing protocols for the management of structures under wet conditions.

Photos show some attendees discussing the stone test facility at Derrygonnelly FSC:
In the first photo - L-R, Samin Ahmad (Oxford University), Dr Ewan Hyslop (Historic Scotland), Dr Julie Eklund (Oxford University).

And the second - L-R, Dr Oliver Sass (University of Innsbruck), Chris Wood (English Heritage), Prof. Matthew Hall (Nottingham University), Prof. Andrew Whiteley (Oxford Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), Prof. Anna Gorbushina (Free University of Berlin), Prof. Heather Viles (Oxford University), John Savage (Consarc Design Group) and Dawson Stelfox (Consarc Design Group). Also present were Prof. Muhammed Basheer and Sudarshan Srinivasan (SPACE, QUB), Dr Claire Foley (NIEA), Katrine Wilhelm (Oxford University) and Catherine Adamson (GAP, QUB).

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On Wednesday 18th April 2012, the School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology (GAP), hosted a visit from a group of twelve students and two members of staff from the Institute of Technology, which is based in Sligo.

Professor Paula Reimer, Director of the 14CHRONO Centre, welcomed the visitors to the School and provided them with a tour of the CHRONO Centre and a presentation on the functioning of the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS).
Students were also given a demonstration on how samples are prepared for AMS radiocarbon dating.

This visit, which was coordinated by a Lecturer from the Institute Ms Fiona Beglane, was designed to give the IT students an opportunity to see an AMS in action. The live demonstration was particularly valuable to the students as they are currently undertaking a module in the Science of Archaeological Materials as part of a degree in Applied Archaeology.

The group concluded their visit to the School of GAP and to Belfast with a visit to the Ulster Museum.

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On Friday 20th April the School will host a one day conference organised in association with the Royal Irish Academy’s Sub-Committee for the History of Science in Ireland. It will draw together postgraduate and other researchers working within and outside the university sector in Ireland to discuss topics related to the history of science, technology and medicine. The conference is part-funded by QUB’s Student Led Initiative and by the Royal Irish Academy.

For further details please see the conference facebook page.

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The Irish Quaternary Association (IQUA) Spring Meeting and AGM will be held on Saturday the 14th of April, 2012 in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Join us on the meeting facebook page HERE.

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The School is now advertising a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position associated with a 2 year AHRC-funded project entitled ‘Scientific Metropolis: Belfast in an Age of Science, c. 1820-1914’. The postholder will undertake extensive primary research, contribute to academic presentations and peer-reviewed papers and participate in impact activities carried out in association with the project's partner, National Museums Northern Ireland. They will also be part of the School’s Society, Space and Culture research cluster.

For further details and to apply, click here.  A summary of the project is available here: Scientific Metropolis Project Summary (pdf)

If you have any additional queries please contact Dr Diarmid Finnegan (d.finnegan@qub.ac.uk)

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On March 12, School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology, Queen’s University Belfast, along with Christian Aid hosted a Sixth Form Geography Lecture: ‘The Human Costs of Tectonic Hazards: A Personal Story from Haiti’ in the Peter Froggatt Centre In Queen’s.

The speakers included Mr. David Thomas, Christian Aid Education & Campaigns Coordinator, together with Dr. Alastair Ruffell and Dr. M. Satish Kumar from the School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology. The key speaker for the event was Christian Aid Country Manager for Haiti, Mr. Prospery Raymond.

In attendance were some 240 Geography students and their teachers. The event was recognized as a major success by the students and teachers. The talks helped to raise awareness of natural hazards, and vulnerability of populations living in highly seismic zones of the Earth as well as the impact and response to disaster management and development. The presentations documented the existing structural, historical, social, and environmental challenges, which manifest at varying periods of human history from 1548 to 2012. It also raised awareness of the valuable work undertaken by Christian Aid and their sister charities in the developing world. The event helped to highlight the key competencies of GAP in engaging with environmental and social challenges to prospective students wishing to seek admissions to the university.

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GAP doctoral student, Duncan Taylor, is the recipient of the RGS-IBG 'Geographical Club Award'. Only one award per annum is made to projects in human geography. This £1000 award will help to support Duncan's current research visit to Jamaica where he is working in the archives, gathering material for his thesis: "Circulating Tropical Nature: an historical geography of the botanical gardens of Jamaica".

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GAP UCAS Days in 2012 are as follows:

Wednesday 15th February 2012: 2pm-4pm

 

Wednesday 14th March 2012: 2pm-4pm

 

Saturday 31st March 2012: 10am-noon

 

Applicants will be provided with further details of the UCAS Day Programme. In the meantime, if you have any enquiries please contact the School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology office (gap@qub.ac.uk) or Queen's University Admissions & Access Service (admissions@qub.ac.uk) as appropriate.

