Professor Gill Valentine

Research Interests

Social Identities and Belonging; Childhood, Parenting and Family Life; Urban Cultures and Consumption

Current research

Gill Valentine’s research is focused in three interconnected areas: social identities and belonging; childhood and family life; and urban cultures and consumption. Her research has been supported by the award of 14 research grants (value of >£4 million) from European Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Joseph Rowntree Foundation and The Leverhulme Trust, as well as research contracts from Government Departments (including: Department for Education and Skills, Department for Work and Pensions) and Non Governmental Organisations (Gambling Commission, and Citizens Advice Bureau).

She has extensive experience of using innovative methodological tools (eg audio-diaries, webCT) and working with hard-to reach groups and with interpreters. Gill currently holds a European Research Council Advanced Investigator Award Living with Difference in Europe: Making Communities out of Strangers in an Era of Super Mobility and Super Diversity which involves research in the UK and Poland. She has also conducted international comparative research between UK and Denmark for the ESRC Post-conflict identities project and undertaken research in South Africa, Uganda, USA and UK as part of a social topographic study of a global faith network funded by the AHRC/ESRC.

Gill has (co)authored/edited 15 books and over 100 refereed journal articles. Her research has been recognised by the award of Philip Leverhulme Prize: '…designed to recognise and facilitate the work of outstanding young research scholars of proven achievement' and a Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers Gill Memorial Award: for contributions to Geography and gender. For further details of Gill’s research projects and publications please see the links to the right.

Teaching

Gill Valentine has taught at all levels and in a wide range of formats including: lectures, tutorials, practicals, workshops, team project groups, and field classes. She was the founder and original director of the MA in Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Sheffield. Gill has (co)authored/co-edited a number of textbooks (eg Social Geographies, Key Concepts in Geography, Key Methods in Geography, Key Thinkers on Space and Place, Key Texts in Geography, Approaches to Human Geography) as well as publishing teaching articles in Journal of Geography in Higher Education and Geography. For further details please see the publications link to the right. Gill currently has a senior management role in the University and is not therefore available to teaching undergraduates this year.

Key Publications

Valentine, G, Vanderbeck RM, Sadgrove, J, Andersson J, and Ward K (2013) Transnational religious networks: sexuality and the changing power geometries of the Anglican Communion Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 38(1): 50-64.

Valentine, G. and Sadgrove J (2012) Lived difference: the transmission of positive and negative attitudes towards others Environment and Planning A 44: 2049-2067.
• Valentine, G. and Hughes, K.A. (2012) Shared space/distant lives? Understanding the meaning of personal relationships, family and intimacy at home through the lens of internet gambling Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 37(2): 242-255.
• Valentine, G, Jayne, M. and Gould M (2012) ‘Do as I say, not as I do’: family life and the transmission of drinking cultures Environment and Planning A 44: 776-792.

Other information

Gill Valentine was a co-founder and co-editor of the international journal Social & Cultural Geography (2000-08), and co-editor of Gender, Place and Culture (1999-2004). She currently serves on the editorial boards of two international journals: Children’s Geographies (2001-present), and Geography Compass (2006-present). She is a commissioning editor of the book series Key Ideas (2003-present) published by Taylor Francis, and is a member of the Editorial Board of a Palgrave Macmillan book series on Gender and Sexualities (2010-present). Gill was a member of the ESRC’s Steering Committee for the International Benchmarking Review of UK Human Geography (2012) and was appointed by the ESRC to evaluate two of its interdisciplinary investments: the Cultures of Consumption Research Programme (2009) and the Gender Equality Network (2010), she has also been a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Research Programme Advisory Group (2007-2010) and the Philip Leverhulme Prize awards panel.

Postgraduate Supervision

Gill Valentine has supervised over 20 postgraduate students, funded from a variety of sources, and has examined over 30 PhD students from five different countries.