Current Postgraduate Students

Dr Christine E. Dunn

Contact Dr Christine E. Dunn (email at c.e.dunn@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I have a long-standing interest in interdisciplinary, collaborative research at the science-social science interface. As a health geographer my research interests centre on the relationships between human disease and the physical and human-made environments. My recent work focuses on water-borne diseases in the Global South and the links between rural livelihoods, social norms and health-related behaviour. I have explored these relationships both from a spatial perspective and in the context of scientific and lay understandings of risks to health. Much of this work has adopted mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) with a focus on community-based Participatory Geographical Information Systems (PGIS). This approach serves to challenge conventional, technologically driven approaches to GIS by integrating socio-cultural qualitative information with spatial environmental data. This research is both conceptual and empirical and draws on my field experience of GIS implementation in several countries: Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Brazil, Mexico, Bangladesh, South Korea, Jordan and Oman.

Recent Grants

• ESRC: £773,234: ‘Physical Activity and Wellbeing in Schools’ (2012-2014) with Professor Peter Tymms, Education, Durham University, Sarah Curtis, Geography, Durham University, Carolyn Summerbell, School for Health, Durham University, Ashley Cooper, University of Bristol, and others.
• EPSRC/ESRC: £713,942: ‘Built Infrastructure for Older People in Conditions of Climate Change’ (2009-2012) with Prof Sarah Curtis, Mylene Riva, Sim Reaney, Department of Geography; Prof Lena Dominelli, School of Applied Social Sciences; Ralf Ohlemuller, School of Biological & Biomedical Sciences; Jonathan Erskine, Centre for Integrated Health Care Research; Roland Burkhard, School of the Built Environment, Heriot Watt University; Prof Mark Stewart, University of Newcastle, Australia. 
• National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH/NIEHS), USA: $317,176: ‘Participatory natural resource management to mitigate health inequities in Africa’ (2007-2010) with a focus on the impacts of human conflicts over natural resources on health-related behaviour with specific reference to malaria.
• ESRC Research Seminars Competition: £14,972: Co-applicant on ‘Time-Space and Life-Course’ (October 2007- September 2009) with Dr Helen Jarvis and Dr Seraphim Alvanides, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University; Prof Colin Pooley, Department of Geography and Prof Elizabeth Shove, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University; and Dr Rachel Pain, Department of Geography, Durham University.
• Wolfson Development Fellowship: £6,800: Exploring potential interfaces between scientific and social scientific approaches to understanding aspects of health and environment, with special reference to malaria in Africa (2004).
• Department of Health / Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions / Environment Agency: £123,890: Joint Research Programme on the Possible Health Effects of Landfill Sites for a study of 'The geographical variation in overall rates of congenital abnormalities and the rates of specific abnormalities' awarded for two years (June 2000 - May 2002) with Dr Judith Rankin; Department of Epidemiology and Public Health; Medical School; University of Newcastle upon Tyne; Martine Vrijheid; Environmental Epidemiology Unit; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Helen Dolk; University of Ulster and others.

Research Groups

• Geographies of Health and Wellbeing (GoHWell)

Research Projects

• Built Infrastructure for Older People’s Care in Conditions of Climate Change (BIOPICCC)
• Health Inequalities in an Age of Austerity, Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Grant, £1 million

Supervises

• Mr Joseph Sambali

Selected Publications

Books: sections

• Dunn C.E. (2010). Geographical information systems as a means for communicating about public health. In Risk Communication and Public Health. Bennett, P. Calman, K., Curtis, S. & Smith, D. Oxford University Press.
• Dunn, C.E. (2005). Illustrating the report. In Methods in Human Geography. Flowerdew, R. & Martin, D. Harlow, Essex: Pearson.
• Dunn, C. E. & Williams, C. (2001). Integrating local knowledge and GIS: Landmine threat assessment in Bosnia and north-west Cambodia. In GIS Research in the UK. Kinder, D. B. & Higgs, G. 44-47.
• Dunn, C.E. & Kingham, S.P. (1996). Modelling air quality and the effects on health in a GIS framework. In Innovations in GIS 3. Parker, D. Taylor & Francis. 205-213.

