Professor Richard Phillips

Professor in Human Geography

	Room number:	F17
	Telephone (internal):	27976
	Telephone (UK):	0114 222 7943
	Telephone (International):	+44 114 222 7943
	Email:	R.Phillips@Sheffield.ac.uk

Richard Phillips took his first degree at the University of Bristol before completing a Masters in Geography at the University of California Santa Barbara (1988) and a PhD, also in Geography, at the University of British Columbia (1994). He lectured at the Universities of Aberystwyth and Salford before taking up a Readership at the University of Liverpool. In 2012 he moved to a Chair in Human Geography at the University of Sheffield.

Research interests

Adventure and Curiosity; Postcolonial Geographies; Gender and Sexuality

Current and recent projects:

• Curiosity and Wellbeing: the 'take notice' agenda in Liverpool's Decade of Health and Wellbeing, collaborative research, PI with Bethan Evans, funded by Wellcome Trust, 2012-13
• How do young people hear, tell and re-tell stories of riots? Liverpool 1981 and 2011, collaborative research, CI with Matt Benwell, Andy Davies and Bethan Evans, funded by British Academy, 2012-13
• The language of imperialism in contemporary political action: anti-war movements in the UK, PI, funded by ESRC, 2006-08

Current research

Curiosity and Adventure
My first book, entitled Mapping Men and Empire: A Geography of Adventure (1997), investigated boys' adventure stories, tracing their significance for constructions of imperialism and masculinity. I have subsequently researched and written about adventures through a range of juvenile and adult literature, notably travel writing. Recently, I have begun to focus more specifically upon a term closely related to adventure: curiosity. I have done this by focussing on curiosity-driven learning and on curiosity as a vehicle for health and wellbeing.

The world after empire
The legacies of empire for people and places form a second strand, running through my research. This advances and articulates a vision of Postcolonial Geography as a historically informed, politically engaged intellectual project. My work on historical geographies of empire, including a recent monograph entitled Sex, Politics and Empire: A Postcolonial Geography (2006), charts a series of spaces through which historical and contemporary forms of imperialism have been constructed and contested. This research investigates the contemporary significance of colonial histories and concepts, for example in resistance to the 'war on terror' and its divisive imaginative geographies of East/West and Muslim/Self (see Muslim Spaces of Hope, published by Zed in 2009).

Sexuality
Sexuality is an important vehicle for constructing and contesting power relations between national and cultural (including religious) groups. I have traced imperial sexuality politics through key sites within the British Empire, investigating the legacies of these colonial histories and geographies in ex-colonies including Jamaica and Sierra Leone. I have also begun to examine these dynamics within Europe, investigating cultural practices through which Muslims are constructed as 'non-liberal' minorities, through representations of forced marriage and homophobia.

Teaching

My teaching interests include Fieldwork, Cultural and Postcolonial Geographies. I have created and led field trips in Vancouver, Paris and Liverpool, and I am also the author of an undergraduate textbook on the subject, Fieldwork for Human Geography (Sage 2012). I have also taught modules on Postcolonial Geographies and Geographies of Globalisation, and previously been director of degree schemes in these areas.

My teaching in Cultural Geography is wide-ranging and also links up with teaching and research publications (including textbook chapters) on topics include Geographies of Sexualities and Critical Geographies of Religion. I have supervised undergraduate dissertations across a wide range of topics in Social, Cultural and Historical Geography, and supervised MA and PhD level dissertations on topics from travel writing to tourism and development.

Richard teaches on a range of undergraduate courses including:

GEO223 Philosophical Issues in Human Geography
GEO241 Social & Cultural Geographies

All staff also engage in personal supervision and tutoring of individual students at all three undergraduate levels in the following modules:
GEO163 (Information & Communication Skills for Geographers)
GEO263 or GEO264 (Research Design in Human or Physical Geography)
GEO356 (Geographical Research Project)

Key publications

• Phillips, R. and Johns, J. (2012). Fieldwork for Human Geography. Sage, London.
• Frost, D. and Phillips, R. (2011). Liverpool '81: Remembering the Riots. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool. Mixture of authorship and editorial contribution.
• Phillips, R. (ed.) (2009). Muslim Spaces of Hope: Geographies of Possibility in Britain and the West. Zed, London.
• Phillips, R. (2006). Sex, Politics and Empire: A Postcolonial Geography. Manchester University Press, Manchester.
• Phillips, R. (1997). Mapping Men and Empire: a Geography of Adventure. Routledge, London.