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Christopher Donaldson supervises 9 postgraduate research students. If these students have produced research profiles, these are listed below:

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Dr Christopher Donaldson

Senior Lecturer in Cultural History

Christopher Donaldson

Bowland College

LA1 4YT

Lancaster

Office Hours:

My Michaelmas term office hours are generally on Tuesday afternoons, between 13.00 and 15.00. Please check Moodle, though, or write to me for more information, as my office hours vary during some weeks.

PhD supervision

I welcome enquiries from potential students interested in completing theses or dissertations on topics related to the following: history of tourism, leisure and recreation; history of national parks, parklands and landscape conservation; heritage studies; print history (1700 to present); historical geography; landscape history; modern regional history.

Profile

My research is concerned with the cultural history of landscape, primarily in Britain, with an emphasis on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. I have published widely on the history of northern England, especially Cumbria, the English Lake District and the Anglo-Scottish border region. My other research interests include print history and historical geography. I am an affiliate of the Regional Heritage Centre, the Cumbria County History Trust and Decolonising Lancaster University.

My current research projects mainly focus on the global histories of national landmarks and landscapes. I am currently finishing a book project entitled A Shadow of a Magnitude, which explores the history of people of African and Afro-Indian ancestry in the English Lake District between the 1600s and 1800s.

In addition, I am also involved in collaborative research projects focused on the historical geography of Cumbria, including 'Envisaging Landscapes and Naming Places: the Lake District before the Map'.

I am a member of the Council of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, and I also edit the Society's News.

Career Details

My career at Lancaster began in 2012, when I was hired as a research assistant on the ERC-funded Spatial Humanities project. I worked at the University of Birmingham between 2014 and 2016, when I returned to Lancaster as a Lecturer to work with colleagues as part of a Leverhulme Trust-funded project entitled Geospatial Innovation in the Digital Humanities. I completed my University education in the USA. I received my BA from Penn State University in 2004 and my PhD from Stanford University in 2012.

Current Teaching

I contribute to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the Department of History and LICA. Modules I convene include HIST107: 'Witches', Warriors, and Slavers: Exploring the History of Lancaster; HIST225: Contested Grounds: Colonialism, Heritage and the History of Protected Landscapes; and HIST273: Sex, Satire and British Society, 1660–1901. I also supervise independent undergraduate and postgraduate research projects. 

Qualifications

I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy.

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