Dr Rebecca Schaaf, Senior Lecturer: Development Geography

I joined the Geography Department in September 2006 as a lecturer in Development Geography. I studied geography at the University of Birmingham, development geography at the University of Liverpool, and have just completed my PhD at the University of Bath. My doctoral research used a wellbeing framework to explores the processes and outcomes of community group membership in a village in Northeast Thailand. The research was prompted by government promotion of community groups and microfinance facilities as a way of achieving the development goals of social cohesion and increases in individual wealth and wellbeing.

This research has contributed to my teaching at Bath Spa, as I am interested in all aspects of the development process, from issues of sustainability and environmental change, to the politics of collective action, poverty alleviation and enhancing wellbeing.

My other research interests centre around development in Southeast Asia, sustainable development, and the role of complexity theory in the social sciences. I am a member of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers, and the Association for Southeast Asian Studies in the UK.