Journal papers: academic

• Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Dunn, C., Hall, R., Levesley, M., Burton, K., Robson, S., Abane, A., Blell, M. & Panther, J. (2013). Health impacts of pedestrian head-loading: a review of the evidence with particular reference to women and children in sub-Saharan Africa. Social Science & Medicine
• Dunn, C.E., Rowlingson, B., Bhopal, R.S. & Diggle, P. (2013). Meteorological conditions and incidence of Legionnaires' disease in Glasgow, Scotland: application of statistical modelling. Epidemiology & Infection 141(4): 687-696.
• Oven, K., Curtis, S., Reaney, S., Riva, M., Stewart, M.G., Ohlemuller, R., Dunn, C., Nodwell, S., Dominelli, L. & Holden, R. (2012). Climate change and health and social care: Defining future hazard, vulnerability and risk for infrastructure systems supporting older people’s health care in England. Applied Geography 33: 16-24.
• McCall, M.K. & Dunn, C.E. (2012). Geo-information tools for participatory spatial planning: Fulfilling the criteria for 'good' governance?. Geoforum 43(1): 81-94.
• Dunn, C.E., le Mare, A. & Makungu, C. (2011). Malaria risk behaviours, socio-cultural practices and rural livelihoods in southern Tanzania: Implications for bednet usage. Social Science & Medicine 72(3): 408-417.
• Dunn, C.E. (2010). Innovation in GIS Research UK. Transactions in GIS 14(3): 219-221.
• Dunn. C.E., Crowley, P., Bush, J., Pless-Mulloli, T. & McKinney, P.A. (2008). Expertise and scientific uncertainty: understanding trust amongst professional stakeholders in environment and health. Environment and Planning A 40(3): 696-714.
• Dunn, C.E., Bhopal, R.S., Cockings, S., Walker, D., Rowlingson, B. & Diggle, P. (2007). Advancing insights into methods for studying environment-health relationships: A multidisciplinary approach to understanding Legionnaires' disease. Health & Place 13(3): 677-690.
• Atkins, P., Hassan, M. & Dunn, C.E. (2007). Environmental irony: summoning death in Bangladesh. Environment and Planning A 39: 2699-2714.
• Armstrong, B.G., Dolk, H., Pattenden, S., Vrijheid, M., Loane, M., Rankin, J., Dunn, C.E., Grundy, C., Abramsky, L., Boyd, P., Stone, D. & Wellesley, D. (2007). Geographic variation and localised clustering of congenital anomalies in Great Britain. Emerging Themes in Epidemiology 4: 14.
• Dunn, C.E. (2007). Participatory GIS: a people's GIS?. Progress in Human Geography 31(5): 616-637.
• Hassan, M.M., Atkins, P.J. & Dunn, C.E. (2006). Social implications of arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh. Social Science and Medicine 61(10): 2201-2211.
• Atkins, P.J., Hassan, M.M. & Dunn, C.E. (2006). Toxic torts: arsenic poisoning in Bangladesh and the legal geographies of responsibility. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31: 272-285.
• Thomas, C.J., Davies, G. & Dunn, C.E. (2004). Mixed picture for changes in stable malaria distribution with future climate in Africa. Trends in Parasitology 20(5): 216-220.
• Hassan, M.M., Atkins, P.J. & Dunn, C.E. (2004). Suitable arsenic mitigation options in Bangladesh: voices of local people. Indian Journal of Landscape Systems and Ecological Studies 27(2): 1-7.
• Cockings, S., Dunn, C.E., Bhopal, R.S. & Walker, D.R. (2004). Users' perspectives on epidemiological, GIS and point pattern approaches to analysing environment and health data. Health & Place 10(2): 169-182.
• Williams, C. & Dunn, C.E. (2003). GIS in participatory research: assessing the impact of landmines on communities in north-west Cambodia. Transactions in GIS 7(3): 393-410.
• Howel, D., Moffatt, S., Bush, J., Dunn, C.E. & Prince, H. (2003). Public views on the links between air pollution and health in North-East England. Environmental Research 91(3): 163-171.
• Hassan, M.M., Atkins, P.J. & Dunn, C.E. (2003). The spatial pattern of risk from arsenic poisoning: A Bangladesh case study. Journal of Environmental Science and Health 38(1): 1-24.
• Bush, J., Moffatt, S. & Dunn, C.E. (2002). Contextualisation of local and global environmental issues in north-east England: implications for debates on globalisation and the 'risk society'. Local Environment 7(2): 119-133.
• Howel, D., Moffatt, S., Prince, H., Bush, J. & Dunn, C.E. (2002). Urban air quality in north-east England: Exploring the influences on local views and perceptions. Risk Analysis 22(1): 121-130.
• Bush, J., Moffatt, S. & Dunn, C.E. (2001). 'Even the birds round here cough': stigma, air pollution and health in Teesside. Health & Place 7(1): 47-56.
• Dunn, C.E., Kingham, S.P., Rowlingson, B., Bhopal, R.S., Cockings, S., Foy, C.J.W., Acquilla, S.D., Halpin, J., Diggle, P. & Walker, D. (2001). Analysing spatially referenced public health data: a comparison of three methodological approaches. Health & Place 7(1): 1-12.
• Bush, J., Moffatt, S. & Dunn, C.E. (2001). Keeping the public informed? Public negotiation of air quality information. Public Understanding of Science 10(2): 213-229.

Journal papers: online

• Dunn, C.E., Crowley, P., Bush, J., Pless-Mulloli, T. & McKinney, P.A. (2008). Expertise and scientific uncertainty: understanding trust amongst professional stakeholders in environment and health. Environment and Planning A 40(3): 696-714.

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