Ms Lena Ferriday

My doctoral research considers the processes by which rural environments acquired meaning across the nineteenth century. It identifies the period 1840–1914 as a critical moment in the construction of what later came to be known as 'the environment' in Devon and Cornwall and argues that it was in moments of close embodied encounter with their surroundings that individuals produced these areas as meaningful spaces for a national audience. It offers significant interventions into the theorisation of sensory experience and the environment in the past, reorienting the focus away from 'cultural' or 'material' concerns and towards ideas of process and practice.

This project is funded by the AHRC South West and Wales DTP and supervised by Dr Andy Flack (Bristol) and Dr Timothy Cooper (Exeter).

I have recently worked on a public facing research project with Dr James Watts and the Bristol Digital Futures Institute on the history of Bristol's gasworks and experiences of gas in the city. 

In the 2024-25 session I am teaching:

• War and Society (Yr 1, History)

I have previously taught on: 

• Approaching the Past (Yr 1, History)
• Wild Things (Yr 2, History)
• Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography (Yr 2, Geography)

I am currently co-director for the Senses and Sensations Arts Faculty Research Group. I was previously on the PGR Committee for the Centre for Environmental Humanities and co-convened the Literary and Visual Landscapes seminar series.