Professor Dominique Moran DPhil

Professor Dominique Moran

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Professor in Carceral Geography

Contact details

Address
University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dominique Moran’s research and teaching is in the sub-discipline of carceral geography, a geographical perspective on incarceration. Supported by the ESRC, her research has informed and extended theoretical developments in geography, criminology and prison sociology, whilst interfacing with contemporary debates over hyperincarceration, recidivism and the advance of the punitive state. She is currently researching the impact of nature contact on prisoners' wellbeing and the working in the prison service.

Dominique is Co-founding Chair of the  of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers.

She is author of  (2015) and an editor of  (2015),  (2013), ‘’ (2017) and '' (2019). She publishes in leading journals including Progress in Human Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers and Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, and Theoretical Criminology.

Dominique Moran on The prison-military complex and ex-military personnel as prison officers; 

Qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 2006 (Birmingham)

DPhil in Geography 2001 (Oxford)

BA(Hons) Class I in Geography 1995 (Oxford)

Biography

Dominique Moran studied Geography at Oxford, graduating in 1995 with a First Class BA(Hons) and the Gibbs Prize, and in 2000 with a D.Phil (thesis title:ÌýRussia's Emerging Margins - the Transition in the north of Perm oblast). Her PhD work was amongst the first to explore post-socialist transformation in the geographically marginal areas of the Russian near-North. She carried out fieldwork in former 'special settlements', part of the StalinistÌýGulag, and in communities proximate to contemporary prison colonies.

She then moved to a Research Fellowship at Warwick Business School (2000-01) working on social exclusion and organisational change in the UK funded by the (then) UK Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and the Social Exclusion Unit, before joining the International Development Department at the University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ where she was Lecturer in Rural Poverty and Development until 2004. At IDD she carried out policy-oriented research into HIV/AIDS, governance reform and service delivery, primarily for the UK Department for International Development, and worked closely with DfID Governance Advisors in country offices.

Dominique joined the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences in 2004 as a Lecturer. She held aÌýÌýat theÌý, University of Helsinki, in 2011, and was promoted to Chair in 2018. She is Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a member of the European Society of Criminology, andÌýa member of theÌý, a multi-disciplinary network for scholars worldwide researching prisons and other institutions of confinement – from the everyday life of specific institutions, to the wider political impact of penal policy changes.

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Teaching

Year 3 Carceral Geographies

Dominique’s teaching is research-led, student-centred and has been recognised as high quality via the 2009 Head of School’s and Head of College’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Supporting Student Learning, GEES and LES, University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡, and the University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFi) Award for Research Intensive Learning and Teaching, 2018. She was nominated by students for an Outstanding Teaching Award for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences in 2019, and for a University Award for Excellence in Doctoral Supervision in 2012 and 2017.

Dominique holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCert), Birmingham 2006 and has published the following peer-reviewed teaching publications:

  • Moran, D & Round, J (2010) A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: Teaching post-socialist transformation to UK students in Moscow, Journal of Geography in Higher Education 34(2) 265-282 
  • Moran, D (2009) Teaching post-socialism, twenty years on, Planet (22) 39-41 

Postgraduate supervision

Carceral Geography

Doctoral research

PhD title
Russia's Emerging Margins - the Transition in the north of Perm oblast'

Research

Dominique Moran’s research and teaching is in the sub-discipline of carceral geography, a geographical perspective on incarceration. Her research in the UK, Russia and Scandinavia, supported by the ESRC, has contributed to her transdisciplinary work, informed by and extending theoretical developments in geography, criminology and prison sociology, but also interfacing with contemporary debates over hyperincarceration, recidivism and the advance of the punitive state.

Dominique was Founding Chair of theÌýÌýof the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, 2017-2020, amd remains a member of the CGWG Committee.

She is author ofÌýÌý(2015) and an editor ofÌýÌý(2015),ÌýÌý(2013),Ìý‘’Ìý(2017)Ìý(2019) and (2022)ÌýShe publishes in leading journals includingÌýProgress in Human Geography,ÌýTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Annals of the American Association of GeographersÌýandÌýTheoretical Criminology.

Dominique's current and previous research activities have been supported as follows:

  • 2021-24 Australian Research Council,ÌýSocial Infrastructure in a Society of Captives AUS$259k, CI
  • 2020-23 Economic and Social Research Council, , £804k, PI
  • 2020-22 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada,ÌýCorrectionalÌýstaffÌýinÌýCanada:ÌýUnderstandingÌýtheÌýarmedÌýforcesÌýtoÌýcivilian transitionÌýwithinÌýprisonÌýspacesÌýinÌýCanadianÌýprovinces CAN$55k, CI
  • 2020-2023ÌýCanadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Team Grant: Mental Wellness in Public Safety Team Grant:ÌýA Longitudinal Study of Correctional Services Canada Correctional Officers’ Mental Health and Well-being: The Role of Prison Work and Prisons in Shaping Correctional Staff Health and Self over Time CAN$1.5m, CI
  • 2016-18 ESRC, Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) £15,665 (PI),ÌýTherapeutic Environments for Youth Custody, PI
  • 2015 ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) Secondment Grant for work with the Northern Ireland Reducing Offending Directorate, and Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) £19,924, PI
  • 2014-15 ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) Urgency Grant for work with the Northern Ireland Reducing Offending Directorate, and Northern Ireland Prison Service (NIPS) £2,180, PI
  • 2014-2017 ESRCÌýÌý£728,000, CI
  • "Milieux de mémoireÌýin Eastern Europe", 196,660 PLN (c£39k), CI
  • 2012-2016 ESRCÌýÌý£361,000, PI
  • 2012-2015 ESRC Seminar SeriesÌýÌý£17,990, CI
  • 2011 Visiting Fellowship, Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki 'Welfare, Gender and Agency: Women's Imprisonment in Russia' €4,500
  • 2006-2010 ESRC '' £303,552, CI
  • 2009-2010 Commission of the European Communities (Marie Curie) '. €127,158, CI
  • 2009 Head of School and Head of College's Award for Excellence in Supporting Student Learning £1000
  • 2006-2008 British Academy 'The Cultural Landscape as a Heritage Feature: A comparative study of the UK and Russia' £47,122, PI
  • 2004-2005 UK Department for International Development 'Non-State Delivery of Services' £81,632, CI
  • 2004 UK Department for International Development 'Governance Reform' £54,138, CI
  • 2002 British Academy 'The Kremlin Stars and Soviet Ideology' £2,032, PI
  • 1996-2000 ESRC Postgraduate Studentship, University of Oxford
  • 1996-2000 Mortimer May Senior Scholarship, Hertford College, University of OxfordÌý