We look forward to seeing you!

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This 3 year studentship will exercise an interdisciplinary approach to explore past and present patterns in diversity, assessing the extent to which environmental change drives evolutionary processes and diversification. The project will yield new information on the potential long term consequences of anthropogenic climate change on evolutionary processes, which is critical to conservation planning.

The student will be jointly supervised by Dr Alison Cameron in the School of Biological Sciences, and Dr Nicki Whitehouse in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, at Queen’s University Belfast.

Application closing date: Friday 2nd March 2012

Prerequisites: 2:1 BSc (Hons) in Geography, Archaeology, Biology, Zoology, Ecology or similar. Mathematical competence

Highly desirable: MSc in Palaeoecology, Phylogenetics, Entomology, Mathematics, Statistics or similar.

Contact: Dr Nicki Whitehouse (n.whitehouse@qub.ac.uk) or Dr Alison Cameron (a.cameron@qub.ac.uk). Further details of the project may also be found here.

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The School is now advertising two new lectureships in environmental change. These posts are available to undertake research and teach in any aspect of the physical environment (including environmental science, physical geography, geomorphology, oceanography, climate modelling and related disciplines) which will complement, diversify or enhance research activities in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology. Further information about the posts can be found here. The closing date is Friday 16 March 2012.

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The School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology is pleased to announce that two funded PhD projects are available for entry in 2012 in the field of Geography/Environmental Change. The particular projects to be funded are: 1. “Biotic responses to the evolution and drainage of glacial Lake McConnell, Northwest Territories, Canada”; 2. “The geography of Ireland’s ‘disappeared’: locating missing persons using archives, interviews and field-surveys”.

Further details on the projects may be downloaded here.

The studentships on offer are the result of the GAP’s successful bid in this year’s University’s Strategic Research Studentship competition.

The closing date for applications is March 8 2012.

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On 8th February at 7.30pm Jarlath Cunnane and Paddy Barry will talk about their arctic polar circumnavigation on the purpose-built sailing vessel Northabout. They will cover the planning, building of Northabout and their transit of the demanding Northwest and Northeast Passages. For further details see here.

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The School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (GAP), Queen’s University Belfast, has an offer a range of new doctoral research topics for entry in autumn 2012.

For details on specific projects and advice on how to apply please follow this link: http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/gap/ProspectiveStudents/PostgraduateStudies/PhDProjects2012-2013/

Closing dates for applications is 31st January 2012.

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In his recently-published Portrait of an industrial city: ‘clanging Belfast’, 1750-1914, Stephen Royle explores the causes and consequences of Belfast’s industrial development. His book details Belfast's development from the eighteenth-century market town, where only hindsight can discover the seeds of industrial greatness, to the titanic city - in every respect - of the period prior to Great War. Royle documents the constant movement of workers and goods, the smells and sounds of constant industrial activity, and that distinctive clang of metal on metal, which dominated the city’s daily life. The book also brings to life the hectic nature of the thriving and constant activity on the streets of the city and the equally rumbustious local and national political goings-on at a critical time in Ireland’s history. Throughout the book, the deft use of primary sources and documents illuminates the intriguing story of industrial, ‘clanging’ Belfast. Portrait of an Industrial City is published by The Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society in association with Ulster Historical Foundation

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Five Queen’s University students, including Vincent McAllister a GAP graduate, have been recognized for their academic excellence by President Mary McAleese at the Undergraduate Awards Ceremony 2011 in Dublin Castle. The Undergraduate Awards aim to inspire, support and celebrate the ideas of undergraduates whilst promoting innovation and independent thinking both within and outside of coursework. Out of the 2,381 submissions, 237 students were shortlisted and 23 were selected as the winner in their category so Vincent had to fend off some very stiff competition.

Vincent, from Portglenone in County Antrim, won the Physical Sciences category for his essay entitled ‘A Fieldwalking Survey of Site 12 Ballynease-Macpeake, Co. Derry’. After initially training as an architectural technician, he decided to manoeuvre his career path in the direction of his true passion and enrolled in a BSc in Archaeology and Palaeoecology which he attained with First Class honours, going on to win the Kerr Prize for best overall performance at the final year examinations. Vincent received his award from President Mary McAleese at Dublin Castle on Friday 28th October 2011.

