March 2021 – International Women’s Day Blog – ‘The F word’ 

See here for a short blog I wrote for IWD2021 on what I #ChooseToChallenge – I choose to challenge exclusionary feminism.

Winter 2020

Throughout winter 2020 I will be meeting with folks digitally and IRL to share experiences of getting outside (or not) during the pandemic. I have already met with so many wonderful people who have been so open, creative and generous with their time and thoughts. I am looking to continue this through the winter. Would you walk with me ‘digitally’?

This is for my new book, Outdoor Life, Social Research and Covid 19. This will look at our changing relationships to outdoor space and to each other in the wake of Covid 19. It will look at how social science (ethnographic) methods will need to develop in light of lockdown and social isolation measures.

For more detail see research.

Autumn 2020

October 22nd 2020 – A research report representing the first of its kind looking at the unique lived experience of LGBT people living in rural Scotland. The report details how social inequalities, prejudice and discrimination as well as a lack of access to inclusive and equalities competent services can have a detrimental effect on wellbeing and mental health. As well as presenting statistical data, the report shares the qualitative experiences of individuals living rurally gathered between 2017 and 2020. The report also makes clear that the disproportionate effect of the Covid 19 Pandemic has heightened health and social inequalities and placed this minority group living rurally at an even higher risk of poor mental health.

Crowther, R., Cuthbertson, S. Valentine, V. (2020) Further Out – The Rural LGBT Equality Report. Available here.

Coming out of lockdown,  and reflecting upon lockdown and our use of outdoor space / digital media / home spaces

Research Participant Calls: (August / September 2020)

Summer 2020

June 2020 –  I’m writing a new book for Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature, it will be published next year!

I am currently working on this research and delivering the book manuscript to Palgrave by June 2020. If anyone would like to talk to me about this – please get in touch!

Some themes are touched on in my blog for Palgrave below:

May 2020 – Science Matters – Blog article for Palgrave Macmillan:

Ritual Wanderings: Covid 19, isolation and our changing relationship to the outdoors

Out May 11th 2020 and will be available here: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/blogs/social-sciences/crowther

February 2020 – Article for The Scottish Review:

The Women’s Movement in Scotland has room for ALL Women

Available here 

November 18th 2019 – Being Human Festival – Heriot-Watt – Afternoon session – Finding Ourselves in Nature – Watch this space for more info!

For more on the Being Human Festival see here

October 5th 2019: Being Queer in Nature – River Almond/ Cramond Beach – get in touch for more info – sharingnaturalscotland@gmail.com

August 24th 2019: Being Queer in Nature: The Self, sexuality and gender in nature engagement

June 14th-16th 2019: Expressing the Earth Geopoetics Weekend Conference at Wiston Lodge, Scotland with Dr Margaret Kerr BOOK HERE Our workshop will be at around 8pm on the 14th. Camping available.

The Wiston Moon over Tinto: An evening workshop…With the moon as protagonist, performative, in this framed excursion we will explore how we relate to the moon and the darkness in this place, and will consider possibilities of a way of viewing, understanding and relating to the moon.

April 13th 2019: The European Lesbian Conference, Kyiv, Ukraine. More details to come. SEE: EL*C 2019

We’ll Never Walk Alone: Wellbeing, Cultural Limits, and Lack of Access to Our Nature, Our Darkness, Our Spaces.

NEW: See what I’ve written about this workshop for Lesbian Day of Visibility 2019 here

April 2nd 2019: Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, Green Walking Project Summit, Ortus Centre – Camberwell, London. Invited contributor: Experience of Nature and the Interpersonal

 More about the green walking project here

February 2018: Ethnography, walking and creative methods. The University of Edinburgh: ESALA, MSc in Nature and Wellbeing. Guest lecture.

September 24th 2018: The Open Space Research Centre, ECA, Lauriston Place  – 12:30-2pm

October 22nd 2018: Edinburgh College of Art, Geddes Room, Minto House, Chamber’s St – 9:30-11:30am

December 12th 2018: The Scottish Mindfulness Research Community – 7-9pm, The Chaplaincy Centre, The University of Edinburgh, 1 Bristo Square

• 13th February, 2018 – Cultural Landscapes M.Sc, ECA, The University of Edinburgh
• 15th February, 2018 – Landscape and Well-being M.Sc,  ESALA, The University of Edinburgh

• 21st February, 2018 – School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

• 10 -13th April, 2018 – Towards the Dark: An exploration with and without light in the rural darkness of winter, American Association of Geographers Conference, Marriot Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana.

