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Staff Profile

Professor Peter Hopkins

Leverhulme Major Research Fellow and Professor of Social Geography

  • Email: peter.hopkins@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: (0191) 208 3924
  • Address: Daysh Building, Room 3.35
    Newcastle University,
    Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
    NE17RU
Background

Peter Hopkins' (he/him/his) interests centre upon issues of social inequality and justice with most of his research focusing upon the intersections of youth, migration and asylum, race and religion, and gender. He is currently a Leverhulme Major Research Fellow (Sept 2023 - Sept 2026) focused on everyday Islamophobia and has received the following awards:

  • Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2024)
  • Back Award from the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers for sustained and outstanding contributions to policy development through research (2024).
  • Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2018)
  • President’s Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (2012).
  • Gill Memorial Award of the Royal Geographical Society (for contributions to geographies of religion, youth and race) (2011). 

He has held visiting positions at Deakin, RMIT, Monash, Western Sydney and the NUS and was a Distinguished International Professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (2020-21). He currently serves on the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Publications Committee.

Professor Hopkins' current work focuses upon the following interconnected areas of inquiry:

Islamophobia - a key focus of his ongoing research is upon the ways in which Islamophobia operates within society to exclude and marginalise Muslims and others mistaken for being Muslim. He is eager to promote better understanding of Islamophobia and to explore the ways in which it reveals itself in distinctive ways in different places. In collaboration with John Clayton (Northumbria) and TellMAMA, he recently produced a report about anti-Muslim hatred in the North East of England.

Antiracism – closely connected with his work on Islamophobia, Peter is committed to research and related initiatives that seek to challenge and overcome racism. He has a shared blog about anti-racism, and was involved in work with the North East Chamber of Commerce on promoting anti-racism in North East businesses.

Refugee experiences – Peter has recently led two projects about the experiences of refugees, one funded by HERA Public Spaces call focusing on refugee youth and public space, and a second funded by ESRC about refugees and Covid-19. He has collaborated on a publication about the response of the third sector to supporting asylum seekers and has produced a short report about researching refugee youth with the RGS-IBG.

Intersectionality – sensitivity to the complex intersections of multiple forms of discrimination (rather than only looking at single forms of oppression) has been a key focus of much of his research. He has reviewed work about intersectionality in social geography and worked with Stacy Bias to produce an animated video to address the question, what is intersectionality? This video has been received over 725k views on YouTube (you can subscribe to Peter's YouTube account to see this and other videos). He has also served as a member of the Athena Swan Intersectionality Subgroup of Advance HE.

Thinking Environment – inspired by Nancy Kline’s development of the Thinking Environment approach to enhance the quality of people’s thinking, Peter qualified as a Time to Think Coach in 2024 and has been applying this approach in doctoral and research supervision contexts.

Roles and responsibilities

Professor Hopkins' has served in the following roles at Newcastle:

  • Ethics Convenor, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology 2021-2023
  • University Dean of Social Justice, 2018 – 2021
  • Research Director for Geography 2017 - 2018
  • Academic Director of the ESRC North East Doctoral Training Centre 2015 - 2016
  • Postgraduate Director, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology 2010 - 2013
  • Director of Postgraduate Research for Geography 2008 - 2012

Background

Peter has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, and an MRes and BA(Hons) from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He completed a PGCert in Academic Practice at Lancaster in 2007. More recently, he completed a Certificate in Executive Coaching and Mentoring through the Institute for Leadership and Management in 2020 and in 2024, he qualified as a Time to Think Coach.

Peter was promoted to a Personal Chair in 2012 after earlier promotions to Reader and Senior Lecturer following his arrival in Newcastle in 2007. Before this, he worked at Lancaster, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. Peter attended a non-denominational state school in the southside of Glasgow where he received educational maintenance allowance (a means-tested subsidy provided to students to remain in education after the minimum school leaving age). He narrowly managed to secure a place to study Geography and Planning for his first degree and was lucky to secure a departmental studentship in Geography at Edinburgh to cover the costs of his doctoral research. 

