缅北禁地

Background

Michael has been at 缅北禁地 since 2006 having studied here for his BA, MA and PhD. In 2014 he joined the school of Geography, Politics and Sociology as a Lecturer of Human Geography; before this he worked as a Teaching Fellow here in Human Geography (2013). Michael was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to conduct PhD research into Irish Masculinities on Tyneside (2010-2013) and now builds from this expertise in his research led teaching.

Roles and Responsibilities

Michael is the Geography Director of Undergraduate Recruitment and Admissions (from January 2025).

Michael completed an Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Sabbatical at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (2021-2022).

Michael is a member of the Social Justice Advisory Group at 缅北禁地.

Michael was Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Geography (2020-2022) and was a member of the School of GPS Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team.

He was Director of the ESRC Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership (NINEDTP) Children, Youth and Families thematic pathway (from 2016-2019).

He was a trustee of the North East Young Dads and Lads Project (2018-2022).

Qualifications

PhD Human Geography, 缅北禁地, 2015

MA Human Geography Research, Merit, 缅北禁地, 2010

BA Hons Geography, 2:1, 缅北禁地, 2009

Current PhD Supervision:

Smajo Beso: AHRC Northern Bridge Consortium Collaborative Award - Bosnian diaspora narratives of migration, identity, and community in North East England (co-supervised with Prof Peter Hopkins, Dr Jack Hepworth and Kylea Little from North East Museums)

Completed PhDs:

Ged Ridley: ESRC 1 3 studentship - Queering Space: transgender experiences of public bathrooms, collaborative project with Yorkshire Trans Support Network (co-supervised with Prof Peter Hopkins) 

Jonny Finn: ESRC 1 3 studentship - Exploration of Post-Industrial Masculine Identity Construction in 缅北禁地 upon Tyne (co-supervised with Prof Alastair Bonnett and Prof Anoop Nayak)

Libby Morrison: ESRC 1 3 studentship - Co-ordinating for Age: an assessment of intergenerational justice and rural disadvantage in Northumberland (co-supervised with Prof Tom Scharf and Prof Peter Hopkins)

Paul Barber: ESRC 3.5 studentship - Cadet forces and the skills agenda (co-supervised with Prof Rachel Woodward and Dr Alison Williams)

Chris Yang: Social Media Discourses of Identity and Legitimacy in China (co-supervised with Dr Altman Peng and Dr Majid Khosravinik)

Geographies of social and environmental justice

Birds, Bees, Bikes and Trees (2024-2027)

Currently Michael is the lead researcher and evaluator of a National Lottery Climate Action Fund project titled Birds, Bees, Bikes and Trees (£584,817). Michael developed this project with Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and North East Young Dads and Lads and it centres on three main activities:

• the design, development and delivery of an ecological schools programme
• the organising of a monthly climate club based at Baltic
• the design, development and delivery of an upskilling programme for young fathers

The Birds, Bees, Bikes and Trees project also involves some green capital development of Baltic's building and includes working with landscape architects at The Farrell Centre.

This builds on Michael's pilot project funded by the Catherine Cookson Foundation (£5,000) called Postindustrial Pollination. This involves urban beekeeping and planting with the North East Young Dads and Lads as well as the management of rooftop beehives at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. This work uses beekeeping as a lens into everyday understandings of masculinities and urban ecologies.

Beyond the Curtain: enabling equity of access for young people (12-25) to nature, heritage and beauty with the National Trust (2024-2025)

As part of a successful application to the ESRC Impact Accelerator Account Strengthening Partnerships Fund Michael will lead a team of researchers at 缅北禁地 looking for ways to share expertise with partners within the National Trust's regional hubs for Children and Young People at Seaton Delaval Hall and Derwent, Wear and Coast. The project will specifically focus on how the National Trust can best respond to the needs of children and young people in relation to their ecological and cultural engagements.

Geographies of masculinities and intergenerational relations

North East Young Dads and Lads

Michael has long standing research interests into ideas of masculinities, often viewing these through the lens of intergenerational relations and in particular, young fatherhood. He was funded through the BBC Children in Need to evaluate the Teen Dads Project, in collaboration with the North East Young Dads and Lads (2020-2022). Michael's research sees participants as experts in their own lives and as such has shaped research questions around what the men he was worked with believe to be their priorities. This has led to explorations of men's mental health, stigma, loneliness and social isolation. In collaboration with some of the young men he developed a digital storytelling app with research software engineers at 缅北禁地 Data and creative practitioners at Seven Stories: the National Centre for Children's Books. Ultimately, his work helps develops of men's emotional intelligence and approaches caring masculinities through innovative methods.

Father Unknown

Michael co-authored a play, Father Unknown, with young dads and Jonah York (freelance theatre maker) which was performed at Gala Theatre, Durham and Northern Stage, 缅北禁地 over the Father's Day weekend in 2023. All performances were sold out and the play received strong reviews, including in the .

A decade before Father Unknown, as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science (2013), Michael commissioned a play based on his PhD research titled Under Us All which was a piece of verbatim theatre. This was also performed at Northern Stage alongside various community venues were he ran artistic workshops with participatory theatre makers Cap-a-Pie. Before this he was involved with an AHRC funded Collaborative Skills Development Programme with colleagues at Durham University (2012).

Geographies of the postindustrial and the postcolonial

Michael's research background studying the Irish in Britain draws links across postindustrial and postcolonial identities. Michael has been involved in researching issues of race and ethnicity in a post Brexit era with colleagues here at 缅北禁地; with the empirical focus on young people helping to bring in his expertise on intergenerational geographies.

