Find a PhD supervisor

Once you've identified the subject area you wish to research, you will need to find a supervisor for your project. All Doctoral Researchers are provided with a lead supervisor, who will act as the main source of academic supervisory support and research mentoring during your time as a Doctoral Researcher at the University.

Start your search

Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ for supervisors below to see who you think may be a great fit for your research area. Once you have identified they are able to offer appropriate supervisory support, you can start to reach out to staff using the contact details provided on their profile. 

Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ results for “environmental history”

Professor Joy Porter

Professor Joy Porter

Professor of Indigenous and Environmental History
University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ 125th Anniversary Chair
Principal Investigator, Treatied Spaces Research Group

Department of History

Professor Porter has a strong track record helping ECR and PGR colleagues advance their careers. She has supported a significant number to achieve positions in U.K. and U.S. Universities. She has also supported students and ECRs to attract fellowships, travel awards and other funding from the AHRC, Fulbright US-UK, government bodies and North American and European universities.
She welcomes PGR enquiries linked to:
Global Indigenous Environmental History, Culture and Literature ...

Dr Jonathan Willis

Dr Jonathan Willis

Associate Professor in Early Modern History

Department of History

I am interested in supervising research projects on most aspects of the social, cultural and religious history of early modern England, especially in areas relating to the reformation, theology, popular religion and belief, religious practices, puritanism, parish religion, music, the material culture of the parish church, and histories of emotion and mental illness.

I have been/am currently involved in supervising MA dissertations, MRes theses and PhD theses on the following topics: ...

Dr Hiroki Shin

Dr Hiroki Shin

Associate Professor in History of Energy and Environmental Humanities
125th Anniversary Fellow

Department of History

Dr Shin welcomes enquiries about potential postgraduate projects on all aspects of energy history, environmental history and modern economic history.

Dr Simon Jackson

Dr Simon Jackson

Lecturer in Modern Middle Eastern History

Department of History

I offer postgraduate supervision in the colonial, international and global history of modern France and its empire, on empire in the twentieth century Mediterranean and in the comparative history of European empire.

I currently supervise or co-supervise several PhD students:

Gemma Jennings (Patriarchy and Poverty? A Transnational Analysis of the Social Implications of the Oil Industry between France and Algeria)
Tomoki Yamada (The League of Nations Mandates System as a ...




Dr Shirley Ye

Dr Shirley Ye

Lecturer in Asian History

Department of History

Previous MA thesis topics that I have co-supervised include Sino-British economic relations and a comparative study of Roman imperial cults and Japanese overseas shrines.

I welcome inquiries from students on PhD supervision on China, East Asia, and the wider world in any time period. Current PhD topics I am co-supervising include postcolonial urban architecture and memory in Hong Kong (funded by AHRC Midlands 3 Cities Consortium), and the public history ...

Dr Rosie Day

Dr Rosie Day

Associate Professor in Environment and Society

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences


Dr Day welcomes enquiries from prospective doctoral researchers in her areas of interest:

environmental justice / energy justice
energy poverty
energy geography
environmental knowledges
older age, especially in relation to environmental or energy issues












Professor John Kenneth Colbourne

Professor John Kenneth Colbourne

Professor, Chair of Environmental Genomics
Director, Centre for Environmental Research and Justice (CERJ)

School of Biosciences

The Environmental Genomics group is recruiting postgraduate students to pursue PhD studies in the following research areas: 

  • Molecular mechanisms of developmental plasticity & acclimation 
  • Pioneering the use of genomic signatures for environmental health protection 
  • Forecasting environmental health threats on populations using Daphnia egg bank genomics 
  • Biostatistical and computational methods of analyzing high dimensional data and gene networks 
  • Population genomics 
  • Heritable basis of condition-associated molecular responses and adaptive tolerance to stress ...

Dr David Smith

Dr David Smith

Senior Lecturer in Environmental Archaeology

Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology

Past PhD students supervised by David have worked on analogue studies of the plants and insects from hay meadows (with Dr Pam Grinter) and the Palaeoentomology of estuarine deposits at Goldcliff, Gwent (with Dr Emma Tetlow).

At present, David is co-supervising the PhDs of:

Shelagh Norton - who is working on the archaeology and the past environments of the Berth Hillfort, Shropshire and other ‘marshforts’ in the British Isles.
Zena ...




Professor Henry Chapman

Professor Henry Chapman

Professor of Archaeology

Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology

Henry can supervise postgraduate study in the areas of later prehistory, wetland archaeology, landscape archaeology and the application of digital and spatial technologies within heritage.

He currently supervises students researching digital approaches to conflict archaeology, the landscape archaeology of European bog bodies, predictive modelling of centres of power in Bronze Age Anatolia using GIS, valuing archives in the 21st century, the landscape archaeology of Neolithic causewayed enclosures, and the archaeology ...

