Contact
Biography
I am a political and environmental geographer interested in border violence, toxic geographies, and environmental justice. Since joining the 糖心原创 in 2018, after working on the Toxic Expertise project at the University of Warwick, I've been exploring how environmental and political systems intersect to produce social inequalities. I have also taught Human Geography at the University of Birmingham.
My research investigates the political dimensions of social injustice, particularly in relation to migration and environmental pollution. I am especially interested in how power and resistance shape border violence and toxic landscapes. My work has been published in journals such as , , , , and others. In addition, I have written about my research for , , and , contributing to broader public discussions on these issues. I am under contract with Bristol University Press for a forthcoming book: 'Channel Crossings' (published 2027).
Currently, I'm involved in two major research projects. One is funded by the ESRC, looking into the UK government's response to '' crossing the English Channel. The other, funded by the Antipode Foundation, examines border violence experienced by refugees in the Balkans, titled Fragile resistance on the EU border: the peaceful geographies of the refugee crisis. I recently completed a UKRI-funded project exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the UK waste sector. My ongoing research continues to look at the slow, often invisible political violence of pollution across various toxic landscapes.
Alongside my research, I serve as an editor for an international journal that critically engages with the complex relationships between politics and space. I am also on the editorial board of The SAGE Handbook of Global Social Theory, and I previously co-edited , an e-magazine covering toxic pollution and its social impacts. Recently, I co-edited a special issue of Emotion, Space and Society about the role "failure" in academic research. I also hold the position of Membership Officer for the 'Waste, Pollution, and Toxicities' Working Group.
My first co-edited book, '' was published in 2020 with Professor Alice Mah (Manchester University Press).
My pronouns are he/him. Bluesky | Twitter | Google Scholar .
Expertise Summary
Media Engagement:
I collaborated with investigative journalists from , alongside media partners Der Spiegel, iNews, and Tagesschau (German TV News) to investigate the increasing deaths of people on the move at EU borders. This project was nominated for a in 2024, recognising "compelling stories that generate empathy, understanding and are reported on accurately and fairly". My work regularly features in the media, including exclusives in , and interviews with , , and .
Media publications and by-lines include:
Open Democracy , 2025
Der Spiegel . 2023, (contributing author)
Solomon 2023
Lighthouse Reports , 2023
Financial Times , 2022 (contributing author)
History Workshop . 2021
The Independent . 2019
Open Democracy . 2018
The Guardian 2017
The Guardian 2016
The Conversation . 2015
Podcasts interviews include discussing (2021), and the Sociology podcast , discussing the idea of "" (2024).
Policy Impact
After co-producing the first public health investigation of a European refugee camp- (2015)-with Surindar Dhesi and Arshad Isakjee, I provided written evidence to key governmental bodies, including the Home Affairs Committee's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Migration. This included contributions to the (2015) and the Commons Select Committee's (2019). Additionally, I submitted evidence to the (2020), working with the Department for International Development (DFID).
At the EU level, I have presented ongoing research on border violence to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the European Commission in Brussels. My interdisciplinary research on the impacts of COVID-19 on the waste industry also contributed to the (CIWM, 2020).
Teaching Summary
I do an enormous amount of teaching across a wide range of modules. These include:
Globalisation: Economy, Power and Space | Techniques in Human Geography | Exploring Human Geography | Research Tutorials | Dissertation Supervision | Dissertation Preparation | Political Geography | Health Geography | First Year Tutorials | the Lake District Field trip | Project in Environmental Leadership and Management | and People and the Environment (MSc core module conveynor)
My teaching has been commended by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, and I have been nominated for a Lord Dearing Award (I was unable to continue the process due to parental leave). I hold an Associate Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy and have published the following peer-reviewed teaching article:
Davies, T., Lorne, C. and Sealey-Huggins, L., 2019. . Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 43(3), pp.362-383.