When asked to reflect upon his recent achievements Vincent commented; "I fully believed that I had accomplished my goals when I attained a BSc in Archaeology-Palaeoecology, with first class honours, and by winning the Kerr Prize for best overall performance at the final year examinations. In truth, however, I never imagined that such achievements could be surpassed until I won an undergraduate award and received the Oscar Wilde gold medal from President Mary McAleese; this is truly the icing on the cake and a fairy-tale ending to what has been a long and arduous journey."

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Diarmid Finnegan has won the Frank Watson Prize for his book Natural History Societies and Civic Culture in Victorian Scotland. Established in 1993 and administered by the Canadian Scottish Studies Foundation, the biennial prize recognises the highest scholarship in Scottish history. Diarmid was presented with the prize at the Foundation’s Fall Colloquium held at the University of Guelph on 17th September. He also gave a plenary lecture at the event on ‘Nature, Science and Civic Culture in Victorian Scotland’.

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GAP hosted an exciting and successful symposium and workshop on Stable Isotope Analysis and Modelling in Freshwater Ecosystems on 14 September 2011. The symposium highlighted recent international research in freshwater ecology using stable isotopes. The primary aim of the symposium was to discuss applications of stable isotope applications and point out how modelling provides insights into the dynamic processes operating in freshwater environments. Presentations were given by Dr Jari Syväranta (University of Jyväskylä Finland), Dr. Mark Trimmer (Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)), Prof. Susan Waldron (University of Glasgow), Dr Peter Smyntek (QMUL), Chris Barry (Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, N. Ireland, Phillip Sanders (QMUL), Dr. Andrew Jackson (Trinity College Dublin) and Dr Evelyn Keaveney (QUB). Links to videos of presentations will be posted on the GAP website as soon as available.

An afternoon workshop on SIAR (Stable Isotope Analysis in R) was lead by package writers, Dr. Andrew Jackson (Trinity College, Dublin) and Dr. Andrew Parnell (University College, Dublin) and provided attendees with an opportunity to learn to use the program both from examples and with their own data.

The symposium attracted 35 delegates from Britain, Ireland and Finland and was organised by Dr Evelyn Keaveney and PhD student Rory Flood with assistance from other students and staff.

More information on the NERC funded project on terrestrial carbon in Lough Erne can be found on the EC research page

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Hidden History Below our Feet, the first comprehensive publication about the archaeology of Belfast, was launched by Minister for the Environment Alex Attwood in front of a capacity crowd in the Ulster Hall on Thursday, 8 September. Written by Ruairí Ó Baoill, a fieldwork director with the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork , the volume was produced by Tandem Design and funded by the Belfast City Council and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA). The publication, which synthesises data on hundreds of sites in the Belfast region from the Mesolithic through to the present-day, evolved out of a baseline survey of Belfast’s archaeology that the Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork performed for NIEA. The author, a Queen’s archaeology graduate, specialises in the medieval and post-medieval archaeology of Ireland and has been directing archaeological excavations since 1991. In speaking to the crowd on Thursday, Ruairí noted that he had been brought up on the Antrim Road, playing on the slopes of Belfast castle and MacArt’s Fort, but that he had been ‘unaware that there were so many archaeological sites in the Belfast hills or anywhere else in Belfast, for that matter. There were no books and very few articles.’ Through Ruairí’s hard work and the cooperation between the City Council, NIEA, Tandem and the university, that information is now available. Speaking at the launch, new Professor of Archaeology Audrey Horning praised Ruairi for his achievement noting that ‘to me, this illustrates the added value that the university can bring to the archaeological management activities of NIEA and to facilitating public engagement.’

This well-illustrated volume is sure to appeal to anyone with an interest in archaeology and in Belfast specifically, from the general reader to the specialist.

Congratulations to Ruairí!

The book is available from Tandem Design at www.hiddenhistorybelfast.com (ISBN 978-0-9569671-0-7) at a cost of £14.99.

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As members of the Forensic Geology Group of the Geological Society of London, Drs Alastair Ruffell and Jennifer McKinley will be appearing at the British Festival of Science on Tuesday the 13th September and giving a series of talks on ‘how geologists solve crimes’.

For more details please see here

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A new article, co-authored by , has just been published in the international journal Science that considers Holocene variations in Arctic sea ice. The paper draws together evidence on large fluctuations in the amount of summer sea ice during the last 10,000 years. During the so-called Holocene Climate Optimum, from approximately 8000 to 5000 years ago, when the temperatures were somewhat warmer than today, there was significantly less sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, probably less than 50% of the summer 2007 coverage, which was absolutely lowest on record. The studies also show that when the ice disappears in one area, it may accumulate in another. We have discovered this by comparing our results with observations from northern Canada. While the amount of sea ice decreased in northern Greenland, it increased in Canada. This is probably due to changes in the prevailing wind systems. This factor has not been sufficiently taken into account when forecasting the imminent disappearance of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean.

