Dr Keith Halfacree

Reader, Geography

Telephone number

+44 (0) 1792 602502
Academic Office - 237
Second Floor
Wallace Building
Singleton Campus
Available For Postgraduate Supervision

About

My research focuses on five overlapping areas.  First, I study mostly ‘internal’ expressions of human migration and have published widely on urban-to-rural ‘counterurbanisation’, cultural perspectives on migration, and on how migration helps structure institutions such as family and place.  Second, I investigate discourses of rurality, mostly in the global North, outlining the content of our representations of rural and exploring how these link to practices such as migration, developing a sense of place, and leisure.  Third, building on the latter, I engage with conceptual debates on rural change and the shaping of rural futures, very ‘live’ topics in these post-Brexit / Covid times.  Fourth, I have become increasingly interested in how rural places are not solely produced by humans but also bear the imprints of other forces, both animate and inanimate.  In this context, I am developing research with a colleague on the extent to which our uplands are co-produced by sheep.  Finally and strongly reflecting personal interests, I very much enjoy teaching and researching ‘marginal geographies’, the geographical expressions of all things ‘counter-cultural’ and geographical issues entangled in Americana and folk music.

Areas Of Expertise

  • Rural areas in Global North
  • Counterurbanisation and rural population change
  • Defining and understanding rural and rurality
  • Radical ruralities
  • Countercultural spaces
  • Internal migration
  • Nature spaces
  • Americana music

Career Highlights

Research
  • Counterurbanisation and rural population change
  • Defining and understanding rural and rurality
  • Radical ruralities
  • Countercultural spaces
  • Internal migration
  • Nature spaces
  • Americana music