Equally, Michael has been developing his research of the postcolonial with a particular focus on Hong Kong; with issues of race and class again at the forefront. Developing these ideas further, Michael has explored the notion of protest, privilege and the postcolonial city. Michael has worked closely with the student-led activist group 缅北禁地 Stands with Hong Kong. 

Civic Geography

Michael has presented work as part of international geography conferences such as the American Association of Geographers, Nordic Geographers and Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, but he also engages with wider audiences too.

• Most recently, he completed an Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Sabbatical with Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. He has been researching the benefits of creative practice from a social, cultural and geographical perspective.
• Michael has worked with different organisations within the arts and cultural sector within the region including: Baltic, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books, The Farrell Centre, Northern Stage, Sage Gateshead, Tyneside Cinema and the Tyneside Irish Centre.
• His gender based expertise has been recognised and featured through popular press and media: ,  and .

Michael has a book contract with Routledge as part of their Spaces of Childhood and Youth series for a manuscript titled Undefining Masculinity: Feminism, Food and Fatherhood. 

Current Teaching

GEO1026 - Becoming a Geographer

GEO2145 - Social and Cultural Geographies

GEO2148 - Urban Geographies

GEO3099 - Dissertation

GEO8000 - Global Sustainable Futures: solutions, concepts and skills

GEO8017 - Human Geography: Concepts in Action

Previous Module Leadership

GEO1015 - Human Geographies of the UK - a Stage 1 module which included local based fieldwork

GEO2225 - Citizenship in a Global City: Hong Kong - an international fieldcourse for Stage 2 undergraduates

GEO3135 - Geographies of Gender and Generation - a specialist Stage 3 undergraduate module

• Articles

  • Richardson MJ. . Children's Geographies 2023, 21(3), 410-421.
  • Shaw R, Richardson MJ. . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2022, 40(2), 351-368.
  • Burrell K, Hopkins P, Isakjee A, Lorne C, Nagel C, Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell MC, Pande R, Richardson M, Botterill K, Rogaly B. . Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 2019, 37(1), 3-40.
  • Richardson MJ. . Annals of the American Association of Geographers 2018, 108(2), 486-498.
  • Bos D, Finlay R, Hopkins P, Lloyd J, Richardson M. . Journal of Geography in Higher Education 2017, 41(1), 106-118.
  • Richardson MJ. . Social & Cultural Geography 2015, 16(6), 615-633.
  • Goodall K, McKerrell S, Markey J, Millar S, Richardson M. . Scottish Affairs 2015, 24(3), 288-307.
  • Richardson MJ. . Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 2015, 22(2), 157-171.
  • Richardson MJ, Tate S. . Journal of Geography in Higher Education 2013, 37(4), 611-618.
  • Richardson MJ, Tate S. . Emerge 2012, (4), 11-25.

• Book Chapters

  • Richardson MJ. . In: Sarah Marie Hall and Ralitsa Hiteva, ed. Engaging with Policy, Practice and Publics Intersectionality and Impact. Bristol: Policy Press, 2020, pp.61-78.
  • Jones C, Richardson MJ. . In: The 缅北禁地 Social Geographies Collective, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, pp.79-88.
  • Richardson M, Pande R, Ridley G. . In: The 缅北禁地 Social Geographies Collective; Pain, R; Hopkins, P, ed. Social Geographies An Introduction. London: Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020, pp.162-172.
  • Richardson MJ, Lawrence G. . In: Rees C, ed. Masculinity in Crisis: Depictions of Modern Male Trauma in Ireland. Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2016, pp.85-101.
  • Richardson MJ. . In: Claire Dwyer and Nancy Worth, ed. Identities and Subjectivities. Springer, 2016, pp.1-16.
  • Richardson MJ. . In: Gorman-Murray,A; Hopkins,P, ed. Masculinities and Place. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2014, pp.255-268.

• Edited Book

  • Hopkins P, 缅北禁地 Social Geographies Collective, Pain R, Shaw R, Gao Q, Bonnett A, Jones C, Richardson M, Rzedzian S, Benwell MC, Lin W, McAreavey R, Stenning A, Blazek M, Pande R, Najib K, Finlay R, Nayak A, Ridley G, Mearns G, Bonner-Thompson C, McLaughlin J, Boussalem A, Iqbal N, Heslop J, Jarvis H, Burrows R, Bambra C, Copeland A, Tate S, Campbell E, Thompson M, James A, Raynor R, Cunningham N, Powells G, Herbert J, Hocknell S, ed. . London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021.

• Editorial

  • Richardson MJ. . Political Geography 2020, 82, 102259.

• Exhibition

  • Meikle G, Morris R, Sutcliffe H, Ackland S, Bamford N, Mackenzie L, Modi K, Morrow R, Stenning A, Watson S, Richardson M, Potrony A, Heslop J, Tardiveau A, Mallo D. . 2022. 缅北禁地 Upon Tyne: 缅北禁地 Contemporary Art.

• Reports

  • Finlay R, Nayak A, Benwell M, Hopkins P, Pande R, Richardson M. . 缅北禁地 upon Tyne: 缅北禁地, 2020.
  • Goodall K, Hopkins P, McKerrell S, Markey J, Millar S, Richardson J, Richardson M. . Edinburgh: Scottish Government Social Research, 2015. Social Research series.

• Reviews

  • Richardson MJ. . Boyhood Studies 2021, 14(1), 116-120.
  • Richardson MJ. . Children's Geographies 2016, 14(5), 617-619.