Gail Davies

@gailfdavies.bsky.social

Prof in Human Geography at University of Exeter researching spaces of science & technology, human & animal health, research involvement & responsibility. Currently works on animal research & its replacements. Unexpected interest in chronic pain & FND.

Reading the news and rereading this 🧵 - If only there were a discipline that focused on the causes of overlapping environmental crisis, the dangers of environmental and other socially discriminating determinisms, and the importance of grappling with social and environmental complexity together.

James Kneale@jameskneale.bsky.social · 4w ago

Here’s a screenshot of their ‘offer’ this year. Great programmes, don't get me wrong, and I hope they recruit - but does this look anything like ‘geography’ to you? The subject that spans the natural and social sciences, the humanities, and more? 6/9

A screenshot of the CGES webpage showing available programmes. The text says "We offer Undergraduate courses in a range of subjects covering the Earth sciences and environmental sciences, geology and geoscience, and mining engineering." No Geography. 

And the undergraduate programmes are:
Business and Environment BSc
Engineering Geology and Geotechnics BSc
Environmental Geoscience BSc
Environmental Science BSc
Geology BSc
Global Sustainability BA/BSC
Marine Science BSc
Resource and Exploration Geology BSc

https://dees.exeter.ac.uk/study/ - accessed 13th August 2026

Nope, it’s the weeks of hot, dry weather made more severe by global heating due to fossil fuel burning that has increased the risk of wildfires. The landscape is so dry that any ignition can start a fire that becomes uncontrollable. Fields of crops and grasses are not “rewilded” but have burned

Front page of the Daily Mail newspaper “eclipse special” with headline “Rewilding link to record fires”, beneath a photograph of people watching the near-total eclipse of the sun with the title “Britain finally gets a break from the sun (for a few minutes!)”

I've just heard that the BA/BSc Geography programme is to close at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Geography and Environmental Science (CGES) in Cornwall. This programme was made up of excellent modules with original and content, taught brilliantly—often with real innovation—by extremely 1/9

How are bodies charted, and how might maps chart bodily experience? Steph Morris asks this question at their new exhibition, Skin Maps: semi-permeable cartography, held from 12 June to 16 Aug at the Director's Gallery @rgs.org. Steph was inspired by maps and atlases in the RGS Collections. 🗃️

Skin maps: semi-permeable cartography | Exhibition

A new exhibition of collages and reworkings of historic maps from the RGS and other archives by Steph Morris.

rgs.org

Our new piece out today in Times Higher Education about the threats to Geography in the UK - particularly fieldwork - please do share. It links to a recent snapshot survey on the challenges being faced in UK HE, which highlights the inequities of the challenges, but also fears of what is yet to come

The UK universities cutting geography have lost their bearings

From climate change to geopolitics, the knowledge, skills and insights of geographers have never been more relevant, say five professors

timeshighereducation.com

Incandescent. One of the best pieces I've read about what university means to people and their communities - and what will happen to a city and people after one closes. The *Labour* government and Jaqui Smith in particular should be ashamed of themselves and shamed into doing something. Deplorable.

‘If I think about what this means, I want to cry’: what happens when a city loses its university?

When Essex University’s Southend campus opened, it was a message of hope for a ‘left behind’ UK seaside town. Its closure will be felt far beyond its 800 students, some of whom will not get their degr...

theguardian.com

This is the latest salvo in what I'm calling The Great British Herpetological Hoo-Hah - disagreements on what amphibians and reptiles should be 're'-introduced to Britain, where, and how. Lots of fascinating details. Worthy of a PhD study or a 4-part BBC1 drama www.arc-trust.org/lost-frogs-r...

Lost Frogs report: comment from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust

This note summarises ARC’s views on “Investigating the Status of Britain’s Lost Frogs: Prospects for Rewilding” (Tweats, 2026), hereafter referred to as the “Lost Frogs report”. ARC was pleased to be ...

arc-trust.org

While these scholarships won't cover full costs of MA study, they will make things a fair bit easier, in turn creating critical access routes into PGR and academia, on an absolutely cracking course. Please share widely! #HEaccess #sustainability #envpol #foodstudies

CRPR University of Exeter@crpr-exeter.bsky.social · 7mo ago

MA Food Studies opportunity - 5 scholarships 2026/27: @crpr-exeter.bsky.social & @exeter.ac.uk are offering a fee reduction of £5000 to 5 full time students. Programme led by @crpr-exeter.bsky.social Co-Director and @exeterfood.bsky.social lead Prof. Harry West www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

Quick science policy thread 1 Changes in the governance of UK science since the mid 1980s make it extremely hard to be strategic (that was the point), in terms of both process (dropped) and capability (hollowed out).

Pics from local Devon news today in the aftermath of the wind. Heavy rain still coming down and the weather warning now extends into Wednesday. Left: Matt Gilley, centre: Richard Heiron.

Train tracks running next to the sea wall at Dawlish. The sea looks choppy, and a large part of the wall has fallen down onto the tracks. About 10 men, head to toe in orange high vis gear are standing around looking at the wall. Huge waves crash into the sea wall at Dawlish, south Devon coast. A car attempts to drive through sand that has blown across the road at Exmouth.

2026 is continuing where 2025 left off with a focus on alternatives to animal use in research and testing. Today the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology published a POSTnote on this topic highlighting the opportunities and challenges: post.parliament.uk/research-bri...

Technology alternatives to animals in life sciences research

How is the UK replacing animal testing with technology alternatives? What are the opportunities, risks and barriers?

post.parliament.uk

This is such an important paper by @gailfdavies.bsky.social on how functional neurological symptoms are produced. I hope it is very widely read by clinicians, clinical researchers, and medical humanities researchers — as well as geographers

Gail Davies@gailfdavies.bsky.social · 9mo ago

New paper outlining a spatial account of #FND and proposing an approach to the co-production of functional symptoms. It draws on my longstanding work on geographies of health knowledges, my recent health experiences, and emerging interdisciplinary conversations www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Screenshot of the front page of an article published in the journal Social and Cultural Geography called Remapping the body: an autoethnography of pain, paraesthesia, and the co-production of functional neurological symptoms

Such a superb, insightful & brave paper from @gailfdavies.bsky.social who so eloquently captures and describes what many of us have noticed about the evolution of symptoms as a result of patients’ interactions with the medical system👏👏💪🏻💪🏻 Straight into my top 10 of best papers ever on FND👌👌

Gail Davies@gailfdavies.bsky.social · 9mo ago

New paper outlining a spatial account of #FND and proposing an approach to the co-production of functional symptoms. It draws on my longstanding work on geographies of health knowledges, my recent health experiences, and emerging interdisciplinary conversations www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Screenshot of the front page of an article published in the journal Social and Cultural Geography called Remapping the body: an autoethnography of pain, paraesthesia, and the co-production of functional neurological symptoms