PhD Supervision:
I welcome PhD prospective candidates interested in any area of research. I am particularly interested in supervising PhD projects focusing on: Toxic Geographies | Border violence | No Borders Activism | Environmental justice | Critical Migration | Refugees | Violent geographies | Slow violence | Structural violence
PhD students:
- Tony Shenton: "Exploring the emerging environmental dimensions of antimicrobial resistance from a human geography perspective" (Completed 2023)
- Luisa Aldrete Flores Daran: "Rethinking Urban Land Grabbing: A Decolonial Political Ecology Perspective to Reveal a Pluriverse of Alternatives"
- Emmanuel Etim: "Comparative Analysis of Municipal Solid Waste Management: Regulatory, Behavioral, and Environmental Justice Perspectives in Nigeria and the UK"
- Stephen Parkinson: "Households and digital technology in a 'circular society'"
- Irene Quadrelli: "Reporting violence at the border: investigatve journalism, activism and epistemic justice in narratives on migration"
MRes Students:
- Freya Peters: 'Considering a Spectrum of Necropolitical Harms: Geographies of Asylum in Nottingham, Calais and Beyond'
- Holly Judson: 'Exploring the differential treatment of asylum seekers and refugees in the UK'
Research Summary
Externally Funded Research Projects
- 2025 'Assessing the impact of Geopolitical Issues in India on UK migration and border systems' FCDO, Co-I (拢20,000)
- 2022-2025 'Channel Crossing: Irregular journeys, policies and politics in the English Channel' ESRC [], Co-I (拢584,000)
- 2021-2022 'Modern Slavery Risk GEOBarometer: Supporting Transparency in Supply Chains and Due Diligence' UK Space Agency, Co-I (拢502,050)
- 2020-2021: 'Waste management during the COVID-19 outbreak: investigating a critical sector in crisis' ESRC "UKRI Ideas to Address COVID-19", Co-I (拢271,000)
- 2019- 2021: 'Fragile Resistance on the EU Borderzone: The Peaceful Geographies of the Refugee Crisis' Antipode Foundation Scholar Activist Project [Working alongside activist-group ] Co-PI (拢10,000)
- 2015-2016: 'Environmental Health in the Calais Refugee Camp' ESRC Impact Accelerator. Co-PI (拢5,000)
- 2014: 'From Chernobyl to Fukushima: the social fallout of Japan's nuclear meltdown' Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) PI (拢6,000)
Recent Publication:
'Channel Crossings: offshoring asylum and the afterlife of empire in the Dover Strait'
This recent Ethnic and Racial Studies article [] explores responses to irregular crossings of the English Channel in small boats, fantasies of offshoring, and legacies of colonialism at the UK border. It's the first academic output from the ESRC funded '' project, with an interdisciplinary team including Dr Arshad Isakjee (University of Liverpool), Dr Joe Turner (University of York) and Dr Lucy Mayblin (University of Sheffield).
Snapshot from the field:
Above: a pre-Covid photograph from fieldwork in Bosnia for the Antipode Foundation Scholar Activist Project, as discussed in The Independent, .
Selected Publications
THOM DAVIES, ARSHAD ISAKJEE and JELENA OBRADOVIC-WOCHNIK, 2022. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 169-188
THOM DAVIES, ARSHAD ISAKJEE, LUCY MAYBLIN and JOE TURNER, 2021. Ethnic and Racial Studies.
THOM DAVIES and ALICE MAH, eds., 2020. Manchester University Press.
ARSHAD ISAKJEE, THOM DAVIES, JELENA OBRADOVIC-WOCHNIK and KAROLINA AUGUSTOVA, 2020. Antipode. 1-23
If you would like to collaborate with me on a research idea, writing project, or any other initiative, please do not hesitate to get in touch: thom.davies@nottingham.ac.uk
I have worked alongside some fantastic people and organisations, including:
Investigative journalism newsrooom and the grassroots movement , as well as (University of Liverpool), (University of Warwick), (Manchester Metropolitan University), (Aston University), (University of Glasgow) (University of Birmingham), (Northumbria University), (Coventry University), (University of York), (University of Sheffield), (University of Exeter), and , among many others. I am also indebted to the many research participants and communities who have informed my work over the years.