- 200 years
- Study
- International
- Business and employers
- Research
- About us
https://webcdn.mmu.ac.uk/profiles/img/profile-images/becky-profile-pic-crop-145x145-5c45b8c3b77b9.jpg
I'm Dr Becky Alexis-Martin, and I lecture and research in human geography.
For my research, I look at the human geographies of what we call "existential threats", which in my case includes studies on climate change in the South Pacific, international nuclear policy, and terrorism. I have a focus on the long-term social and cultural impacts of these scenarios, and I currently run two research projects - Nuclear Families and Atomic Atolls. I am also interested in the geographies of peace, development geographies, postcolonial geographies, feminist geographies and Cold War geographies - and how these seemingly disparate fields intersect.
Before I became an academic, I worked in emergency planning - which is a good human geography career! My last role before undertaking my PhD was supporting the Weymouth and Portland elements of the 2012 Olympics mega-event in the UK.
In my spare time I like to paint and I enjoy origami - you might spot a Hiroshima peace crane or two in my office!
I am a human geographer because it gives me a way to personally support solutions for the human elements of some of our biggest global challenges - from poverty and warfare, to climate change. I teach because I love to share my own knowledge and understanding with you - our future human geographers.
Human geography is a fascinating and profound field, with relevance and meaning to all of humanity - past, present and future. It is also wonderfully interdisciplinary - it encompasses place, space people - and everything else! Because of this, it gives us a way to understand our very human entanglements with the world.
I might lecture you for Foundation Geography, Professional Geographer, or Spaces of Culture and Identity. I enjoy sharing my research in the South Pacific and USA when I teach. I like to explore with my students how cultures are constructed and oppressed, and to think about how we can create a more socially, culturally and environmentally sustainable world.
"The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together"
- Barack Obama
I like to use a combination of pedagogies to ensure that my teaching is accessible to all. I also like to mix it up - and my classes include media packs, study debates, paper readings, documentaries, and even mock emergency planning desktop exercises.
My teaching is rigorously underpinned by classical and contemporary literature in Human Geography. I will teach you how to think analytically and critically about your resources, how to argue with conviction by paper and speech, and how to discern disinformation from fact.
My teaching is personal and friendly, but intellectually challenging. I want you to feel as though you can participate in my classes and discuss your learning with me - and I often run a study workshop or two for my assignments, to help you to get to grips with your own ideas.
External Examiner for Northumbria University Human Geography.
2019
Alexis-Martin B. Disarming Doomsday: The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons Since Hiroshima. 192 pages. Radical Geography. Pluto Press. May 2019 (Book)
Alexis-Martin B. The nuclear imperialism-necropolitics nexus: contextualizing Chinese-Uyghur oppression in our nuclear age. Eurasian Geography and Economics 1-25 05 Aug 2019 (Journal article)
Malin SA, Alexis-Martin B. Embedding the atom: Pro-neoliberal activism, Polanyi, and sites of acceptance in American uranium communities. The Extractive Industries and Society 10 Jan 2019 (Journal article)
Alexis-Martin B. The atomic history of Kiritimati – a tiny island where humanity realised its most lethal potential. The Conversation. 04 Jul 2019 (Internet publication)
Alexis-Martin B, Dyke J, Malin S, Turnbull J. Climate crisis: migration cannot be the only option for people living on ‘drowning’ islands. The Conversation. 03 Jul 2019 (Internet publication)
Alexis-Martin B. Atomic Hol(e)y Spaces: Exploring Death and Worship in Los Alamos. Advancing Peace Geographies, Coventry, 15 Jul 2019 - 16 Jul 2019. https://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/about-us/research-events/2019/advancing-peace-geographies/. 15 Jul 2019 (Conference paper)
Alexis-Martin B. Paradise Lost: Revisiting the in(visible) colonial necropolitics of
the British hydrogen bomb. International Conference of Critical Geographies, Athens, 19th April 2019 - 23rd April 2019. https://www.iccg2019.org/programme. 19 April 2019 (Conference paper)
2017
Alexis-Martin, B., 2017. Radiation brain moms and citizen scientists: the gender politics of food contamination after Fukushima. Gender, Place and Culture. (Journal article)
Alexis-Martin, B., and Davies, T., 2017. Towards Nuclear Geography: Zones, Bodies and Communities. Geography Compass. (Journal article)
Alexis-Martin, B., 2017. An Unnatural Environmental History of Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. Environment & Society, Summer, no. 21. Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society. (Journal article)
2016
Alexis-Martin, B., 2016. It was a Blast!'—Camp Life on Christmas Island, 1956–1958. Environment & Society, Autumn, no. 19. Rachel Carson Centre for Environment and Society. (Journal article).
