This project has received funding from the Wellcome Trust (2019-2021), the ESRC (2021) and County Durham Sport (2021-2022).
Weather is a constant thrum in our everyday lives. It shapes what we see, feel, say, where we go, and what we do when we get there. It is also integral to our health and wellbeing from extreme events often causing injury and mortality, to everyday weathers having more subtle impacts on movement and mood. Weather weaves through our memories, is part of our identity, our sense of belonging, and our future imaginings.
Within the context of a changing climate, Weathered Lives is an ongoing programme of research and activities exploring how in the context of a changing climate we relate to, experience, respond, and contribute to our local weather worlds across the life course.
Weathered Lives connects with several of IMH’s research strands including Everyday Environments and Critical Concepts.
Research Team:
Prof. Cassandra Phoenix (Lead investigator, Durham)
Dr Sarah Bell (University of Exeter)
Dr Benedict Wheeler (University of Exeter)
Activities undertaken as part of the Weathered Lives project.
In the UK at least, talking about the weather has been described as a national obsession. Natural history writer, Richard Mabey, describes the almost daily use of coded phrases about what the weather was, is, and forecast to be, as a heartening acknowledgement that we’re all in the weather together.
The Weather Talk podcast offers a series of brief introductory conversations with researchers from a range of disciplines and adopting different perspectives, who are brought together through a shared interest in life’s weather worlds.
Episodes:
On Meteorological Modernism - Dr Barry Sheils
Dr Barry Sheils, Associate Director in the Centre for Culture and Ecology at Durham University discusses the cultural significance of weather forecasting through a reading of literary texts and commentary on the development of weather science.
Listen here.
On Weathering – Dr Astrida Nemanis
Dr Astrida Nemanis from the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Sydney at the time of recording, and now FEELed Lab Director & Canada Research Chair in Feminist Environmental Humanities at UBC, Okenagan, discusses the concept of weathering as a way of understanding how bodies, places and the weather are all inter-implicated in our climate-changing world.
On Weather Wandering – Dr Tonya Rooney
Dr Tonya Rooney from the School of education and the Australian Catholic University in Canberra discusses her research on children's relations in and with space, time and more-than-human worlds including how their informal engagement with weather (wandering) shapes their experience climate change.
On Weather, Wellbeing and Lockdown – Dr Sarah Bell
Weathered Lives team member Dr Sarah Bell from the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter, offers a poignant reflection on the interweaving of weather and wellbeing in the era of Covid-19.
On the California Santa Ana Winds – Dr Gareth Hoskins
Dr Gareth Hoskins from the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at the Aberystwyth University discusses knowing weather through environmental histories and the politics of memory. His research on Californian mining memories, and the Santa Ana winds draws attention to weather cultures and how these change over time.
On Weather, Spaces, Mobilities and Affects - Dr Kaya Barry
Dr Kaya Barry is a cultural geographer and artist based in the Griffith Centre for Social Cultural Research at Griffith University, Queensland, Australia. Kaya talks about her research on weather mobilities and provides an overview of her co-edited collection (with Maria Borovnik and Tim Edensor) titled ‘Weather: Spaces, Mobilities and Affects’ (Routledge. 2021).
Research informed information booklet, produced with County Durham Sport to share with walk leaders and other stakeholders involved in implementing Healthy Ageing and Physical Activity strategies.
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