Research

Peter has experience in research management, research strategy and research assessment of all types. He has successfully collaborated with eight postdoctoral researchers and mentored early career researchers to secure externally funded fellowships. He has served on ESRC’s Strategic Advisory Network (2016-2020), several AHRC and ESRC funding panels, and as a Chair and Vice Chair for the European Commission. Securing over £3.4million in external research income, he has published 12 books, 9 special issues, over 100 journal articles and chapters. He is currently one of the editors of The Geographical Journal and has previously served as the Managing Editor of Gender, Place and Culture.

His work draws attention to the exclusionary ways in which various forms of discrimination and marginalisation – such as racism, sexism, and Islamophobia – shape people’s everyday lives, structure the resources available to them and influence who they become. This work is built upon a commitment to empirical research that is informed both by current debates in academic literatures and theoretical understandings about intersectionality, society and space, as well as – where appropriate – concerns of relevance to policy makers and practitioners. His work tends to draw upon debates in urban social, cultural and political geography and is motivated by anti-racism and feminist geography. His Google Scholar profile is here and his main areas of research include:

Peter is also interested in exploring issues connected with the use of various qualitative methods including participatory methods, focus groups as well as research ethics.

He is a member of the Newcastle Social Geographies Collective which produced a textbook Social Geographies: an introduction. He has also produced three invited reviews of social geography for Progress in Human Geography about key issues in the subfield including: intersectionality; Islamophobia, transphobia and sizism; and social justice.

Please feel free to contact him if you are interested in pursuing PhD or postdoctoral research (such as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship, ESRC postdoctoral fellowship or Leverhulme Early Career fellowship) on topics related to the research areas noted above.   

Impact and engagement

Committed to disseminating ideas beyond the academy, he has provided the Secretariat for the Cross Party Group on Challenging Racial and Religious Prejudice in the Scottish Parliament from 2021-2024; this replaced the previous group focused on Tackling Islamophobia which was set up in 2018 and from which we produced the first inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland. In 2024, he received the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Award for ‘Engaging with Policy and Practice’ for his work to tackle Islamophobia. He has also been shortlisted twice for the University Engagement and Place Awards. In 2021, this was for ‘engaging for societal benefit’ for my work about Islamophobia in relation to politics, education and journalism, and in 2022, this was for the ‘Vice Chancellor and President Award’ for his work to challenge racism, and promote refugee integration. In 2023, he presented the Space and Polity annual lecture focused on his work to tackle Islamophobia and in 2024, he was presented with the Back Award of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers for ‘sustained and outstanding contributions to policy development through research’.

Research roles

Professor Hopkins is currently one of the editors of The Geographical Journal (2024-2027). He also serves on the editorial board of: 

Member of the American Association of Geographers Publication Committee (2023-2026)

Member of the AHRC peer review college 2010-present and invited to join AHRC Strategic Reviewer's Group in 2016.

Editorial Board member of the Spaces and Practices of Justice book series (Bristol University Press)

Previous roles include:

  • Serving as Managing Editor of Gender, Place and Culture from March 2013 until December 2016 (serving as an Editor during 2012 and Book Review Editor from 2009-2011).
  • Serving on the editorial board of Contemporary Islam from 2008-2016.
  • Founding Chair of the RGS-IBG Geographies of Justice Research Group (2011-2016).
  • Joint Secretary/Treasurer, Chair and Past Co-Chair (with Elizabeth Olson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)) of the Geography of Religons and Belief Systems Speciality Group of the Association of American Geographers (2007-2013).
  • Member of ESRC's Strategic Advisory Network, 2016-2020
  • Co-editor (with Rachel Pain) a series of books on Gender, Space and Society with Ashgate, until 2016.  

Within Geography at Newcastle, he has served as the Postgraduate Director (2008 - 2012), as Director of Research (2017 - 2018) and covered the role of Impact Director during semester 1 of 2017/8. He has also served as the convenor of the Geographies of Social Change research cluster from 2014-2015.

