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Staff Profile

Professor Maggie Roe

Professor of Landscape and Co-Director of the Centre for Landscape (the Landscape NUCoRE)

  • Email: maggie.roe@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU


Background

My background is in Landscape Architecture, Landscape Planning and Landscape Ecology. I joined Newcastle University in 1994 following studies based at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University funded by a Kennedy Scholarship where I developed a wide-ranging cross-disciplinary understanding of landscape approaches.  I studied with Carl Steinitz, Richard Forman, and E.O. Wilson, and also at MIT with Evelyn Fox-Keller and Leo Marx, and Yale with Florencia Montagnini.  Prior to this I gained a BA(Hons) Landscape Architecture and DipLA from Leeds Polytechnic and worked in practice with Landscape Design Associates (LDA), David Bellamy Associates and Woolerton Truscott. 

I have experience on a wide range of multi-disciplinary research and consultancy landscape projects which involve building partnerships  between academics, communities, voluntary and statutory organisations.  I have established an international profile as a respected researcher, rigorous peer reviewer, advisor in landscape research, policy and publishing, and leader in landscape research, teaching and learning.

 

Roles and Responsibilities

At Newcastle I am currently Co-Director of the Newcastle University Centre for Landscape (NUCoRE) https://www.ncl.ac.uk/landscape/, a newly formed interdisciplinary research centre to examine and advance understandings of the complex interactions and relationships between people and landscapes. Immediately prior to this I was on a p/t buyout for REF2021 sub-panel 13/Interdisciplinary Advisor duties and before that I was Dean of Postgraduate Studies in HaSS Faculty - a senior leadership position within the University. My roles and responsibilities include appointment by the NU Executive Board to serve on Court 2022-25, leader of the Landscape Collaboratory in the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape,  School Postgraduate Research Committee Member, University Staff PhD Moderator, mentor and line-manager to PDRAs, and NU Peer Review College member.  I also acted as Academic Lead of the Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership  (NIEDTP)(2016-19 ) and Director of Landscape Programmes (2001-4).

Externally I am a  member of UK Government’s (Defra) Trees & Woodlands Science Advisory Committee (TAW-SAG), the Natural England Science Advisory Committee (NESAC) and the new Foresight Project (Science and Innovation for the Natural Environment). I was instrumental in the establishment of Natural England’s Landscape Advisory Group (LAG).  I am an Academic Fellow of the Landscape Institute (AFLI) and LI College of Fellows.  I am a long-term Editor for the International journal Landscape Research (Managing Editor 2004-08; Consulting Editor 2009-14, 2021-current; Deputy Editor 2008-20) and was Director of the charity Landscape Research Group (2004-19). I am a member of the ESRC Peer Review College and have acted on numerous panels including DfiD/British Council Assessor Panel (Newton Fund & Researcher Links), Landscape Institute prize panels, internal and international staff promotions panels. 

I am Research Advisor for the FORMAS Spatial Justice in the 21st century urban-rural land regimes (with Malmö University). I was a member of the EU GREEN SURGE project scientific advisory group 2014-18.  In 2013 I sat on the Expert Panel of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the review of the Landscape Evidence & Knowledge Base for Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and was an instigator and Advisor for the Northern Heartlands Project, which won the 2021 Landscape Institute Collaboration and Partnerships Award.  I served on both REF2014 and REF2021 panels.  I was HEFCE Panel Inspector at Sheffield University Department of Landscape in 2008.

 

Personal and Professional Statement

In my personal and working life the key principles I try to work with are:

•            Promoting academic learning, knowledge and responsibility

•            Promoting environmental sustainability, particularly in relation to landscapes

•            Providing equal opportunities in all spheres of life

•            Enabling wherever possible international co-operation, education and learning

 


Research

Overall Summary

My research focuses on landscape and seascape planning and the human perception of, experience and relationship with the landscape using integrated approaches. I have developed these based on theories and methods derived from landscape ecology, participatory/collaborative planning and socio-cultural theories.  Recent work has been in relation to coastal/water landscapes, foodscapes and landscape policy development. 

I work primarily within research collaborations of multi-disciplinary teams using interdisciplinary methods, and on applied projects which involve collaborative working with communities, voluntary and statutory organisations in the UK and internationally. I am particularly interested in creative approaches to methodology development in order to co-produce research with stakeholders and communities and in understanding landscape change.