For more details see here

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Dr Nicki Whitehouse, has been elected President of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) Commission on Humans and the Biosphere. The Commission’s central goal is to promote and facilitate communication and interchange among specialists in palaeontology, palaeobotany, palaeoecology, archaeology, palaeoanthropology, geology and the earth sciences, in order to understand human responses to global and regional changes of the past, present, and future.

She was elected to this position at the INQUA Congress in Bern, 20-27th July 2011, where she also presented several papers on her research and co-organized two scientific sessions.

Further details of INQUA'a activities may be found at : http://www.inqua.org/

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A new article, co-authored by Dr Gill Plunkett, has just been published in the international journal Geology that considers how often ash clouds from eruptions such as the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption affect NW Europe. The paper draws together evidence for the occurrence of volcanic ash in peat bog and lake sediments from Ireland to Estonia over the last 7,000 years. Using data from the last 1,000 years, Dr Plunkett and her colleagues show that ash falls have been recorded at intervals ranging from 6 to 115 years (on average every 56 ± 9 years), with a 16% probability of an ash fall event in northern Europe in any one decade. These new findings will have important implications for the aviation industry, planning and safety authorities, insurance companies, and the travelling public.

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GAP's Weathering Research Group have launched three short videos on YouTube showcasing EPSRC-funded research on the impact of climate change on stone-built heritage. They are available on GAP's Facebook page and directly from YouTube video 1; video 2; video 3.

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We are delighted to announce the release of our NEW brochure providing information about the four taught MSc courses currently offered by the School of GAP: 

• Archaeology and Environment
• Dating and Chronology
• Heritage Science
• Professional Archaeology

Our MSc programmes include a 60-credit dissertation / report / portfolio and 120 credits of taught modules with most modules accounting for 20 credits each. Selected modules may be taken individually as part of a continuing professional development programme, or collectively to make either a total of 60 credits for a Postgraduate Certificate (PG Cert) or 120 credits without the dissertation for a Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip).

Our programmes of study enable students to select a course of specialist training as a foundation for a range of careers and advanced research with core modules providing essential skills whilst elective modules provide flexibility and tailor-made study.

If you are interested in learning about how physical and human environments have evolved, and are equally intrigued by how knowledge of the past can enliven the study and understanding of the present and the future, then we would encourage you to join us as a postgraduate student where you’ll become a welcome part of an active and intellectually challenging learning environment.

To access the brochure click here. For further details click here

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Conor Graham, Jenny McKinley, Rachael Parker and Alastair Ruffell were delighted when on Tuesday 28th June wreckage of a famous Spitfire was recovered at the site they confirmed as a likely crash location. The full story and extra photographs can be accessed by the QUB GAP Facebook site.

 

An episode of the television programme 'Dig WW2' will be based on this work, to be televised in early 2012.

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Sir John Scott was a minor member of the English gentry until 1460 when at a decisive moment he supported the landing of the future Edward IV and threw open the gates of Canterbury. Scott’s rise to fame as a courtier and statesman is documented in a new volume by Dr Mark Gardiner, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology. The book published by the Sussex Record Society examines Scott’s household and the construction of a fashionable brick castle intended to reflect his new status as courtier. The accounts in the new volume give a remarkable insight into both national events and the home life of one of the figures caught up in them.

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Hay fever sufferers typically dread spring and summer, with their allergy to pollen giving them months of misery. As part of their coping strategy, many sufferers watch the pollen forecasts on the television weather forecasts, or click the ‘pollen forecast’ button on the Meteorological Office website at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/pws/invent/weathermap/, updated daily at 12.00 am.

The pollen forecasts for Northern Ireland will be more accurate in future, because the School of Geography, Archaeology & Palaeoecology at Queen’s University Belfast has now started pollen trapping for the Met Office pollen forecast. Since pollen trapping ended over a year ago at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, the Met Office have had to extrapolate pollen levels in Northern Ireland from counts made in Edinburgh.

Members of the Queen’s Pollen Trapping Group with
the new Pollen Trap

Dr Chris Hunt, who coordinates the Queen’s Pollen Trapping Group, says ‘Pollen forecasting is really difficult, because you are dealing with complex natural systems. The pollen forecast partly depends on the weather forecast, and we all know that there are still days when the weather doesn’t follow Met Office predictions, even though their systems are much improved. But plant behaviour is also complex, as their timing and rate of flowering is partly determined by the weather in the previous weeks and months. As a rule of thumb, you get high pollen counts in sunny, windy weather, while rain washes pollen out of the air. The grass pollen has already started this year, which is a couple of weeks earlier than normal for round here, so while I’m hoping for sunny weather, my wife, who suffers from hay fever, is hoping for rain.