Funding

Current or recently completed funded projects include:

Everyday Islamophobia (Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship) £171,019 2023-2026

Geographies of asylum justice (Mentor for Marie Cure Sklodowska Fellowship of Malene Jacobsen) European Commission £194,612 (2021-2023)

Responding to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers in the context of Covid19 - resilience, adaptation, and new forms of care (PI with Matt Benwell (co-I) and Robin Finlay (co-I)) - ESRC £324,282 (2020-2022)

The everyday experiences of young refugees and asylum-seekers in public spaces (Project leader with Matt Benwell (Newcastle), Kathrin Horschelmann (Leipzig), Ilse van Liempt (Utrecht), Mattias de Backer (Liege) – HERA Public Space: Culture and Integration in Europe – Euros 941,104 (2019-2022)

Charting the landscape of Islamophobia in Scotland and North East England (Faculty Impact Fund and IAA) - £14,620 (2019-2020)

Mapping the landscape of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim hatred in Scotland - ESRC-IAA Co-Production (with Tell MAMA) - £10,000 (2018-2019).

Improving capacity for, and understanding of, Islamophobia and anti-Muslim acts – ESRC IAA - £10,000 (2017-2018).

Examples of earlier projects include:

Storying sexual relationships: the narratives and practices of British Pakistani Muslims - AHRC - (co-I with Richard Phillips (PI) (Sheffield), Claire Chambers (co-I) (York), Raksha Pande (co-I) (Newcastle) and Nafhesa Ali (PDRA) (Sheffield) - £488,403 (2016-2019)

Community experiences of sectarianism in Scotland - Scottish Government (co-I with Kay Goodall (PI) (Stirling), John Markey (Glasgow), Stephen Millar (Queens Belfast), Simon McKerrell (Newcastle), John Richardson (Loughborough), and Michael Richardson (Newcastle) - £87,937 (2014)

'Non-Muslim and Muslim youth: religious identities, Islamophobia and everyday geopolitics - AHRC standard grant (PI with Rowena Arshad (co-I) (Edinburgh), Gurchathen Sanghera (co-I) (St Andrews) and Kate Botterill (PDRA)) - £452,062 (2013-2016)

Youth transitions, international volunteering and religious transformations: the experiences of young evangelical Christians in Latin America - (AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Youth Call) (PI with Nina Laurie (Newcastle), Matt Smith (Northumbria) and Elizabeth Olson (Edinburgh)) - £74,480 (2009-10)

Marginalized Spiritualities: faith and religion among young people in socially deprived Britain (AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Youth Call) - (co-I with Elizabeth Olson (PI), Giselle Vincett (Researcher) (both Edinburgh) and Rachel Pain (Durham) (co-I)) - £243,284 (2009-11)

Relational Religious Identities: exploring contemporary meanings of religion among Scottish Christian youth (AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Scheme) - (co-I with Elizabeth Olson (now Chapel Hill) (PI) and Rachel Pain (co-I)) - £73,736 (2007-8)

Postdoctoral Mentoring

Peter has mentored numerous postdoctoral researchers and early career scholars and is eager to continue to work with those with shared research interests. As well as mentoring researchers working on collaborative research projects, he has also supported those applying for funding to ESRC, Leverhulme, Marie Sklodowska-Curie and other relevant fellowship schemes. Please get in touch with Peter if you are interested in pursuing postdoctoral research with him.

Postgraduate Supervision

Peter has supervised 21 PhD students to successful completion in under four years, and has examined 27 doctoral theses in the following fields: human geography (Aberystwyth, Birmingham, Cardiff, Cork, Durham, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, National University of Singapore, Reading, Roskilde, Rotterdam, St Andrews and University of Hong Kong, Western Sydney), religious studies (Chester, Oslo), Islamic Studies (Edinburgh), social work (Durham), peace studies (Coventry) sociology (Edinburgh, Monash, and UWS), social psychology (Cape Town), and cultural studies (Western Sydney). Please feel free to contact Peter if you are interested in applying to do PhD research in a topic related to his research interests.

