Ian is a cultural geographer with longstanding interests in material geographies, multi-sited ethnographic research, connective aesthetics and critical pedagogy. He combines these in/as 'follow the thing' work. In recent years he has added to these interests new media ecology and commodity activism, after experimenting with blogging as a means to write collaboratively about the geographies of food, and with web design to create followthethings.com, a spoof online shop, resource, database and fieldsite stocked with provocative 'follow the thing' work by academics, students, filmmakers, artists, journalists and others. Within Geography at Exeter, Ian is Director of Communications and External… Relations and Equality and Diversity rep. Ian is also the cultural geography editor of Geography Compass and serves on the editorial boards of Qualitative Research and Geography. He is an Associate of the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University, an academic advisory board member of Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior, and a trustee of the Geographical Association. Ian often writes as 'Ian Cook et al' in order to acknowledge the collaborative nature of all of his work. Career Ian graduated from UCL in 1986 with a BSc in Human Sciences, from the University of Kentucky in 1992 with an MA in Human Geography, and from the University of Bristol in 1997 with a PhD in Human Geography. He began his academic career at the University of Wales, Lampeter (1993-9), then worked at the University of Birmingham (1999-2007), before moving to Exeter in August 2007.