Summary
Dr Elsbeth Robson is a Reader in Human Geography within the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Hull where she leads the ‘Living with Death - Learning from COVID’ research cluster. As an esteemed social scientist Elsbeth has extensive research leadership experience in the areas of social inequality, ethics and social justice, particularly with respect to women, children and youth. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) she has more than two decades expertise teaching on undergraduate and postgraduate geography, development studies and social science programmes in the UK; with significant experience of teaching fieldclasses at home and overseas (Malta, Kenya and Malawi). She is a highly sought-after experienced doctoral supervisor awarded research supervisor recognition from the UK Council for Graduate Education. With a disciplinary background in human and development geography, she firmly espouses critical scholarship as a feminist geographer, an Africanist and children’s geographer.
Elsbeth’s approach to research is trans and inter-disciplinary founded on working in collaborative teams to conduct impactful emancipatory research using qualitative, participatory and quantitative methods. Geographically, her research record has for thirty-five years been firmly rooted in sub-Saharan Africa and the global South, while being agile to re-align her research interests more recently in respond to the greatest global challenge of our times - the impacts of COVID in both the Majority and Minority worlds. She has conducted in-person research fieldwork in Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho and Ethiopia; as well as worked with multi-country teams in South Africa and Ghana.
In the UK Dr Elsbeth Robson has been employed by the University of Hull and Keele University, with previous academic affiliations at Durham, Liverpool and Brunel Universities. In Africa she has been a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Research, University of Malawi and the Economic and Social Research Centre at Ahmadhu Bello University (Nigeria). She has been a visiting scholar at the University of Zimbabwe, Gothenburg University (Sweden), University of Oulu (Finland) and Leiden University (Netherlands) and guest lecturer at the Katholische Universität Eichstätt Ingolstadt (Germany), the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam (Netherlands), and City University New York (USA).
Elsbeth has been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society for more than three decades and in 2015 she was invited to become a fellow of the African Studies Centre, Leiden University (Netherlands). Elsbeth has a distinguished service record of committee work in scholarly societies and research councils being currently a member of the ESRC peer review college, a former invited Council Member of the African Studies Association UK and committee member of the Society of Malawi. In 2009-10 she contributed to the Child and Youth Institute of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar (Senegal). She has given many years’ service to the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) as founder member of the Geographies of Justice research group and undertaking committee roles for the Development Geographies Research Group (formerly DARG), the Gender and Feminist Geographies Research Group (formerly WGSG) and the Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group – most recently as co-facilitator of the 2023 week-long writing retreat.
In 2016 she was appointed founding chair of Save the Children UK’s Research Ethics and Evaluation Committee (REEC) and is still a serving REEC member. She has been called upon as an expert advisor to UNICEF.
She is the author of numerous articles and has co-authored/co-authored three well-reviewed books. Elsbeth has published widely in the fields of geography, development, health and childhood studies. She has made a particular contribution to the discipline of children’s geographies as founding editorial board member (since 2002) and co-editor (2016-2019) of Children’s Geographies journal currently serving as an active editorial board member recently contributing to a statement on the conflict in Gaza. She was an active member of the editorial board of the Journal of Geography in Education for over a decade. She has also been a reviewing editorial board member for Sustainability. Currently, Elsbeth is supporting journals in the Global South as peer reviewer for the Society of Malawi journal and in 2023 was appointed as editorial board member to the Africa Journal of Religion and Culture.
Elsbeth is a trained and experienced writing retreats facilitator and has led retreats in the UK, Scotland and Ethiopia for postgraduates, academic staff and international research teams.
Elsbeth values the experiences gained from volunteering and has a long history of voluntary roles from working in a Kenyan orphanage during a gap year in 1985-6, being a cultural attaché during the World Student Games in Sheffield 1991 to a City of Culture volunteer in Hull in 2017 and during the COVID pandemic. She is currently a parent governor and director of the Ron Dearing University Technical College in Hull serving on the personal development committee and has been a committee member of the Avenues and Pearson Park Resident’s Association (APPRA) in Hull.
As a qualified mountain leader (summer) Elsbeth volunteers as a walking and expedition leader for HFHolidays, Scouts and the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. She has undertaken several long-distance walks and bike rides to raise funds for Shine Relief Malawi and was recently invited to become a trustee for the Friends of Blantyre Wildlife and Environmental Society of Malawi.
PROFESSIONAL ROLES HELD
Founding chair Save the children UK Research and Evaluation Ethics Committee ( 2016 - 2019).
Co-Editor Children's Geographies journal, Taylor & Francis (2012-2015).
Invited contributor to UNICEF Expert round table on children's Care Work, Florence, Italy (2016).
Consultant for and contributor to UNICEF Ethical Research Involving Children: International Charter and Guidelines www.childethics.com
FRGS (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers, since 1990)
Former Member of the Association of American Geographers
Council member, African Studies Association UK (2019-2022)
SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, since 2015)
UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor (2022)