In my own work I use the Understanding Society dataset, and link it with external datasets, such as Defra air quality records. Being able to match large datasets that have not previously been linked is exciting. Harnessing the geographical context of datasets like Understanding Society also enables us to understand the data in a totally different way and certainly opens up many avenues for human-environment interaction research. My recent working paper using these datasets south africa rcs data received some media interest, in The Guardian and The Times, and I got the opportunity to discuss the work with Living On Earth in the US. It even won me the Understanding Society Young Researcher prize this year!
I’m a visual person, I like to see what things look like, which is probably why I’ve found myself working with maps! This is why I particularly enjoy the work of the late Hans Rosling or the work of Danny Dorling and colleagues at the Worldmapper project, who skew maps to view phenomena other than area.
I like to communicate my work, learn from others and teach skills in data analysis and visualisation. I run a GIS group in our department and also help teach GIS to undergraduates. I am fascinated by students who say they hate GIS and that they “just don’t get maths”, very often they are female students, and I wonder what kind of experiences they’ve had to give them these views. You don’t have to like it, but I believe everyone can ‘get’ it, with the right teaching, experience and mindset. That’s something I’m keen to achieve in any future teaching roles. Data and computer skills are attractive to employers if pursuing any career, and certainly from my own experience in environmental or research sectors.