Lizzie Rushton is in the final year of a BSc in Physical Geography and Environmental Science. After completing a Degree in Music at King’s College London in 2004 she moved to Oxfordshire with her family. Having always had an interest in the environment around her she decided to study at Brookes, beginning in September 2005.

As student editor of Geoversity Lizzie sees her role centring on recruiting students to contribute articles, usually work for independent studies and dissertations. This gives students the chance to revise their work and show it to a new and wider audience. As a student and contributor to Geoversity herself, Lizzie is well placed to offer students advice and support during the review process.

As well as working on Geoversity Lizzie has helped organise the first Conference for Undergraduate Research at Oxford Brookes, where ten students from the Anthropology and Geography department presented posters showcasing research undertaken as part of their degree. As with Geoversity, this conference gave presenters the opportunity to display their research to a wider audience, which included both staff and students, and also enabled students in particular to see what is happening in other modules in the department.

One of the key benefits of the E-Journal is its flexibility, which is displayed in the wide variety of formats of submissions. Rather than simply publishing work in the traditional ‘article’ format, Geoversity includes posters and trail guides. This not only encourages more students to submit work but also acts as a reference point for other students on how to produce different elements of assessment in their course, which are sometimes less well executed. For example, many first year students have little idea of how to produce a poster of high academic quality, Geoversity gives these students the opportunity to view posters which have been peer reviewed using the same process that an article undergoes.

After completing her degree at Brookes in 2009, and passing on the role of student editor to another Brookes student Lizzie hopes to continue her studies at postgraduate and research level. For any enquiries concerning Geoversity please email: Lizzie Rushton (Editor) email: 05081211@brookes.ac.uk.

Principal lecturer in Geography at Oxford Brookes University

Helen Walkington studied for a BSc in Geography at the University of Durham, then a PGCE at the University of Cambridge. As a VSO volunteer for 2 years Helen taught Geography at O and A level in a rural secondary school in Zimbabwe.

After a MSc in Pedology, Soil Survey and Land Evaluation at the University of Reading Helen became a lecturer in Geography Education and got her PhD in 1999 (University of Reading). She then moved to Oxford University to take up a post as Research Fellow in soils in a small interdisciplinary Geoarchaeology unit. Missing student contact Helen then took on a part time post as lecturer in geography at Oxford Brookes University where she now works full time. She has maintained her interests in soils at archaeological sites through her own research, and in education through her role as Principal Lecturer for Learning and Teaching in her school.

Research interests are concerned with understanding the soil processes that have operated at archaeological sites. This important work aids understanding into how climate change has impacted upon these sites, and how it may have influenced human society. Work is currently on a collaborative project to provide a framework of environmental change for the archaeological record in Arabia (United Arab Emirates) from palaeo-lacustrine deposits.

Dr Helen Walkington is the project director, and overall editor - and can be contacted at hwalkington@brookes.ac.uk

David Pepper is an Emeritus Professor of Geography at Oxford Brookes, and an Associate Lecturer at the Open University. As co-director of the Geoversity project his wealth of knowledge and experience of teaching, research and writing are core to the project.