Dr Lisa Fenton

16/11/2025

I’m absolutely delighted to have been invited to present at the Kendal Mountain Festival next Saturday, on the Slow Adventure Stage, sponsored by Fjallraven 🤩. I will be speaking about ‘Slow Adventures in Frozen Landscapes’ ❄️

05/10/2025

Really pleased to share that Prof. Linda Hurcombe, Prof. Zoe Playdon, and I have co-authored a new paper for the Special Issue of the Journal of Hunter-Gatherer Research, titled:

NEW PAPER: “Bushcraft as Cultural Continuity in ‘English’ Hunter-Gathering.”

This special issue, “Experimental Anthropology and Hunter-Gatherer Affinities,” explores contemporary and experimental approaches to understanding hunter-gatherer practices, and our paper contributes by situating bushcraft as a living expression of cultural continuity, skill, and relational knowledge. We examine bushcraft as a form of living heritage and a contemporary expression of relational knowledge and skill deeply rooted in hunter-gatherer traditions.

I’m delighted to see this work published alongside such thoughtful contributions in the field.

This paper argues that the relationship bushcraft creates between artisan, landscape and tools to enable the acquisition of food and spatial mobility expresses a broadly-based environmental cultural continuity in English foraging practices. The ...

04/10/2025

Hello All Outdoors & Bushcrafty folks!

I’d love your help with a little bit of market research. I’m really curious to hear how the bushcraft / outdoor / wellbeing community feels about postgraduate education in Bushcraft & Outdoor Wellbeing.

I’ve put together a very short 10-question survey (5 minutes max). It’s all about finding out what the community is actually interested in, and how you think the field should (or shouldn’t!) develop academically.

Your voice really matters to me — so if you’ve got a few minutes, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks so much for taking part Please share 😊 🙏

Hello, I’m Lisa Fenton – You may know me from my work in bushcraft and outdoor learning at the University of Cumbria, and in the past at Woodsmoke School of Bushcraft. I’m currently thinking about how we might develop potential postgraduate opportunities in Bushcraft and Outdoor Wellbeing, and...

19/09/2025

I’m super chuffed to have been promoted to Senior Lecturer and Programme lead for MA Outdoor & Experiential Learning (with Bushcraft and Health & Wellbeing Pathways)! I very much look forward to continuing the extremely high standards of these postgraduate degrees and developing new offers in Bushcraft and Health and Wellbeing at the beautiful Ambleside campus of the University of Cumbria. So excited 🤩 🎉 🥂

08/09/2024

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

02/09/2024

Today is the first day of my 8 week Sabbatical, which was awarded to me by the University of Cumbria, to support me to co-write a book for a wide popular audience. I can’t say too much about the book at this stage (but it IS relevant to Bushcraft), other than I’m told that publishers are ‘champing at the bit, on both sides of the pond’ to see it 🙂. Meanwhile, my co-author and I, are getting stuck into writing content again, and it feeeeels greeeaeaat!! :)

15/05/2024

Proud to be a part of all the team-efforts that went into receiving this research grant from the British Academy, and super excited to head out to Vietnam this autumn to meet our co-participants within the Tày and the Hmong communities, as well as the academic researchers in VinUniversity and Vietnam State University, and begin the research proper!

https://news.cumbria.ac.uk/news/cumbria-led-gbp-268-000-international-research-collaboration-with-ethnic-minority-groups-in-vietnam-secures-british-academy-funding?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1bEye5CUyvC3P0QPm-q0H-H6xUmdAX799m9yyQS4xDrtuRXM0Viv1KbDs_aem_AalmqtbQh0g3QYbfEr-Tunxl-q2xNupxJMZBRK15O4FmZR-6FEaekJqO1GPRAL4STo6ha2A3UAQ-Q_UQGSSiHQEk

A new international collaboration led by the University of Cumbria will explore the impact of outdoor tourism on ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. 

17/04/2024

I was recently sent this photo of one of the Woodsmoke expeditions in Namibia - Myself and the rest of the Woodsmoke exped team, circa 2007 😅

30/11/2023

My awesome first year Outdoor Education degree students - AKA ‘The Skaters’. It has been such a privilege to teach this bunch and I’ll be sad to see our ‘Origins of Outdoor Ed’ module come to an end. You guys are the best and you’re all going to be brilliant educators 🤩🥰 🌿

30/11/2023

My awesome first year Outdoor Education degree students - AKA ‘The Skaters’. It has been such a privilege to teach this bunch and I’ll be sad to see our ‘Origins of Outdoor Ed’ module come to an end. You guys are the best and you’re all going to be brilliant educators 🤩🥰 🌿

24/11/2023

Playing with paint and scribbles 😁

07/08/2023