Dr Maria Casado-Diaz

• Qualifications:BA (Hons); PhD; FHEA
• Position:School Director-Learning and Teaching
• Department:FET - Geography and Environmental Management
• Telephone:+4411732 83116
• Email:Maria.Casado-Diaz@uwe.ac.uk

About me

I completed a BA (Hons) Sociology (1990-1994) and a PhD (1998-2001) in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alicante, Spain.  My PhD focused on international retirement migration to Spain and the role of tourism in contemporary lifestyle migration. In 2002 I was appointed a Lecturer in Tourism Geography at the University of the West of England. In 2007/8 I was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science and spent a year working at the Institute for Tourism Research at the University of Alicante, Spain. Since 2003 I have been a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography and Environmental Management. My current teaching relates to different aspects of tourism geographies and research methods in human geography.

I have been involved in several international research projects/networks on the subject of migration in later life, including an ESF research network and two projects funded by the Spanish Research Council. I have recently completed a Horizon 2020 EU-funded project, COHSMO (2017-2021) investigating the relationship between socio-economic structures of inequality, urbanisation and territorial cohesion, and how territorial cohesion across Europe at different levels (local, regional, national and European) affects economic growth, spatial justice and democratic capacities. 

I am currently involved in a new research collaboration looking at innovative paths towards destination resilience in tourism communities with colleagues from the Rovira I Virgili University and the Open University of Catalunya (ADAPTOUR). I am a member of Global Migration Network and have recently joined the UWE Sustainable Planning and Environment Research Centre. I have been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Alicante (Spain) and Umea University (Sweden) and acted as PhD external examiner in both institutions. I have managed and mentored Visiting Fellows at DGEM, acted as reviewer for a number of academic journals and been invited to be part of the scientific committee on numerous international academic conferences. I have evaluated proposals for national and international research councils and served as member of the International Advisory Committee of the ESRC BrExpats project. Some of my research outcomes were included in the 2008, 2013 and 2020 REF UWE submissions and are deeply embedded in my teaching/learning practices at UWE.

In 2018 I was awarded a UWE Community Fund project entitled 'Building an inclusive society' for developing an educational tool, in collaboration with a local school and a non for profit organization, to raise awareness about forced migration. In July 2019 I received the Teacher of the Year Award for the Department of Geography and Environmental Management. 

From February 2022 I am interim Associate Head of Department Student Experience across ABE and DGEM.

Area of expertise

Tourism geographies;

Publications

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