Position:
Lecturer in Human Geography
School:
Planning and Geography
Email:
Telephone:
+44 (0)29 208 75275
Fax:
+44 (0)29 208 74845
Location:
Room 2.86, Glamorgan Building
Dr Richard Gale
Research Interests
Richard’s research lies at the intersection of geography with sociology. His substantive interests are in the areas of ethnic and religious segregation, place and the politics of identity, religion and urban governance, and ethnicity and political participation. Richard is also increasingly interested in debates surrounding social research methodology, and is committed to strategies that combine the insights of quantitative and qualitative research approaches. To date, his primary contributions have been to debates in the geographical study of religion and Islam in the UK and the political engagement of young people of minority ethnic heritage.
2011-2012: £7,000, British Academy, Small Grant for project 'Distant Relations and Proximate Others?: Friendship Networks in Ethnically Diverse Neighbourhoods' (PI, with Naru Shiode, CI).
2010-2011: £3,000, Royal Geographical Society (With the Institute of British Geographers) Small Grant for project ‘Street Corner Conviviality? Neighbourhood Diversity and Social Network Formation’.
2006-2007: £74,695, Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘Lessons from the West Bowling Youth Initiative (WBYI): Then, Now and the Future’, (18 months) (co-applicant with Dr Santokh Singh Gill (Principal Investigator), Dr Gaby Atfield, Prof Mairtin Mac an Ghaill and Dr Therese O’Toole).
2004-2006: £25,000, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) for ‘Review of the Evidence Base on Faith Communities’ (co-applicant with Prof J. Beckford and Dr D. Owen, University of Warwick, Prof Ceri Peach, University of Oxford and Prof Paul Weller, University of Derby).
2004-2005: £7,500, Nuffield Foundation ‘Small Grants Scheme’ Award for research into patterns of religious discrimination in urban planning.
Qualifications
Postgraduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning, Cardiff University (2012)
D.Phil Human Geography, University of Oxford (2004)
PG Cert Social Science Research Methods, Oxford Brookes University (2000)
MA Area Studies (South Asia), SOAS, University of London (1998)
BA (Hons.) History of Art and Architecture, University of East Anglia (1996)
Career Profile
Visiting Research Fellow, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence (2007, Spring).
Research Fellow (F/T) to Dr Therese O’Toole, Department of Sociology, University of Birmingham. Leverhulme Trust funded project, Political Interest and Engagement among Black and Minority Ethnic Youth (project ref: 00094AF) (2004-2005).
Research Assistant (F/T) to Professor Ceri Peach, School of Geography, University of Oxford. ESRC funded project, The Social Geography of British South Asian Muslim, Sikh and Hindu Sub-Communities (project ref: R000239765). Post involved development of a micro-scale Geographic Information System of the distribution of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh populations, based on surname analysis of electoral register data (2003-2004).
Research Assistant (F/T) to Professor Ceri Peach, School of Geography, University of Oxford. Leverhulme Trust-funded project, Ethnicity and Cultural Landscapes (project ref: F/773/A). Project participants included Dr Simon Naylor and Dr James Ryan, now both at Exeter University, Cornwall Campus. Project involved surveying all publicly registered Hindu, Muslim and Sikh places of worship in England and Wales by building type, patterns and intensity of use and tradition/sectarian affiliation of user-group (1999-2000).
Awards and Prizes
2009: ESRC Research Methods Bursary (£574) for ‘Higher Course in Statistics’ (University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield).
2008: ESRC Fee-Waiver Award to undertake series of interlinked courses in Advanced Quantitative Methods (Methods and Data Institute, Nottingham University).
2007: ESRC Research Methods Bursary (£749) for training in Demography (Centre for Census and Survey Research, University of Manchester).
2000-2003: ESRC Doctoral Studentship.
2000: European Union Scholarship (£300) awarded to participate at the 32nd ‘European Research Forum on International Migration and Ethnic Relations’ (EUROFOR) conference on ‘European Metropolises and Cultural Boundaries’, Berlin.
Memberships / External Activities
Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG).
British Sociological Association (BSA).
American Sociological Association (ASA).
Presentations
(2009) ‘Religion, Culture and Materiality Seminar’, Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change, The Open University.
(2008) ‘Religion, Place and the Social Construction of Noise: Urban Planning and the Muslim Call to Prayer’, Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning, University of Cardiff.
(2008) ‘Urbanism among the British Muslim Diaspora’, The American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
(2008) ‘Mosques, Urban Planning and the Religious Landscapes of Birmingham’, ‘Our Sacred Landscapes’ event of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham.
(2007) ‘Politically (In)Different: Black and Minority Ethnic Young Activism in the UK’, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Florence.
(2006) ‘Mosque Development and Planning Law in Britain: The Politics of Faith and Residence’, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London.
(2003) ‘Les lieux de culte musulmans à Birmingham, UK: Processus d’urbanisme et politique locale’, Institut Européen de Recherche, Formation et d’Action sur les Migrations (IRFAM), Lille (France).
(2003) ‘Urban Multicultures and the Politics of Architectural Meaning: Three Mosques in Birmingham’, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.
(2002) ‘Agency and Constraints in the Production of Sacred Space: Mosque Construction and Urban Planning in the UK’, Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex.
Teaching Profile
Political Geography
Urban Space and Place
Undergraduate field trips