Dr Simon Dickinson

I am the Programme Lead for Geoscience & Society and a Lecturer in Geohazards & Risk in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences. 

My research focuses on sense-making in hazard and disaster contexts. I am interested in how people and groups engage with crisis events to make different kinds of decisions. This includes: 

1. How people produce and consume live media during and after hazard events (i.e. what kinds of information do people seek out and for what reasons?)
   
   
2. How creative practices and cultures on digital platforms enable engagement with hazards and disasters (i.e. what kinds of citizen-generated creative content are being produced about hazards and disasters?)
   
   
3. How actors identify opportunities for social change in the aftermath of these events (i.e. how do people and groups identify opportunities for change through recovery?). 

I am currently PI on a ESRC New Investigators Grant (£330k) that examines why people produce and consume live-streams of extreme weather, including focus on how live data is contributing to the governance of hazards. 

Most Recent Publication: Dickinson, S. (2024). Watching the disaster unfold: geographies of engagement with live-streamed extreme weather. Environmental Hazards, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2024.2324058 

I currently teach on the following modules:

Module Convenor
ENVS2004 Environmental Issues and Communication
ENVS/M2002 Environmental Management/Sustainability in Practice (leader of the Sweden fieldtrip)

Module Contributor
GGH1203 Culture, Society and Space
GGH1204 People and Place
ENVS1010 Global Environmental Challenges
ENVM3001 Systems Thinking and Change Leadership in Sustainability
ENVM3002 Systems Thinking in Sustainability: Independent Investigation
GEES519 Environmental Knowledge: From Field to Stakeholder 
GEES506 Climate Change: Science and Policy