Dr Gina Kallis
Profiles

Dr Gina Kallis

Research Fellow: Intelligent Community Energy

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Faculty of Science and Engineering)

I am a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow currently working on several projects. Recent projects include:

• Intelligent Community Energy (funded by the INTERREG VA France (Channel) England Programme)

• Ploughing a lonely furrow?: Investigating loneliness, isolation and mental ill-health among young farmers in Devon and Cornwall (funded by the Seale Hayne Educational Trust)  

• Improving socio-ecological resilience to wildfire in the UK via community engagement and integration of deep-time ecological data into landscape management (funded by the Royal Geographical Society and the Association for Environmental Archaeology)

• GlacierMap: Mapping glacier change in the Peruvian Andes (UKRI funded)

• 'Food left rotting in the field': The impact of Brexit on migrant agricultural workers, food production and rural communities (funded by the Seale Hayne Educational Trust) 

Qualifications

BA (Hons) Geography with Sociology, First Class Honours (Plymouth University)

PhD Human Geography (Plymouth University). Thesis title: An Intergenerational Perspective on Migrant Senses of Identity and Belonging: The Case of Greek-Cypriot Families in South West England, UK

Research interests

- Migration and mobilities
- Family geographies
- Place attachments
- Renewable energy

My research interests are interdisciplinary and I am currently working on several research projects spanning a range of topics. Most of my time is dedicated to the Intelligent Community Energy (ICE) project which aims to design and implement innovative smart energy solutions for isolated territories in the France Channel England area. My role in this is to explore the social dimensions of renewable energy and I am particularly interested in public engagement processes around energy transitions.

I am also interested in rural geographies and have been working on two Seale-Hayne Educational Trust funded-projects with farming communities. The first, 'Food left rotting in the field': The Impact of Brexit on migrant agricultural workers, food production and rural communities, examines how Brexit is impacting on migrant farm workers and, in turn, their contribution to economy and land-use. The other, Ploughing a lonely furrow?: Investigating loneliness, isolation and mental ill-health among young farmers in Devon and Cornwall, examines the social pressures that young farmers face in their daily lives, particularly in relation to loneliness. 

I have collaborated with my physical geography colleagues on some more cross-discipline projects. I am the social researcher on GlacierMap: Mapping glacier change in the Peruvian Andes, which is funded by UKRI, and will contribute to the creation of a new database for glacier area change, and help to increase public awareness of mountain glacier retreat, changes to meltwater production, and implications for water, food, and energy security. I am also conducting social research interviews for the project Improving socio-ecological resilience to wildfire in the UK via community engagement and integration of deep-time ecological data into landscape management. The aim is to gain an understanding of current wildfire management practices, perceptions, values and community-based environmental decision-making in the Peak District. 

Journals

Kallis, G., Yarwood, R., & Tyrrell, N. (2020) ‘Gender, spatiality and motherhood: Intergenerational change in Greek-Cypriot migrant families in the UK’. Social & Cultural Geography

Kallis, G., Yarwood, R., & Tyrrell, N. (2019) 'Translocal space across migrant generations: The case of a Greek Orthodox Church in the UK'. Population, Space and Place. 25 (5) DOI:10.1002/psp.2206 

Tyrrell, N. & Kallis, G. (2017) ‘Children in transnational family migration’ in: Ni Laoire, C., White, A. and Skelton, T. (eds) Movement, Mobilities and Journeys, Volume 6 of Skelton, T. (ed) Geographies of Children and Young People. Springer, Singapore: pp 329-346



Conferences organised

Co-Director of the 23rd Annual Population Postgraduate Conference (PopFest, 2015) 

Other academic activities

I have a longstanding interest in working with children and young people, and prior to my current role I worked in the charitable sector as an Evaluation Officer for the NSPCC. My role was to contribute to the evaluation of 'Together for Childhood'- a place-based programme aiming to prevent abuse:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/our-services/together-for-childhood/

I am also a Brilliant Club tutor and have delivered a Geography course entitled 'The Anthropocene vs. Deep Time - A journey through Earth's climate history' to secondary school students in Plymouth.

The Brilliant Club is an award-winning charity that works with schools and universities across the UK and aims to increase the number of pupils from under-represented backgrounds progressing to highly selective universities:

http://thebrilliantclub.org/