Dr Andy Morris

Professional biography

My early research interests were broadly situated within the relationship between visual culture, place and identity and more specifically, the geographies of national identity, multiculturalism and the spaces of the art gallery. These interests were further developed into a related but more specific engagement with the geographies of the Atlantic world and the constitution of abstract expressionism as an 'Atlantic art'. This work was informed by theoretical engagements with critical histories of the Atlantic world and the constitution of this world through temporal-spatial networks of cultural circulation. My current resesarch has extended a long standing interest in visual culture and landscape into critical understandings of nature and the geographies of human-wildlife relations. More specifically I have been interested in the relationship between humans and starlings and how the status of starlings has shifted from being regarded as a pest to becoming a wildlife spectacle. Furthermore I am intertested in how this informs critical understandings of the geographies of 'nature' as well as the role of non-humans in place-making practices.        

Selected publications

Morris, A (2023) The changing geographies of human-starling relations in the shared spaces of the Anthropocene, in Petri, O and Guida, G (eds) Winged Worlds: common spaces of avian-human lives, London, Routledge.

Morris, A (2019) Educational landscapes and the environmental entanglement of humans and non-humans through the starling murmuration, The Geographical Journal vol.185 (3), pp. 303-312. 

Morris, A (2005) The Cultural Geographies of Abstract Expressionism: Painters, Critics, Dealers and the Production of an Atlantic Art, Social and Cultural Geography vol.6 (3), pp. 421-437.

Morris and Tolia-Kelly (2004) Disruptive Aesthetics? Revisiting the burden of representation in the art of Chris Ofili and Yinka Shonibare, Third Text vol. 18 (67), pp. 153-167.

Morris, A (2003) Redrawing the Boundaries: Questioning the Geographies of Britishness at Tate Britain’ Museum and Society vol. 1 (3), pp. 170-182.

2023 - author and production module team member on the Level 2 geography and environment module: Environment: inhabiting a changing planet (DST216). 

2022-2019 - co-chair (production) of the Level 2 geography module: Changing geographies of the United Kingdom (D225).

2018-2016 - author and production module team member on the Level 2 geography and environment module: Environment and Society (DD213).    

2018 to 2014 - co-chair (production and then presentation) of the Level 1 Social Sciences module: Investigating the social world (DD103).

Earlier teaching responsibilities include being presentation chair of the Level 2 environment module: Environment: change, contest and response (U216) and also a module team member of the Level 1 Social Sciences module: Introducing the social sciences (DD101/DD131/DD132) and the Level 1 environment module: Environment: journeys through a changing world (U116).

Teaching publications

Kullman. K, Morris. A, Lorne. C, Bingham. N and Revill. G (eds) (2022) Changing Geographies of the United Kingdom (Book 2) Milton Keynes, The Open University, ISBN 978-1-4730-2906-4.  

Kullman. K, Morris. A, van Lieshout. C and Wigley. E (eds) (2021) Changing Geographies of the United Kingdom (Book 1) Milton Keynes, The Open University, ISBN 978-1-4730-2905-7. 

Kullman, K, Morris, A and Newman, B (2021) 'Changing Geography: a discipline in the making' in K. Kullman, A. Morris, C. van Lieshout and E. Wigley (eds) (2021) Changing Geographies of the United Kingdom (Book 1) Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 37-62, ISBN 978-1-4730-2905-7. 

Morris, A (2018) 'Living with wildlife: conserving environments and the geographies of nature' in B. Lampert and G. Revill (eds) (2018) Environment and Society: social and political entanglements Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 71-103, ISBN 978-1-4730-2394-9.  

Morris, A and Revill, G (2018) 'Retracing nature and the entanglements of landscape' in B. Lampert and G. Revill (eds) (2018) Environment and Society: cultural and economic entanglements Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 97-130, ISBN 978-1-4730-2393-2.

Cereso. C, Hunter. J, Morris. A and Wastnidge. E (2018) Investigating the Social World: Introduction Milton Keynes, The Open University, SUP 06149-4

Drake. D, Morris. A, Shipman. A and Wheeler. K (eds) (2015) Investigating the Social World 2 Milton Keynes, The Open University, ISBN 978-1-7800-7956-1.

Morris, A and Shipman, A (2015) ‘Introducing rights and common resources’ in D. Drake, A. Morris, A. Shipman and K. Wheeler (eds) (2015) Investigating the Social World 2 Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 5-27, ISBN 978-1-7800-7956-1.

Butcher, M and Morris, A (2015) ‘Mapping Home’ in K. Murji (ed) (2015) Investigating the Social World 1 Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 111-146, ISBN 978-1-7800-7955-4.

I was an academic consultant for the BBC Television series Autumnwatch (2019), the BAFTA award winning series Springwatch (2020) as well as Springwatch (2022) and Springwatch (2024)

I was the academic consultant for the 12 part BBC television series Hugh's Wild West which was broadcast on BBC 2 from January to April 2018.