My research impact is recognized in various ways including the award of the Landscape Institute Partnership and Collaboration Award 2021 for work in developing a landscape approach with the HLF Northern Heartlands project.   I won the Landscape Institute Award for my ‘Research on Landscape and Community’ in 2001.  My research and artwork from the collaborative AHRC funded project ‘Hydrocitizenship’ 2014-17 (under the Connected Communities programme) was disseminated though keynotes, conference papers, blogs and, invitations to exhibit including at the first Summer Showcase run by the British Academy at Carlton House Terrace, London in June 2018, at the ‘Science Uncovered’ event, Great North Museum, Newcastle, (funded by EU Horizon 2020) 2017, and the ‘Being Human’ festival at The Sill, Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland in 2018. 

My research on the European Landscape Convention (ELC), green infrastructure planning and landscape change continues to influence my thinking and I am developing new areas that bring all these strands together in the UK and internationally.  I have recently carried out two projects for Natural England working on landscape futures visions for policy and based on that work I am invited to speak to at the Flemish Parliament in Brussels on ‘Transformative Change in Landscape’.  I am currently working with partners on the HLF-funded Tyne Tees Shores & Seas (Seascape) examining foodscapes of the marine and coastal area. The membership of the Defra Foresight project is also a result of this work.

I continue to work in the Global South on sustainability issues, currently in the Red River and Mekong Deltas in Vietnam and the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta in India and Bangladesh (UKRI GCRF Living Deltas Hub).  I am also working on water values with collaborators in Ethiopia, Colombia, Malaysia and India (UKRI GCRF Water Security & Sustainability Hub).

I have had numerous international invitations and have spoken, lectured and taught in Japan, South Korea, China, India, South Africa, Bangladesh and a number of countries in Europe. This includes keynotes, and invited representations at the Council of Europe in relation to the European Landscape Convention, as well as other academic, professional and community-based events. I have had a number of invitations specifically to talk about how to construct and deliver high quality and impactful peer review research papers in international journals.  These include PhD/ECR workshops, and post-REF 2014 & 2021 strategic reviews at my own and other universities.

I have published widely on landscape issues and landscape sustainability.  My publications include the book, ‘New Cultural Landscapes’ (2014) which explores issues of heritage, conservation, human-nature relationships in the landscape and the creation of meaning in future landscapes.  I am presently particularly interested in exploring alternative forms of publishing and dissemination of research. In addition to international academic peer-review papers, my publications range from consultancy reports and pieces in professional journals in the UK and abroad. 

I am always interested to hear from potential PhD students and other possible collaborators in my areas of current interest: 

  1. Developing and implementing a ‘landscape approach’ to environmental change and within landscape policy futures
  2. Experimental  creative and participatory approaches to landscape research
  3. Understanding human and non(more-than)-human relationships with water and landscapes (bees, birds and eels)
  4. Seascape, coastal and marine landscape planning and management
  5. Interconnections and cultures of food and landscapes
  6. Exploring water values
  7. Trees and woodlands in past, present and future landscapes

 

Current and Recent Research Projects:

 

  • Partnership Board Member: Tyne to Tees, Shores and Seas HLF Landscape Partnerships Scheme LP-16-00008 2018-2022. £2.9m (£5M total with match funding)

Primary Investigator: SUB PROJECT: Foodscapes - Sustainable Seascape: Food and Folklore - Connecting communities to seascape past, present & futures through exploration and celebration of foodscape traditions/folklore £45,008  (£5,000 match from NUHRI). https://www.exploreseascapes.co.uk/

Associated projects: Primary Investigator Sea Sure: Our Coastal Future project funded by NU-FIF; Oysters! Project Co-Investigator, funded by NU QR-PSF.