Counts made by the Pollen Trapping Group at Queen’s are integrated with weather models at the Met Office to produce forecasts of pollen levels up to five days ahead. This is explained on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp43Vhk1BFg&feature=youtu.be

Information about the Met Office pollen forecast can be found at http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/health/public/pollen-forecast

Pollen grains split open, releasing their allergens, when they come in contact with wet surfaces like your nasal membranes and eyes. Grass pollen grains are the main culprits for many people’s hayfever http://chrono.qub.ac.uk/pollen/pollen/P/Molinia_caerulea.256x384.gif

The numbers of pollen grains in the air depend heavily on the weather, but also on the time of day. The worst weather for people with hayfever is dry, sunny and windy, since plants produce a lot of pollen in warm sunny conditions and pollen travels well in the wind. Very high humidity and rain take pollen out of the air. The graph below shows grass pollen figures for four days with different weather.(click to enlarge)

The influence of weather on grass pollen levels

Further pictures of pollen grains taken by Professor Keith Bennett can be found at http://chrono.qub.ac.uk/pollen/pc-pteri.html

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Postgraduate research student Jonny Geber has been awarded a £16,000 (160,000 SEK) research grant from the Swedish foundation Jakob & Johan Söderbergs Stiftelse for his research on human remains and mass burials dating to the Great Irish Famine found by the former union workhouse in Kilkenny City, Ireland. Jakob & Johan Söderbergs Stiftelse was founded in 2004, and has since then given financial support to numerous scholars and research projects in natural science, law, economy, medicine and culture. The grant is to cover living and research expenses for 17 months.

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/gap/Research/PostgraduateResearch/JonnyGeber

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We are delighted to announce that David Livingstone, Professor of Geography and Intellectual History, has received the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal. The Society’s prestigious gold medal was awarded in recognition of his ‘outstanding encouragement, development and promotion of historical geography’. On receiving the award, Professor Livingstone told a packed Ondaatje Theatre at the Society’s headquarters that he considered himself a “rather bookish geographer, a traveller in the archives, a cartographer of ideas”. He added: “It is an enormous honour and privilege to receive the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Medal. My work has largely focused on bringing geography’s history into the wider conversation of the history of science, culture and philosophy, and also in turn, examining the geography of science itself – where it is practised and how this affects our findings.”

The Royal Geographical Society’s media release is found here.

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Satish Kumar, Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, has appeared in the fifth episode of BBC 2’s The Country House Revealed. In this episode Dan Cruickshank looks at Clandeboye House near Bangor, County Down and explores the life of Lord Dufferin (1826-1902), Viceroy of India and one time President of the Royal Geographical Society. Among the relics of empire preserved in the House is Lord Dufferin’s photograph album which includes images of Burma before it was incorporated into the British Raj. Dr Kumar discusses these astonishing images and the historical background to British rule in the country they so vividly represent.

The programme is available on BBC iPlayer here

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On Friday 27th May GAP’s Head of School, Professor Keith Bennett, joined the ranks of Seamus Heaney, Mary Robinson, Ernest Walton and Erwin Schrödinger by becoming a Member of the Royal Irish Academy. The Royal Irish Academy, which was founded in 1785, currently has over 400 Members and is considered to be the principal learned society in Ireland. Membership of the RIA is the highest academic honour in Ireland and is awarded to those who have attained the highest level of distinction in education and research. Amongst the newly elected Academy members are experts representing the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. Professor Bennett’s distinction was awarded on the basis of his contribution to the Sciences and most notably in recognition of his international reputation for inquiries into the macro-evolutionary effects of the selective impacts of climatic fluctuations during the Quaternary period.

Further information about the Royal Irish Academy can be found on the following link: http://www.ria.ie/

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Three enterprising postgraduate students from the School of GAP; Rebecca Enlander, Victoria Ginn and Rebecca Crozier, hosted a very successful two-day symposium on the Interpretation of Identity on the 27th and 28th May 2011.

The principal aim of the event was to discuss and to learn how to address the theme of Identity, within a pan-European prehistoric context, with a focus on Ireland and the northwest of Britain. The School was delighted to welcome the participation of two keynote speakers; Professor Helle Vankilde, of the University of Aarhus and Dr Joanna Brück, of University College Dublin. Several guest speakers presented case studies exploring the role that the construction and consumption of artefacts, settlement, burial and ritual monuments has had in generating and maintaining a social identity in the past.

The symposium attracted over 50 delegates from Britain, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and the United States.

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