Professor Dominique Moran

Professor Dominique Moran

Professor in Carceral Geography

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Carceral Geography

Dr Archie Dunn

Teaching Fellow in Byzantine Archaeology

Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies

  • Late Roman and Byzantine archaeology; archaeology of the later medieval Aegean world
  • Regional histories and economic history of the Byzantine world

Find out more - our PhD Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡.

Professor Chris Thornhill

Professor of Law

Birmingham Law School

Chris has supervised PhDs on many legal topics, including: Constitutional Reform in Kenya; Constitutional Reform in Egypt; the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in National Constitutional Law in South America; the Global Right to Food; the History of International Criminal Law; Military Law and Legal Reform in China; Constitutional Law and Populism in Poland and Brazil; Constitutional Reform in Scotland; Constitutional Reform in Turkey; Constitutional Reform in ...

Professor Chris Baber

Chair of Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing

School of Computer Science

Chris has supervised around 30 students to completion of their PhDs.

Dr Paul Badenhorst

Dr Paul Badenhorst

Associate Professor

Department of Cancer and Genomic Sciences

Dr Badenhorst is interested in supervising doctoral research students in the following areas:

Regulation and function of chromatin remodelling enzymes.
Transcriptional regulation of immune cell differentiation and development


Professor Andrew Bagshaw

Professor Andrew Bagshaw

Professor of Imaging Neuroscience

School of Psychology

Professor Bagshaw currently supervises or co-supervises 5 PhD students. Prospective students are always welcome to get in touch (a.p.bagshaw@bham.ac.uk).

Dr Roxana Baiasu

Dr Roxana Baiasu

Assistant Professor

School of Psychology

Dr Baiasu supervises in the following areas:

  • philosophy of mental health and psychiatry
  • phenomenological and ethical approaches to mental health and well-being
  • mental health inequalities and justice

Professor Cara Bailey

Professor Cara Bailey

Professor of End of Life Care
Postgraduate Research Lead

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Cara has experience in supervising at postgraduate level at both Master’s and PhD level and has supported students conducting research projects through to successful completion. She is interested in supervising projects related to:

  • End of life care
  • Nurse-patient relationships
  • End of life care education
  • Measuring quality of supportive care
  • Models of Social care and end of life care

If you are interesting in studying any of these subject areas please ...

Dr David Bailey

Dr David Bailey

Associate Professor

Department of Political Science and International Studies

Areas of PhD Supervision

David is happy to supervise projects on social movements, protest movements, left parties, and the critical political economy of contemporary capitalism.

Emeritus Professor Chris Baker

Emeritus Professor Chris Baker

School of Engineering

To find the PhD students supervised by Professor Baker during his career, please visit his PhD Students Document [PDF], together with links to their theses where available.

Professor Chris Baker

Professor Chris Baker

Chair of Intelligent Sensor Systems

Department of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering

PhD candidates supervised are:

  • Galen Reich
  • Ellis Humphries

Dr George Balanos

Dr George Balanos

Associate Professor in Exercise Physiology

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences

Current students; 

  • Kelsey Joyce (Environmental Physiology)
  • Sultan Alsalahi (Cardiovascular Regulation During Exercise)
  • Emily Senior (Physical Activity as a Treatment for Sleep Apnoea)
Potential students can contact Dr Balanos by email.

Dr Michela Baldo

Dr Michela Baldo

Lecturer in Translation Studies
Programme Lead for the campus MA in Translation Studies

Department of Modern Languages

I am keen to supervise research projects on feminist and queer translation, audiovisual translation and translation of diaspora writing

Professor John Baldwin

Professor John Baldwin

Emeritus Professor of Judicial Administration

Birmingham Law School

  • Criminal justice
  • Access to justice
  • Small claims procedures
  • Civil enforcement procedures
  • The administration of justice in courts and tribunals
  • Judicial administration

Current doctoral students

Professor Baldwin is currently supervising two doctoral students undertaking research in the following areas:

  • The comparative development of mediation
  • An examination of judicial tendancies in prisoner security categorisation cases (MJur) 
  • An exploration of the effectiveness of local authority regulation of the taxi trade 

Find out more - ...

Professor Alan Ball

Professor of Engineering Design

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Examples of PhD theses supervised by Professor A A Ball

  • Czerkawski A M, Fitting procedures for curves and surfaces, 1996. University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡
  • Liu C, Geometric control of rational cubic B-splines, 1998. University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡.
  • Zheng J, Construction of n-sided surfaces, 1998. University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡.
  • Fisher M, Point-based mathematics for computer-aided manufacture, 2001. University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡.