Professor Amy Donovan

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

• Amy's page on the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
• Imagining Risk