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Professor Amy Donovan

College position(s)

Fellow, Director of Studies, Tutor

Subject

Geography

Degrees, Awards and Prizes

MA (Cantab), MPhil, MSc (UCL), PhD

Research themes

My research examines the interface between scientific knowledge and public policy on active volcanoes. I am interested in how science is used in decision-making on volcanoes, and the ways that different groups of people understand volcanic risk and the associated uncertainty. I draw on a range of literature from the social sciences in this work. I am also interested in the geochemical monitoring of volcanoes, by gas and petrological analysis, and have done some work in these areas too.

  • Interdisciplinary environmental risk
  • Volcanic hazard and risk
  • Volcanic petrology
  • Social studies of science (hazard sciences and volcanology)
  • Disaster risk reduction
  • Interdisciplinary critical geographies of disaster risk.

Responsibilities

I teach undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Geography Department, on topics in both Human and physical Geography. I also teach on the MPhil in Anthropocene Studies and the MPhil in Holocene Climates.

Other

I am co-chair of the UK Alliance for Disaster Research, which is an interdisciplinary network that works closely with research funders and policymakers. I am PI of an ERC grant, IMAGINE, which is working in Latin America with institutions and communities around volcanic and climate risks. I work and have worked on several other projects in countries around the world, including DPR Korea, Iceland, East Africa, India and Italy. I am part of the Geographies of knowledge Thematic Research Group in the Geopgrahy Department, and I run the "Imagining risk" research group in the Geography Department.

Extra links