Christopher Moyes Memorial Foundation Postgraduate Research alumni

The IHRR supports postgraduate students travel from all over the world to study in Durham. Through generous donors, such as the Christopher Moyes Memorial Foundation, the Institute serves as a gateway for postgraduate research in hazard, risk and resilience, especially in less developed countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal. Through the MSc/MA Programmes in Risk, the IHRR is training the next generation of researchers in hazard and risk.

Ayushman Bhagat, PhD student

Ayushman's thesis seeks to understand the effects of mobilities governance on pre- and post-disaster mobilities of migrant women in human trafficking prone areas of South Asia. This research will extend the understanding of several dimensions of emergency governance that has captured the imaginations of mobilities theorists, and build an understanding of gendered mobilities in the midst of the human trafficking narrative. Ayushman graduated in 2021. 

Erwin Nugraha, PhD student

Erwin's thesis, entitled "Resilience Governmentality: Rationality, Apparatus and Subjectivity in Building Urban Resilience in Indonesia", focused on “risk governance and governmentality in experimental urban adaptation from Indonesian cities”. His research will investigate cities in Indonesia that have joined the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) and experiment with adaptation planning, especially when prior institutional frameworks, regulations and successful experiences have never existed. Erwin Nugraha graduated in 2018.

Liaqat Hussain, PhD student

Liaquat's  thesis, entitled "Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction: A Study of The Government of Pakistan’s Housing Reconstruction Programme in Azard Jammu & Kashmir after the October 2005 Earthquake", provided an auto-ethnographic study to understand how societies become vulnerable to natural disasters and what role post-disaster housing reconstruction can play in addressing this vulnerability. The performance and impact of the post-2005 Kashmir earthquake housing reconstruction program is evaluated in this study by using the mixed-methods research approach. Liaqat’s research attempts to find what factors made people vulnerable to seismic hazard in Azard Jammu & Kashmir and turned an otherwise not so big 7.6 earthquake into one of the deadliest environmental disasters in the world. Liaqat Hussain graduated in 2017.

Joseph Sambali, PhD student

Joseph's research, entitled "Exploring health risks and resilience in a rural population in the context of environment-related diseases, Ngara, Tanzania", explores how communities perceive risk of environment-related diseases, such as malaria and diarrhoeal disease. This research was developed in an attempt to understand how social and cultural beliefs and perceptions mediate health and the way that they contribute to, escalate or reduce risks to health. The study explores these attributes in the context of two issues; firstly, environment-related health risks pertaining to malaria and diarrhoeal diseases and, secondly, perceptions and views of public health interventions and programme. Joseph Sambali graduated in 2015.

David Damby, PhD student

David Damby thesis, entitled "Respiratory Hazard of Dome-Forming Eruptions", focused on dome-forming eruption emission, particularly fine-grained volcanic ash which can travel deep into the lungs when breathed in. Once inhaled, it can cause damage and disease or worsen existing health problems. For his research, David studied a selection of volcanoes in South Asia and Central America because of widespread concern over the health hazard of ash to communities due to population density and limited access to health care. David graduated in 2012.