First PhD in Planning and Sustainable Development at UCC

29 Mar 2016

The Centre for Planning Education & Research is delighted to announce that Karen Ray (a Geography and M.Plan graduate from UCC and a corporate member of the Irish Planning Institute) successfully defended a PhD on the topic of planning and landscape in March 2016. 

Working alongside academic colleagues at the centre, her research draws on a wide interdisciplinary literature as well as real-world case studies from planning practice. It articulates the rich interface between landscape and planning as important fields for action and decision-making. As the first PhD in Arts (Planning and Sustainable Development) at UCC, Karen’s work will be of interest to scholars, communities and professionals from a diversity of disciplines and subject areas.

Her co-supervisor was Dr. John Crowley of the UCC Deparment of Geography and her external examiner was Dr Conor Newman, Chair of the Heritage Council of Ireland.  

Now working as a planning consultant at the multi-disciplinary built environment firm Brady Shipman Martin - and co-ordinator of our postgraduate module PD6120: Landscape Character Context and Change - Karen has recently presented aspects of her research at:

• The National Landscape Forum 2016 : ‘Making good decisions about landscape’ held at UCC on 9^th and 10^th June; and at
• The Uniscape Conference ‘Landscape Values: Place and Praxis’ held on 29 June-2 July 2016 at the National Universtiy of Ireland Galway Centre for Landscape Studies.