Dr Benjamin Newman

Professional biography

I joined the OU as a Lecturer in Geography in December 2019. Prior to this I was a postgraduate research student and visiting member of staff in the Geography Department at Royal Holloway, University of London. I also worked in a professional capacity for the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) and the Academy of Social Sciences. I was awarded a BA Geography, MA Cultural Geography (Research), and my PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London (2010–2019).

Research interests

I am a historical and cultural geographer engaged in research focused on knowledge and communication. I have a longstanding interest in the difference geography makes to understanding the production and dissemination of academic and popular knowledges. The main contribution of my research to date is to have provided more nuanced reflections on the history of British geography and the conditions of making and moving of geographical knowledge in the nineteenth century. You can read the most recent reflection on this work here:

Newman, Benjamin. (2025) “Making geography move: The Royal Geographical Society and the exchange of periodical knowledge, 1830–1900”, Area.

Current projects

The current focus of my research is on an archival project titled: Stories-so-far: The Doreen Massey archive with OU colleagues Carry van Lieshout and Colin Lorne and in partnership with the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). The research intends to ‘open up’ Massey’s archive as a political and educative resource for the future while demonstrating the possibilities of thinking through the turbulent present in conversation with Massey’s materials.

The collective project team also includes Colin Fuchs (AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, with RGS-IBG) who will be helping to undertake the necessarily slow, scholarly work to prepare Massey’s academic, public and political materials for the public archive. 

We are also fortunate to be supported by an Antipode Right to the Discipline grant. In this part of our research, we are working with the Brent-based arts and culture organisation, Metroland Cultures, on a projected called: Voices of Place: Creative dialogues with Doreen Massey. The collaborative project enables artists/cultural workers to become embedded within the ongoing archiving process to forge new public dialogues and creative interventions which translate and rework Massey’s ideas for the current conjuncture.

PhD Supervision

In 2025/6, I am supervising the following doctoral researcher(s):

• Colin Fuchs 'Making Geography Matter: opening up the Doreen Massey archive' (AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with RGS/IBG). Supervised with George Revill, Colin Lorne, Catherine Souch and Sarah Evans.

I would be happy to supervise PhD students who are interested in the following topics/themes:

• Geographies of knowledge
• Histories of Geography
• Geographical publishing
• Histories and geographies of printed media
• Visual cultures in and of Geography
• Creative and digital archives

Please do get in touch if you wanted to discuss any ideas you might have.

Teaching and learning

I am committed to teaching and the OU’s mission of delivering education open to all. I enjoy working across all parts of the undergraduate and postgraduate geography curriculum. In addition, I am the qualification lead for the BA in Geography. 

At present I am fortunate to be heavily involved in teaching at level 1. I lead the presentation of our flagship geography teaching on D113 ‘Global Challenges: Social Science in Action’. I am also working with colleagues from across the School of Social Sciences and Global Studies to produce a new interdisciplinary module: D112 ‘You and Your World: Introduction to the Social Sciences’.

Since joining the OU, I have been lucky enough to be involved in the production of new modules across Levels 1, 2 and 3 working closely with colleagues within and beyond geography. This includes roles on both ‘Changing Geographies of the United Kingdom' (D225) and our level 3 dissertation module 'Researching Everyday Geographies' (D325) as well as the Geography & Environment strand of 'Global Challenges: Social Science in Action’ (D113).