Jennifer Dodsworth

Jennifer is a social scientist with expertise in cultural geography, environmental governance, and agri-environment policy. Her research spans both theoretical inquiry and applied, impact-focused projects, combining participatory and digital methodologies to explore rural landscapes, land management, and environmental change.

Jennifer’s PhD thesis examined the extent to which dominant aesthetics of the Lake District National Park as a romanticised rural landscape have been continued through contemporary digital mechanisms of communication, such as social media. Her thesis developed a digital ecology of the ‘#LakeDistrict’, by exploring how these powerful imaginaries may be contested by local rural communities whose perspectives are absent in digital media, namely the fell farming families whose Herdwick sheep are often the subject of intense debate regarding the Lake District’s management.

Jennifer works at the intersection of academia and policy, engaging directly with farmers, policymakers, and local communities to co-develop practical solutions for sustainable agriculture and biodiversity restoration. As both a researcher and a tenant hill farmer in Cumbria, Jennifer also aims to integrate first-hand experience of land management into her research, ensuring her work remains grounded in the realities of rural livelihoods.