Current students include:

Johanna Bastian is researching spaces of friendship and belonging in the lives of young migrants (with Magdalerna Nowicka, DeZIM Institut, Berlin)

Furkan Celiktas is researching Muslims in the armed forced (with Rachel Woodward)

Emar Elaydi is researching issues of asylum, borders, and colonialism (NUACT funded with Malene Jacobsen)

Renzo Szkwarok is researching the growth of privatised forms of detention (ESRC 1+3 with Jen Bagelman)

Haoyang Wang is researching issues of hegemony and space in relation to overwork issues in China (with Kean Fan Lim)

Helen Woolley is researching adopted children's transitions to security in middle childhood (ESRC plus 3.5 collaborative with Adoption UK (with Matej Blazek) 

Students who have completed their doctoral studies since 2020:

Matthew Richardson completed a study of queer Jewish experiences in the UK (ESRC 3.5 collaborative studentship with the Council of Christians and Jews, completed 2023) (with Raksha Pande and Yulia Egorova (Durham)).

Ged Ridley completed research about transgender experiences of public bathrooms (ESRC 1 plus 3 collaborative studentship with Yorkshire Trans Support Network, completed 2022) (with Michael Richardson).

Alessandro Boussalem studied the experiences of LGBT Muslims in Brussels (ESRC plus 3.5 collaborative studentship with Merhaba, completed 2021) (with Raksha Pande and Klaartje Van Kerckem).

Quan Gao completed a thesis about Christian migrant workers in Shenzhen province (Research Excellence Academy 3.5 studentship, completed 2020) (with Raksha Pande)

Nathar Iqbal studies the closet, encounter and lived religion for LGBT Muslims (ESRC 1 plus 3 studentship, completed 2020) (with Mark Casey).

Matthew Wood's thesis is about sexual health, bodies and cultures (EPSRC Digital Civics, completed 2020) (with Kellie Morrissey and Peter Wright).

Teaching

From September 2023, Peter will not be teaching as his time will be devoted to a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship which includes the cost of a full-time lecturer to cover his teaching committments.

Peter has developed a wide-ranging teaching and examining portfolio, at all levels and on a range of topics. In 2011, he was awarded a Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Teacher Award, and he has been nominated and shortlisted for several Newcastle Teaching Excellence Awards including for Innovative Teaching Methods and Research Supervisor of the Year.

Peter has served as external examiner for several programmes including Geography at Dundee (2010-2013); Human Geography and Planning at Cardiff University (2015-2018); and Geography at the University of Exeter (2015-2019). In 2022, he completed a four-year term as the external examiner for the MSc in Social Research Methods at Dundee University. He has also participated in reviews of the Geography degree programmes at Sheffield and Southampton.

Postgraduate Teaching

The promotion of excellence in postgraduate teaching and supervision is very important to Peter, particularly in mentoring and coaching postgraduate students to publish their work in international peer-reviewed journals. He regularly convenes writing and publishing workshops for doctoral students; please contact him if you would like him to convene a workshop. Here is a blog post about publishing as a postgraduate based on a presentation for the British Sociological Association Postgraduate Forum.  

He has made small contributions to postgraduate modules and workshops on HSS8104 Qualitative Methodology in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (on focus groups), and Research in the Wider Context (about publishing in the social sciences). He also contributed to Geo8015 Doing Geographical Research on the MA Human Geography Research. He has previously contributed to HSS8006 ‘Managing a PhD’ sessions about managing your supervisor and about securing ethical approval for your research.

Undergraduate teaching

In previous years, he has taught:

  • Geo1015 Contemporary Human Geography
  • Geo2043 Key Methods in Human Geography
  • Geo2100 Migration, belonging and everyday geopolitics: contested geographies of New York City (module leader)
  • Geo2110 Social Geographies (module leader)
  • Geo2111 Doing Geographical Research
  • Geo3099 Dissertation
  • Geo3105 Young People, Place and Identity (module leader)


Publications