 

  • Co-Investigator: UKRI GCRF Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub 2019-2024; PI: Richard Dawson; >100 researchers;13 UK academic collaborators, 46 overseas partners; Collaboratories - Colombia, India, Malaysia. Inception and safeguarding phase £180K; Total Project Value: £7,599,169.84. WP4 Water Values - revealing and expressing the hidden socio-cultural values of water systems. Co-leading: Research Methods for Global Challenges ECR Training Initiative in Interdisciplinary Arts & Humanities Methods; Waterscape approaches and development of a water values framework. https://www.watersecurityhub.org/

 

  • Co-Investigator: UKRI GCRF ‘Living Deltas’ Hub 2019-2024. PI: Andy Large; 15 academic collaborators in UK, plus overseas partners. Inception and safeguarding phase £180K. Total Project value £4,289,929.01. WP1 Contemporary Culture & Heritage/Creative Cultures & Delta Bees sub-groups.  Project initiatives: Bittersweet Tides (honey gatherers and beekeeping landscapes) & photographic landscape change recording of the Sundarbans, India/Bangladesh; landscape myths and practices expressed in water puppet stories of the Red River Delta, Vietnam.  https://www.livingdeltas.org/

 

  • Supervisor/Advisor: EU HERILAND Cultural Heritage and the Planning of European Landscapes pan-European research and training network on cultural heritage in relation to Spatial Planning and Design. Funded by EU Horizon 2020 grant agreement No 8138   Partners: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL) Bezalel Academy of Arts & Design, Jerusalem (Israel); Università degli Studi Roma Tre (Italy); Göteborgs University (Sweden); Newcastle University (UK); and Technische Universiteit Delft (NL). https://www.heriland.eu/

 

  • Primary Investigator: Alternative landscape approaches/new style designations – future options for Natural England. Aug-Sept 2021 Collaborators: Clive Davies (NU); Jeremy Lake (CCRI); Jonathan Porter (Countryscapes). Project Value £9,912.00.

 

  • Consultant/Advisor: All England Strategic Landscape Mapping Assessment project 2021-2022 for Natural England, led by Land Use Consultants with Prof Carys Swanwick. 

 

  • Instigator/Advisor: Northern Heartlands, HLF Great Place Scheme 2017-2020 Project Team, Advisory Board: Opera North, Natural England, Durham CC, Durham Wildlife Trust, Active Durham, Visit County Durham, The Forge, Wear Rivers Trust, People into Enterprise, UTASS, County Durham Community Foundation, North Pennines AONB, Newcastle University (through MH Roe). £1.48m. https://northernheartlands.org/ Won Landscape Institute Award 2021 for Partnership & Collaboration.

 


Teaching

My main teaching responsibilities at Newcastle in recent years have been with postgraduate students on sustainable landscape planning, and climate change and planning. During the session 2022-3 I will be teaching on the Landscape Architecture and Planning programmes. I am particularly keen to promote cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary activities through my teaching. 

I have acted as Degree Programme Director for various postgraduate programmes including MA in Planning and Environmental Research (MAPER), MSc In Planning for Climate Change and Master of Landscape Architecture and Director of Landscape Programmes.  I have acted as Personal Tutor and Dissertation Tutor at UG and PGT levels and been a member of the relevant committees including PEC committee and examination boards at School level.

I have acted as internal and external examiner at all levels of University education (undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD) both in the UK and abroad.  I am presently External Examiner on the innovative postgraduate landscape programmes at Writtle University College and Edinburgh University (MA Wellbeing & Landscape). I have examined at all of the accredited landscape schools in the UK. I have acted as external examiner to 14 external PhD students, plus 2 MPhils (including international and staff candidates); 4 internal PhDs, plus 2 MPhils. I have supervised 13 PhD candidates to successful completion including 3 UKRI funded. I am currently supervising six candidates.  Many past students I have worked with are now in landscape and planning professional practice, industry or academia.  I have also supervised post-doctoral visitors and academics who come to Newcastle to carry out research with me.

As Dean of Postgraduate Studies Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences (HaSS) (2018-21) I was responsible for leading and implementing the Faculty's Postgraduate strategy, with a specific focus on Postgraduate Research (PGR) programmes, in consultation with the Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Deans, Heads of Schools and Institutes. I oversaw the PGR experience, including all doctoral training schemes, influenced strategic planning for home and international PGR recruitment, Faculty research supervision, progression and monitoring processes, EDI considerations and contributed to the development of University Education strategies via the development of the university’s Doctoral College and participation on university committees.  In close consultation with colleagues and the Deans of Postgraduate Studies in the Faculties of Medical Sciences and of Science, Agriculture and Engineering and others I was responsible for devising and implementing PGR policy at NU during the Covid-19 lockdown period in the UK.


Publications