B.A., (Hons), Geography/North America, University of Lancaster
MSc, Nature, Society and Environmental Governance, University of Oxford
Leo Lerner is a lifelong geographer, developing keen interests in the variable facets of people, process, and place. Recently he has been pursuing investigation into the relationships between researchers, practitioners, and participants within the fields of social and environmental science. He has worked on engaging non-traditional participants in academia, which he hopes to continue doing throughout the Population, Health and Place program.
He previously adapted the online Map-Me PGIS platform to explore the possibility of recording experiential notions of place within the data structures of standard, undifferentiated space, with the intention of analyzing the limitations of different spray can and airbrush interfaces. His master’s dissertation used an actor-network theory approach to tackle the question of whether alternative food networks could reduce hunger on a city scale. This inquiry delved into the spatial contingencies of food systems and insecurity, combining the discursive constructions of people and place with the situated and multivariate geographies of poverty and obesity. Ultimately, he aims to synthesize the three key themes of the course, reimagine the processes of geographic information generation, spatial analytics, and geospatial visualization, and reconstitute networks of contemporary knowledge production.
Leo is an avid geographical educator, trying out new and exciting pedagogies before the PhD by teaching in a secondary school in central London, following four years of volunteering as an ambassador with the Royal Geographical Society.
Aside from academia, he is a keen musician, playing tenor horn in a championship section brass band, and a dedicated road cyclist, currently looking forward to exploring California on two wheels.
