Research output per year
Research output per year
Prof, BA, PhD (Nottingham), Cert. FPSHE (Reading) FAcSS FRGS SFHEA
Aberystwyth University
Llandinam Building
Penglais
Aberystwyth
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Research activity per year
Peter Merriman is a human geographer specialising in cultural and historical geography, mobility studies, spatial theory, and cultural heritage. He has written widely on geographies of mobility, nationalism and national identity, and theoretical approaches to space and place. Until 2023 he led a major project on ports, coastal communities and trans-oceanic social and cultural connectivity.
Pete joined Aberystwyth as a lecturer in 2005 and was awarded a personal chair in 2014. He completed his BA and PhD degrees at the University of Nottingham, and was a Lecturer at The University of Reading from 2000 to 2005. He is co-Director of the University's Centre for Transport and Mobility (CeTraM).
Pete is an Honorary Member of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility and the Humanities at the University of Padua (Italy), a member of three UKRI peer review colleges (AHRC, ESRC & the Talent PRC), and has served on a range of national and international grant awarding panels, including for the AHRC and FWF Austrian Science Council. He is Editor of the 'Routledge Research in Culture, Space and Identity' Book Series, and sits on the editorial boards of 'Cultural Geographies', 'Mobilities', 'Transfers', 'Applied Mobilities', ‘Mobility Humanities’, and the RGS Book Series. Pete is the External Examiner for Human Geography for Parts IA/IB of the Geographical Tripos at the University of Cambridge (2023-26). He was conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2022, is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE.
Responsibilities: Head of the Cultural and Historical Geography Research Group
Mobility
My first main research interest is in social science and humanities approaches to mobility and transport. I am co-Director of Aberystwyth University's Centre for Transport and Mobility (CeTraM), and have published two monographs in this area ('Driving spaces: a cultural-historical geography of England's M1 motorway' (Blackwell Publishing, 2007) and 'Mobility, Space and Culture' (Routledge, 2012)), and co-edited four agenda-setting books: 'Geographies of Mobilities: Practices, Spaces, Subjects' (Ashgate, 2011), 'The Routledge Handbook of Mobilities' (2014), 'Mobility and the humanities' (Routledge, 2018, Korean translation 2019), and 'Empire and Mobility in the Long Nineteenth Century' (MUP 'Studies in imperialism' series, 2020). I am a member of the editorial boards of 'Mobilities', 'Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies', ‘Applied Mobilities’ and 'Mobility Humanities'. From 2012 to 2020 I served as Associate Editor of 'Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies', and I am currently General Editor of Bloomsbury's forthcoming 6-volume collection on 'A Cultural History of Transport and Mobility' (due 2025). I have received grant funding from ESRC, AHRC and ERDF for work on this theme, including a UK-South Korea networking grant with colleagues in Lancaster, Royal Holloway and Konkuk.
Theories of Space and Place
I authored an advanced text-book on 'Space' for Routledge's 'Key ideas in Geography' Series (2022) which provided the first comprehensive and accessible examination of approaches that have crossed between such diverse fields as philosophy, physics, architecture, sociology, anthropology, and geography. The text examines the influence of geometry, arithmetic, natural philosophy, empiricism, and positivism to the development of spatial thinking, as well as focusing on the contributions of phenomenologists, existentialists, psychologists, Marxists, and post-structuralists to how we occupy, live, structure, and perform spaces and practices of spacing. The book emphasises the multiple and partial construction of spaces through the embodied practices of diverse subjects, highlighting the contributions of feminists, queer theorists, anthropologists, sociologists, and post-colonial scholars to academic debates. In contrast to contemporary studies which draw a clear line between scientific and particularly quantitative approaches to space and spatiality and more ‘lived’ human enactments and performances, this book highlights the continual influence of different mathematical and philosophical understandings of space and spatiality on everyday western spatial imaginations and registers in the twenty-first century. The book was reviewed by a panel in the AAG Review of Books in 2024. Prior to this I edited a four-volume major reference work on ‘Space’ in the ‘Critical Concepts in Geography Series (Routledge, 2016). I have recently written articles on theoretical approaches to place for ‘Progress in Human Geography’ and ‘Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers’.
Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Place
I was AU Principal Investigator on the €3.2 million project 'Ports, Past and Present' project (2019-23) and AU co-investigator on the €3 million ‘Coastal Uplands, Heritage and Tourism’ (CUPHAT) project (2021-23), both funded by ERDF through the Ireland-Wales programme. These projects involved working with tourism and heritage stakeholders and local communities to make tourists aware of the deep history of Irish and Welsh ferry ports, and coastal uplands in Ireland and Wales. The major outputs for 'Ports, Past and Present' were 9 films produced with Mother Goose Films.
Areas of Ph.D. and D.Prof. supervision:
Current PhD Students:
Current D.Prof. student:
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Person: Doctor of Philosophy
Person: Doctor of Professional Studies
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article Review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Edited book
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Entry for encyclopedia/dictionary
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article Review
Merriman, P. (PI)
Economic and Social Research Council
01 Oct 2023 → 30 Sept 2025
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. (PI)
Economic and Social Research Council
01 Feb 2022 → 31 Jul 2023
Project: Externally funded research
Jones, R. (PI), Busfield, M. (CoI), Davies, S. (CoI), Griffiths, H. (CoI), Hoskins, G. (CoI), Merriman, P. (CoI) & Tooth, S. (CoI)
02 Jan 2022 → 31 Aug 2023
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. (PI)
Economic and Social Research Council
01 Oct 2021 → 30 Sept 2022
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. (PI)
01 May 2019 → 30 Apr 2023
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. (PI)
Economic and Social Research Council
01 Dec 2018 → 30 Nov 2019
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. (PI)
Arts and Humanities Research Council
01 Feb 2012 → 31 Oct 2012
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. (PI)
Arts and Humanities Research Council
01 Feb 2010 → 01 Jun 2010
Project: Externally funded research
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
03 Oct 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
01 Oct 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
29 Sept 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
19 Sept 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
19 Sept 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
16 Sept 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Musselwhite, C. & Merriman, P.
15 Sept 2023
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Media contribution
Musselwhite, C. & Merriman, P.
15 Sept 2023
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Media contribution
11 Jul 2023
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. & Musselwhite, C.
16 Dec 2022
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P., Musselwhite, C., Rahman, R. & McInnes, C.
02 Dec 2022
4 items of Media coverage
Press/Media: Media coverage
Merriman, P. (Member)
Activity: Membership › Membership of peer-review college/ panel
Merriman, P. (Editorial board member)
Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work › Editorial activity
Merriman, P. (Member)
Activity: Membership › Membership of peer-review college/ panel
Merriman, P. (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Merriman, P. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Merriman, P. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Conference
Merriman, P. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Merriman, P. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Merriman, P. (Member)
Activity: Membership › Membership of peer-review college/ panel
Merriman, P. (Examiner)
Activity: Examination
Merriman, P. (Recipient), 01 Sept 2022
Prize: Election to learned society
Merriman, P. (Recipient), 2021
Prize: Appointment