Dr Tess Osborne

I am a Lecturer in Human Geography and joined the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University of Leicester in 2022. I previously held research and teaching posts at the University of Birmingham and University of Groningen. 

I am a digital and health geographer, and I explore the link between the application of digital technology (as a method and in everyday life) and questions of health and wellbeing, embodiment and mobilities in urban settings. Both areas have become increasingly important in recent years and stresses the importance of the digital world and our physical environment influences our health and wellbeing.

My research approach is grounded in collaboration and interdisciplinarity. Thus far, I have been fortunate to work with and learn from a variety of scholars worldwide and across disciplines, including psychologists, engineers, GIScientists, neuroscientists, planners, and lawyers, among others.

I have explored the potential of digital technologies within geography examining the growing interest in biosensing technologies in different areas of geography, including planning and in migration studies. Complementing this work, I am focusing on the role of virtual reality as a unique way to create and experience spaces. We have shown the research potential of VR for geographers in a variety of areas, including memory studies, theoretically, in teaching, and as a research method.

Before joining Leicester, I was researching the potential of methodological innovation in studying mobility and wellbeing in later life.  I have explored the possibilities of a variety of methods (including graphic elicitation, smartphone applications and GIS) with a ‘vulnerable’ group, critically reflecting on and applying various qualitative and quantitative methods in the geographies of health and wellbeing

I am interested in supervising postgraduate researchers in the following research areas:

• Digital geographies
• Digital technologies (including virtual reality)
• Emotional geographies
• Geographies of health and wellbeing
• Geographies of migration

Current PGRs

• Thomas Lowe - The Golden Years? Older adult mobility experiences and perceptions across the later life course in England.  
• Kathryn Adams - Modelling the Environmental (in)justices associated with Road Traffic Noise: A spatiotemporal analysis.
• Danielle Sheppard - Rural Super-Gentrification: An Investigation of Social Change within Three English Villages.

Completed PGRs

• Charlie Hewitt (2023) - Discovering the way: Automated Machine Learning improvement of path network data.

• Skills for Professional Geographies 
• Research Methods and Design (with Dissertation) 
• Berlin Fieldcourse
• Dissertation

Digital Technologies; Virtual Reality and Health and Wellbeing.

Editorial roles

• Early Career Editorial Board Member - Health and Place.
• Early Career Editorial Board Member - Wellbeing, Space and Society.
• Editorial Board Member - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
• Book Review Editor - Emotion, Space and Society.
• Communications Editor - Emotion, Space and Society.

Committees

• Chair of the Digital Geographies Research Group
• Communications Officer for the Geographies of Health and Well-being Research Group

Memberships

• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG).
• Member of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap [Royal Dutch Geographical Society] (KNAG).
• Member of the American Association of Geographers (AAG).
• Member of the International Ambiances Network.
• Member of the Memory Studies Association (MSA).