• Edinburgh College of Art Well-being Week – Nature and Well-being Workshop – This workshop will focus on the importance of taking a break, getting outside and slowing down. For more info see: ECA Well-being Week website   and my workshop – The Old Firestation, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh/ The Meadow

COLLABORATIONS

• ONGOING  – In to the Dark workshops, Lenzie, Scotland – Get in touch if you’d like to join us!

Older stuff / Research outputs post April 2018

– Good Lives and Decent Societies, The University of Edinburgh/ The Engine Shed, 2014, Invited panellist.

– The 5th International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies, Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, The University of Edinburgh, 10th-12th June, 2015 –Capturing Communitas: The Joys of Reverie and Shared Experience in the Scottish Rural Landscape – A Proposal for Creative and Sensory Methods in Ethnographic Research; Conference presentation.

– Future Connections: Sustainability Research in Action, w/ GESA, IAD and the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science and the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability, 25th-26th June, 2015; Conference co-organiser.

– The 5th International Conference on Health Wellness and Society, Interdisciplinary Social Sciences and Common Ground Publishing, University of Alcala, Madrid, 3-4th September, 2015; Graduate Scholar Award, multiple panel chair.

– Sharing Cultures, The Green Lines Institute for Sustainable Development, The Cultural Centre of Lagos, Portugal, 21st-23rd September, 2015 – Shared experiences and reverie within Scottish rural landscapes for group wellbeing? Conference presentation, proceedings publication and nomination for best ‘Early Research Career’ paper.

– Eco Cultures Glasgow’s Festival of Environmental Research, Policy and Practice, The Pearce Institute, 17th October 2015 –Capturing Communitas: Place, Idleness and Shared Experience of Scottish ‘natural’ landscapes – A participatory Ethnography: Conference presentation.

– Innovative Learning Week/ Ideas in Play, The University of Edinburgh, 18th-19th of February 2016 – Being Other: Seeing Other, Theory into Practice and Practice in to Theory: Organiser and co-workshop leader.

– Traversing the Field – an interdisciplinary conference on walking in the Scottish landscape, The University of Dundee, 30th April, 2016 – Body and Boulder: Tactile encounter, pace and personal “transformation” in Scottish landscapes beyond the urban; Conference presentation and invited panel chair.

– Like a Rolling Stone, The University of Edinburgh; Silversmithing and Jewellery department and The Italian Cultural Institute, 6th -10th June 2016 – Immersion, Flow and Making in The Scottish Natural Landscape; Ethnographer, workshop facilitator, presenter and critical essayist.

– ESALA Away Day, The University of Edinburgh, The Royal Botanical Gardens, 15th June 2016 – From the Mundane to the Sacred: Group engagement, experience and the perception of agency in Scotland’s landscapes beyond the urban; Invited speaker.

– Tales for Travelers and Traveler’s Tales, Fife, 10th of August 2016 and summer 2016, in conjunction with the Fife Coast and Countryside Trust, The Fife Psychogeographical Society, Forth Pilgrim and The University of Edinburgh: Walking event, invited workshop leader.

– Explorathon: European Researchers Night 2016, Beltane Public Engagement Network, Ocean Terminal Edinburgh, 30th September 2016: Participant/public engagement/ presenter.

– Mood, Mobility and Place – Habitats for Happy Ageing Conference, The University of Edinburgh, 11th-14th October 2016, chair.

– The Bristol Nature Festival, AHRC funded project, Nature, Culture and Wellbeing. Bath Spa University, The Watershed, June 2017. – Invited speaker.

– Nature and Wellbeing Symposium, IASH, The University of Edinburgh, June 2017. – Panel leader and presenter: Activities in Nature for Improved Personal and Social Wellbeing: Practice and Research.

– RCUK World Mental Health Day, Invited speaker, Swindon. 10th October 2017.

Plus featured in The Arts and Humanities Research Council  Mental Health Report (2017)

– The American Association of Geographers Annual Conference: (Upcoming)Towards the Dark: an exploration of presence, with and without light, in the ‘rural’ darkness of winter. New Orleans, USA, April 2018.  (Co-Author – Dr Margaret Kerr)