Professor Katy Bennett

I am Professor of Human Geography in the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University of Leicester. I have previously held lecturing and research posts at Newcastle University, Durham University and the University of Portsmouth. From 2014-2020 I was Editor of Cultural Geography on Geography Compass and I am an Editorial Board Member of Emotion, Space and Society and Geography Compass. I have been principle investigator or co-investigator on projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the Leverhulme Trust and the European Union working with and leading teams of researchers. In 2020 our paper on 'Community and Conviviality: informal social life in multicultural places' published in Sociology won the Annual SAGE prize for Innovation and Excellence.

My research challenges and advances ways of understanding everyday multiculturalism in an era of global migration and ethnically complex populations. It coils around multiculture, place, diversity and emotional geographies involving creative methods working at the interface of social science and psychotherapeutic techniques and interdisciplinary team working in digital geographies. My current and recent research projects include:

• EU Marie Curie Innovative Training Network SOLiDi - Solidarity in Diversity (Co-Investigator, 2020-2024, €4 million)

• Mapping Multiculture: disrupting representations of an ethnically diverse city ( Principal Investigator on a Leverhulme Trust funded research project working with Dr. Stefano De Sabbata and Dr. Zoe Gardner 2019-2022, £110,000)

• Living Multiculture: the new geographies of ethnicity and the changing formations of multiculture in England (Co-I on an Economic and Social Research Council funded project working with Prof. Sarah Neal, Prof. Allan Cochrane, and Prof. Giles Mohan 2012-2014, £500,000).

• Identities and regeneration in the former coalfields of East Durham (Principal Investigator on a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council 2005-2008).

Bennett K and De Sabbata (2023) Introducing a more-than-quantitative approach to explore emerging structures of feeling in the everyday. Emotion, Space and Society

De Sabbata, S., Bennett, K., & Gardner, Z. (2023). Towards a study of everyday geographic information: Bringing the everyday into view. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science  https://doi.org/10.1177/23998083231217606

Bennett K and Emery J (2023) Emotional in Lees L & Demeritt D (eds) Concise Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 

Gardner Z, Bennett K and De Sabbata S (2023) Virtual Reality, Place and Affect in Osborne T & Jones P (eds.) A Research Agenda for Digital Geographies. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham. 

Bennett K, Gardner Z and De Sabbata S (2023) Digital geographies of everyday multiculturalism: ‘Let’s go Nando’s!’ Social and Cultural Geography 24:8,1458-1477

Neal S, Bennett K, Cochrane A and Mohan G (2019) Community and Conviviality: informal social life in multicultural places. Sociology 53(1) pp.69-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038518763518

Neal S, Bennett K, Cochrane A & Mohan G (2019) Author response to reviews of Lived Experience. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(3), pp.409-416

Neal S, Bennett K, Cochrane A and Mohan G (2018) The Lived Experiences of Multiculture: the new spatial and social relations of diversity. Routledge, London

Bennett K, Cochrane A, Mohan G, Neal S (2017) Negotiating the educational spaces of urban multiculture: skills, competencies and college life. Urban Studies: an international journal for research in urban studies 54 (10), pp.2305-2321. 10.1177/0042098016650325 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/37737

Neal S, Mohan G, Cochrane A, Bennett K (2016) "You can't move in Hackney without bumping into an anthropologist': why certain places attract research attention. Qualitative Research 16 (5), pp. 491-507 10.1177/1468794115596217

Bennett K (2015) Women and economy: complex inequality in a post-industrial landscape.  Gender, Place and Culture 22 (9) pp.1287-1304  https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.958066

Bennett K, Cochrane A, Mohan G, Neal S (2015) Listening. Emotion, Space and Society, 17, pp. 7-14 10.1016/j.emospa.2015.10.002http://hdl.handle.net/2381/38912

Jones H, Neal S, Mohan G, Connell K, Cochrane A, Bennett K (2015) Urban multiculture and everyday encounters in semi-public, franchised cafe spaces. Sociological Review, 63 (3), pp. 644-661 10.1111/1467-954X.12311 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/33495

Neal S, Bennett K, Cochrane A, Jones H, Mohan G (2015) Multiculture and Public Parks: Researching Super-diversity and Attachment in Public Green Space. Population, Space and Place 21(5), pp.463-475. 10.1002/psp.1910 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/33493

Bennett K (2013) Emotion and place promotion: Passionate about a former coalfield. Emotion, Space and Society, 8 (1), pp. 1-10 10.1016/j.emospa.2012.04.004 http://hdl.handle.net/2381/31684

Neal S, Bennett K, Cochrane A, Mohan G (2013) Living multiculture: understanding the new spatial and social relations of ethnicity and multiculture in England. ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING C-GOVERNMENT AND POLICY, 31 (2), pp. 308-323 10.1068/c11263r

Bennett K (2011) Homeless at Home in East Durham Antipode 43 (4): 960-985

Bennett K (2009) Challenging Emotions Area 41 (3) pp.244–251

Bennett K (2009) Telling Tales: Nostalgia, Collective Identity and an Ex-Mining Village in Smith, Mick, Davidson, Joyce, Cameron, Laura and Bondi, Liz (Eds.) Emotion, Place and Culture (BurlingtonVT and Aldershot: Ashgate Press)

Bennett Kand Lee R (2007) Amber and an/other rural: Film, photography and the former coalfields in R. Fish (ed) Cinematic Countrysides Manchester University Press, Manchester.

Bennett K (2006) Kitchen Drama: Performances, patriarchy and power dynamics in a Dorset farmhouse kitchen. Gender, Place and Culture Vol 13, No 2, pp.49-56.

Bennett K(2005) The identification of farmers' wives: Research challenges in the Northern Fells, Cumbria in Little, J. and Morris, C. (eds) Critical studies in rural gender issues. Ashgate, Aldershot

Bennett K (2004) Emotionally Intelligent Research. Area 36 (4) pp.414-422

Bennett K (2004) A time for change? Patriarchy, the former coalfields and family farming. Sociologia Ruralis 44 (2) pp.147-166.

Phillipson J, Bennett K, Lowe P and Raley M (2004) Adaptive responses and asset strategies: The experience of rural micro-firms and Foot and Mouth Disease. Journal of Rural Studies 20 (2): 227-243.

Bennett K and Phillipson J (2004) A plague upon their Houses: Revelations of the Foot and Mouth Disease Epidemic for Business Households. Sociologia Ruralis 44 (3) pp. 261-284.  

Phillipson J, Bennett K, Carroll T and Lowe P (2002) Coping with crisis in Cumbria: the consequences of Foot and Mouth Disease. Town and Country Planning, 72 (3), pp. 78-81

Bennett K (2002) Participant observation in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing Cultural Geography. Sage: London.

Bennett Kand Shurmer-Smith P (2002) Writing conversation in Dwyer, C. and Limb, M. in Qualitative Methodologies for Geographers. Arnold: London.

Bennett K(2002) Interviews and focus groups in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing Cultural Geography. Sage: London.

Bennett Kand Shurmer-Smith P (2002) Handling case studies in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing Cultural Geography. Sage: London.

Bennett K, Ekinsmyth C and Shurmer-Smith P (2002) Selecting topics for study in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing Cultural Geography. Sage: London.

Bennett K and Shurmer-Smith P (2002) Creating a text in Shurmer-Smith, P. (ed.) Doing Cultural Geography. Sage: London. (50%)

Bennett K(2000) Inter/viewing and inter/subjectivities: Powerful performances in Seymour, S., Hughes, A. and Morris, C. (eds.) Ethnography and rural research. Countryside and Community Press: Cheltenham.

Bennett K, Beynon H and Hudson R (2000) Coalfields Regeneration: Dealing with the Consequences of Industrial Decline. Policy Press: Bristol. 

Strangleman T, Hollywood E, Beynon H, Bennett K and Hudson R. (1999) Heritage work: representing the work ethic in the coalfields.  Sociological Research Online - Vol. 4, Issue 3

I would like to supervise projects involving one or more of the following topics: Everyday multiculturalism; Spatial and social relations of diversity; Emotional geographies; Geographies of migration; Bordering practices; Digital geographies. 

Current PhD students:

Completed PhDs:

GY1413 Human Geography Field course (lead and convene)

GY1422 Introduction to Leicester Geographies

GY2414 Research Design and Methods (with dissertation planning) (convene)

GY3415 Migration Place and Diversity (convene)

GY3420 Dissertation

GY7411 Critical and Creative Geographies

GY7412 Creative Geographies in Practice