Other activities

Dominique has given invited talks at the Universities of Melbourne, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Aberystwyth, Exeter, Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Amsterdam, and Toronto. She has also spoken at the Tower of London (for Historic Royal Palaces), and at the Howard League for Penal Reform.

She has co-organised numerous series' of sessions on carceral geography at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) annual conferences in Boston (2017), San Francisco (2016), Chicago (2015), Tampa (2014), Los Angeles (2013), Seattle (2011) and Washington DC (2010); at the RGS-IBG in 2012, 2014, and 2019, and also at the Nordic Geographers Conference, and the European Society of Criminology.  She chaired the first 1st and 2nd International Conferences for Carceral Geography at the University Âé¶¹¾«Ñ¡ in and , and gave a at the 3rd, at the University of Liverpool in 2018.

Dominique sits on the Advisory Board for  and reviews for prominent Geography journals including Progress in Human Geography, Annals of the Association of American Geographers; Environment & Planning: D; Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, leading Area Studies journals including Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics; Sociology journals including International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, and leading criminology journals such as Theoretical Criminology.

Dominique gave the first seminar in an online series organised by the Evidence and Partnerships Hub, part of the Data Analytical Services Directorate at the Ministry of Justice. She addressed over 85 MoJ analysts who collate research evidence to inform policy.

Dominque also presented as part of a seminar organised by the Insights Group, part of the Strategy, Planning & Performance Directorate at Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. This sell-out event, with over 230 virtual attendees across the prison estate of England and Wales, was focused on prison environments. In both talks, Dominique drew on her recent work with Phil Jones, Amy Porter and former GEES colleague Jacob Jordaan (now U.Utrecht), which demonstrates a link between greenspace and wellbeing in prison.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Moran, D, Jewkes, Y, Blount-Hill, K-L & StJohn, V (eds) 2022, . Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology, 1 edn, Palgrave Macmillan.

Article

Moran, D, Turner, J, Houlbrook, M & Jewkes, Y 2025, '', Social and Cultural Geography. <>

Moran, D, Jordaan, J & Jones, P 2024, '', Land, vol. 13, no. 2, 223.

March, E, Moran, D, Houlbrook, M, Jewkes, Y & Mahlberg, M 2023, '', Victoriographies, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 15-41.

Moran, D, Jordaan, J & Jones, P 2023, '', European Journal of Criminology.

Moran, D & Turner, J 2022, '', Progress in Human Geography, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 829-848.

Turner, J, Moran, D & Jewkes, Y 2022, '', Incarceration, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 1–19.

Moran, D, Jones, P, Jordaan, JA & Porter, A 2022, '', Environment and Behavior, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 276-299.

Moran, D, Houlbrook, M & Jewkes, Y 2022, '', Space and Culture, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 364-378.

Turner, J & Moran, D 2021, '', Armed Forces & Society.

Ricciardelli, R, Andres, E, Mitchell, MM, Quirion, B, Groll, D, Adorjan, M, Siqueira Cassiano, M, Shewmake, J, Herzog-Evans, M, Moran, D, Spencer, DC, Genest, C, Czarnuch, S, Gacek, J, Cramm, H, Maier, K, Phoenix, J, Weinrath, M, MacDermid, J, McKinnon, M, Haynes, T, Arnold, H, Turner, J, Eriksson, A, Heber, A, Anderson, G, MacPhee, R & Carleton, N 2021, '', British Medical Journal Open, vol. 11, no. 12, e052739.

Moran, D, Jones, P, Jordaan, JA & Porter, A 2021, '', Annals of the American Association of Geographers, vol. 111, no. 6, pp. 1779-1795.

Chapter

Moran, D, Jones, P, Jordaan, J & Porter, A 2022, . in D Moran, Y Jewkes, K-L Blount-Hill & V St John (eds), The Palgrave handbook of prison design. 1 edn, Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 657-678.

Exhibition

Moran, D, Houlbrook, M, Jewkes, Y, Turner, J & Aitchison, A, , 2024, Exhibition. <>

Other contribution

Moran, D, Turner, J, Jewkes, Y & Houlbrook, M 2024, . The Howard League for Penal Reform, London. <>

Expertise

Prison design; prison visitation and recidivism; imprisonment in Russia; carceral space.

Expertise

Prison reform; prison architecture and design; therapeutic and rehabilitative approaches to custody; youth custody; imprisonment of women; penal systems of UK, Russia, Scandinavia; prison visitation and family contact; factors in recidivism; the conversion, renovation and repurposing of former prisons;  prison-community relations; imprisonment and environmental sustainability; history of imprisonment and prisons both during and after conflict.