Alexis-Martin, B., 2016. The Chernobyl necklace: the psychosocial experiences of female radiation emergency survivors. BELGEO, 1, pp.1-10. (Journal article).
B. Alexis-Martin (2019). Disarming Doomsday The Human Impact of Nuclear Weapons Since Hiroshima. Radical Geography.
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Sensing the deathscape: Digital media and death during COVID-19. Journal of Environmental Media. 1(2), pp.11.1-11.8.
B. Alexis-Martin, A. Kuntsman, L. Xin (2020). Editorial. Journal of Environmental Media. 1(2), pp..1-.4.
SA. Malin, B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Embedding the atom: pro-neoliberal activism, Polanyi, and sites of acceptance in American uranium communities. The Extractive Industries and Society. 7(2), pp.535-543.
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Untangling uranium. The Extractive Industries and Society. 7(2), pp.517-519.
SA. Malin, B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Assessing the state of uranium research: Environmental justice, health, and extraction. The Extractive Industries and Society.
B. Alexis-Martin, K. Sandys, M. Mulvihill (2020). ‘Mine are the Dead Spaces': A Discussion of Bunker Work’s Atmospheres, Limits and Routines. Journal of War & Culture Studies. 13(1), pp.54-74.
B. Alexis-Martin (2019). The nuclear imperialism-necropolitics nexus: contextualizing Chinese-Uyghur oppression in our nuclear age. Eurasian Geography and Economics. 60(2), pp.152-176.
B. Alexis-Martin, T. Davies (2017). Towards nuclear geography: Zones, bodies, and communities. Geography Compass. 11(9),
B. Alexis-Martin (2015). The Chernobyl necklace: The psychosocial experiences of female radiation emergency survivors. BELGEO.
B. Alexis-Martin (2015). Les impacts psychosociaux des accidents nucléaires sur les femmes. Belgeo.
B. Bowman, K. Bell, B. Alexis-Martin (2021). Youth, climate and environmentalism. K. Bell. In: Diversity and Inclusion in Environmentalism. London: Routledge,
B. Alexis‐Martin, J. Turnbull, L. Bennett, M. Bolton, T. Davies, et al. G. Dunlop, D. Hawkins, RH. Hogue, P. Holloway, SA. Malin, TL. Mangioni, C. Mayoux, G. McClelland, T. Meyer, EO. slavick, L. Ross. (2021). Nuclear Geographies and Nuclear Issues. In: International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology. Wiley, pp.1-9.
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Nuclear Warfare and Weather (Im)Mobilities: From Mushroom Clouds to Fallout. In: Weather: Spaces, Mobilities and Affects. Routledge,
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Arsenic. In: Manchester Something Rich and Strange.
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Ginkgo. In: Manchester Something Rich and Strange.
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Radium. In: Manchester Something Rich and Strange.
B. Alexis-Martin, S. Malin, C. Jensen (2020). Rocky Flats and Environmental Health: Contested Illnesses & Contended Spaces. In: Doom with a View Historical and Cultural Contexts of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant.
B. Alexis-Martin (2020). Geographies of nuclear warfare: future spaces, zones and technologies. In: A Research Agenda for Military Geographies. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.40-56.
B. Alexis-Martin (2019). Beyond nuclear geographies: Exploring the entangled afterlives of para-nuclear waste. London,
Nuclear Families: Exploring Contemporary Nuclear Culture. Royal Geographical Society. September 2018.
Cultural Sociology
Environment and Planning: E
Nuclear Families: Aged Veterans Fund: £150,000
Over the Fence… to the other side of the world. Peace Museum, UK. 2019