Dr Beth Greenhough

Dr Beth Greenhough
Lecturer in Geography

School of Geography
Queen Mary, University of London
Mile End Road, London E1 4NS
Phone: 020 7882 2747
Fax: 020 7882 7032
Email: b.j.greenhough@qmul.ac.uk

Beth’s work draws on a combination of political-economic geography, cultural geography and science studies to explore the social implications of scientific innovations in the areas of health, biomedicine and the environment. Her research interests include geographies of health and the biosciences, the global circulation of bodily commodities, the spaces of medical research, public health practice and environment-society relations. Her work has been funded by the ESRC, Fondation Brocher, the HEA and the British Academy.

Research interests:

Current and recent research

Photo by SailsburyAreaPlaques@flikr.com

Geographies of medical research: The Common Cold Unit 1946–1990

This project draws on the archives of the MRC’s Common Cold Unit to explore the spaces created though medical research. It examines how volunteers were recruited for common cold research and the unit’s experimental spaces, protocols and practices. A key insight from the research so far has been the ways in which participation in medical research shapes science-society relations, blurring the distinction between scientific research and health care.

 

  

 

  


Bodies Across Borders: The global circulation of body parts, medical tourists and medical professionals

In December 2010, in collaboration with colleagues (Isabel Dyck, Tim Brown & Bronwyn Parry) Beth organised a workshop (funded and hosted by the Fondation Brocher) which brought together researchers working on different kinds of bodily circulations within the global healthcare and medical environments to explore common themes, concerns and issues. An edited collection and Special Section of Gender, Place and Culture based on the workshop are currently under development.

 


Trading the Island Laboratory: New cartographies of Iceland's genetic heritage

Beth’s ESRC funded doctoral research project analysed the debates and controversy surrounding a proposal made by an Icelandic biotechnology firm to use national medical records to construct a commercial research biobank. The research argued that the commercial use of bio-medical information resources, such as medical records, reflects how the biosciences are transforming the relationships between nature and society, science and medicine, and human and non-human subjects.

 

 

 

 

Students and environmental citizenship

This HEA funded project in collaboration with a colleague in Physical Geography at Keele University, Zoe Robinson, explores student’s perceptions of environmental citizenship and how these vary by students’ degree programmes.

 

Postgraduate supervision:

PhD students:

Menah Raven-Ellison (joint supervisor with Isabel Dyck) Beyond detention: Women, home and mental health

Natalie Savona (joint supervisor with Steve Cummins and Dianna Smith) Proportional Responsibility in the Food System

Publications:

Journal Articles

  • Greenhough, B. (forthcoming) ‘Room with a rhinovirus? Blurring the boundaries between research and therapeutic space’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
  • Greenhough, B. (forthcoming) ‘Where species meet and mingle: Endemic human-virus relations, embodied communication and more-than-human agency at the Common Cold Unit 1946–1990’ Cultural Geographies
  • Greenhough, B. (2011), Assembling an island laboratory. Area, 43: 134–138.
  • Greenhough, B. (2011) Citizenship, care and companionship: Approaching geographies of health and bioscience. Progress in Human Geography  35 (2): 153–171
  • Greenhough, B. and Roe, E. (2011) ‘Ethics, space, and somatic sensibilities: comparing relationships between scientific researchers and their human and animal experimental subjects’ Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29 (1): 47–66
  • Greenhough, B. and Roe, E. (2010) From ethical principles to response-able practice. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 (1): 43–45
  • Robinson, Z.P. and Greenhough, B. (2009) Are GEES students ‘good environmental citizens’? Planet 22: 20–26.
  • Greenhough, B. (2007) ‘Situated knowledges and the spaces of consent’ Geoforum 36 (6): 1140–1151
  • Greenhough, B. (2006) ‘Imagining an Island laboratory: Representing the field in Geography and Science Studies’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 31 (2): 224–237
  • Greenhough, B. (2006) ‘Decontextualised? Dissociated? Detached? Mapping the networks of Bio-Informatic exchange’ Environment and Planning A, 38 (3): 445–463
  • Greenhough, B. (2006) and Roe, E. (eds) Towards a Geography of Bodily Biotechnologies (introduction to special issue) Environment and Planning A 38 (3): 416–422
  • Clark, N., Greenhough, B. and Jazeel, T. (2006). Reply: when response becomes responsibility Geographical Journal, 172(3), 248–250
  • Greenhough, B., Jazeel, T. and Massey, D. (2005) Introduction: geographical encounters with the Indian Ocean tsunami (introduction to special issue) Geographical Journal 171 (4): 369–371
  • Greenhough, B. (2005) ‘A biotechnological settlement? Making space for Human Nature at Iceland’s Genetic Frontier’, by invitation for Landabréfið (The Icelandic Journal of Geography) 21(1): 3–19

Book chapters

  • Greenhough, B. (2010) Vitalist Geographies. In, B. Anderson and P. Harrison (eds.) Taking Place: Non-representational Theories and Geography. London, Ashgate: 37–54
  • Greenhough B. (2009) Social Studies of Scientific Knowledge. In Kitchin R, Thrift N (eds) International Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, Volume 10, pp. 204–211. Oxford: Elsevier
  • Greenhough, B. (2004) ‘Islands’ in Harrison, S., Pile, S. and Thrift, N.J. (eds) (2004) Patterned Ground: entanglements of nature and culture. London: Reaktion:149–151
  • Greenhough, B. (2004) ‘Introduction to Section 4: Materialities and Performance’ in Thrift, N. and Whatmore, S. (2004) Cultural Geography: Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences. London: Routledge

Book reviews

  • Lorimer, J., Davies, G., Hinchliffe, S., Hird, M.J., Greenhough, B., Roe, E., Beisel, U., Loftus, A. & Haraway, D. (2010) When species meet: review symposium Society and Space: Environment and Planning D 28 (1): 32–55
  • Greenhough, B. Lorimer, J. and Davies, G. (2011) Corporal compassion: animal ethics and the philosophy of the bodyEnvironment and Planning D: Society and Space, 29 (1): 188–190.
  • Greenhough, B. (2010) A logic of care beyond health geography Area, 42: 136–138
  • Greenhough, B. (2005) Review: The human genome diversity project: an ethnography of scientific practice Environment and Planning A 37 (9): 1692–1693

Undergraduate teaching:

GEG4000 Introduction to Geographical Ideas and Practice & GEG4206 Introduction to Environmental Ideas and Practice (convenor) 

GEG 4102 Environment, Nature and Society (convenor) 

GEG5107 Health, Inequality and Society (Semester A)  

Postgraduate teaching:

GEG7120 Geographical Thought and Practice (convenor)