We are delighted to announce that Patricia Daley, Professor of the Human Geography of Africa at the University of Oxford and Helen Morag Fellow and Tutor in Geography at Jesus College, has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) in recognition of her outstanding support for the Society and geography.

Patricia’s academic research focuses on forced migration, political ecology and Africa. UK. Her principal research interests include the political economy of population migration and settlement (forced migration, identity politics and citizenship), the intersection of space, gender, militarism, sexual violence and peace and tacial hierarchies and violence (geographies of racialization and coloniality using Critical Race Theory and decolonizing methodologies). In addition, she explores the relationship between conservation, resource extraction, and rural livelihoods. Most of her fieldwork is conducted in East and Central Africa, and the UK. Patricia is also a former Vice-Principal of Jesus College and Chair of the College’s Equality and Diversity Committee. She is an elected member of the University Council.

 

The RSG published the news today as part of a wider announcement of its prestigious 2022 medal and award winners, who are recognised for their excellence in geographical research and fieldwork, teaching and public engagement. Patricia joins an esteemed list of past recipients that includes Sir Alexander Burnes, David Livingstone, Alfred Russel Wallace, Captain R. Scott and more recently Professor Peter Haggett, Dr Sylvia Earle, Professor Diana Liverman, Sir Crispin Tickell and Sir David Attenborough. The medals and awards will be presented by RSG President Nigel Clifford at a ceremony at the Society in London on Monday 6 June.

This is not the first Fellowship that Patricia has been awarded in the past 12 months. In September last year, she became a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) in recognition of the excellence and impact of her research, and wider contribution to the social sciences for public benefit.

In addition to academic fora, Patricia also speaks at community events, such as at the 2017 Africa Liberation Day in Birmingham; the 2018 Black History Month Windrush Celebrations in Barton, Oxford; the UNESCO’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Legacy (City Hall, London), and as part of the 2019 Windrush celebrations at the Museum of Oxford. Her media work includes acting as a consultant on the film Rwanda: The Forgotten Tribe and presenting her work at the 2021Cannes Film Festival via OKRE.  She has also participated as a panelist at the British Film Institute post-film discussions of The Past is not the Future: Walter Rodney Student Years, The Young Marx, and she has commentated on African politics on Al Jazeera and the BBC World Service.

Her current voluntary work includes membership of the Advisory Council of the Carnegie Africa Diaspora Fellowship Programme, and Chair of the Board of Trustees for Fahamu Trust Ltd – a pan-African social justice movement building organization that publishes the online newsletter PambazukaNews. Previous community engagement included membership of the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information of the Independent Chief Inspector of Border and Immigration;  Member of Council & Trustee of the British Academy Institute in Eastern Africa (2012 –2016) and a Committee Member and Equality Officer for the Oxford Branch of the University College Union.

In 2020 and 2021, Patricia was included on the Black Power List as one of the most influential Black persons in the UK.

For more information on the RGS (with the IBS) medals and awards winners click here.

For more information on Patricia’s research, visit her profile page on the College website here.