Sonya joined BBS as a Lecturer in Marketing prior to which she was a postgraduate teaching and research assistant at the school. She obtained her PhD in Place Branding in 2011. Her PhD develops and empirically tests a theoretical model of strategic place brand management to explain the process of branding geographical entities (towns, cities, regions). 

Current and previous BBS roles:

• Director of PGT Marketing Programmes and Exam Board Chair, ongoing
• PGT Dissertation Lead, ongoing
• PGT Delivery Group Member reporting to the University’s Education and Student Experience Committee, ongoing
• Panel member of Athena SWAN Self Assessment Team (SAT), ongoing
• Personal Tutor, ongoing
• The Senate, board member (2022-2024) 
• Director of Student Engagement (2019-2021)
• Disability Officer (2016-2017)
• Ethics Officer (2016-2017)
• IBM Universities Business Challenge Co-ordinator (2011, 2012)

Programme lead:

• MA Business and Marketing.
• MBA International Marketing.
• MSc Consumer And Digital Marketing Analytics.
• MA Management for Climate Change (developed and validated, commenced 2025).

UG Teaching:

• International Strategic Marketing (ASB 3007)

PG Teaching:

• E-Marketing (ASB/ABJ/ABM 4114)
• International Marketing (ASB/ABJ 4439)
• PGT Dissertations (ASB/ABJ/ABM 4900, and 4901)

Previously taught UG and PG modules:

• E-Marketing (ASB 3114)
• International Marketing (ASB 3439)
• International Marketing Projects (ASB/ABJ 4524, and 4525)
• Marketing Strategy and Management (ASB 3103)

UG and PGT Dissertation Supervisor 

PhD Supervision:

• Surbhi Jain (2014-2020) passed with minor corrections. 

Sonya's research is place focused considering aspects of the place branding process from various perspectives, but more recently looking at sustainability, sustainable tourism, and places and climate change. 

She sits as a director for the Places of Climate Change (PloCC) Research Centre at the University, is an editorial board member for the Journal of Place Management and Development, and a member of the scientific conference committee for the International Place Branding Association (IPBA). 

She is a reviewer for the Journal of Marketing Theory, Tourism Management, Journal of Marketing Management, Urban Studies, Cities, European Management Review and Journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. 

She is co-editor of a special issue "Place-Based Approaches for Sustainable Consumer Behaviour" for the journal of Behavioural Sciences.

Papers under-review:

• Place and climate change: an interdisciplinary approach - Journal of Environmental Development.
• Examining Genius loci and Sustainable Tourism: a future generations' perspective - Journal of Travel Research.

Working papers: 

• How can we prevent single-use plastic pollution? Target: Journal of Nature Sustainability.
• Exploring destination image attributes with repertory grids: UNESCO World Heritage Sites in North Wales. Target: Journal of Travel Research.

Conference contributions:

• Hanna, S., Parry, S., and Osti, L., (2025). “Destination image attributes with repertory grid: the case of North Wales UNESCO World Heritage Sites”, International Place Branding Association Conference, presented.
• Hanna, S., Parry, S., and Osti, L., (2025). “Destination image attributes with repertory grid: the case of North Wales UNESCO World Heritage Sites”, Academy of Marketing Annual Conference, accepted. 
• Hanna, S., Parry, S., Osti, L., and Mccoubrey, K., (2024). "Exploring destination image attributes with repertory grids: UNESCO World Heritage Sites in North Wales", OR66 The Operational Research Society's Annual Conference.
• Hanna, S., and Parry, S., (2024). "Co-governing and Impactful Place Marketing: a socioeconomic perspective to creating a coherent country brand", Academy of Marketing Annual Conference.
• Kavaratzis, M., Pasquinelli, C., Cassinger, C., Hanna, S., de Jong, M., and Medway, D., (2023). "Marketing for better cities: Setting the agenda for responsible, inclusive, smart and equitable places", Academy of Marketing Science Annual Conference.
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2017). “Projected Destination Personalities of European Capital Cities”, The International Place Branding Association Annual Conference.
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2016). "Social Media in Place Branding: a review", The International Place Branding Association Annual Conference.
• CELT Learning and Teaching conference (2016), Bangor University.
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2013). "Brand Architecture in Place Branding", International Place Management and Branding Annual Conference.
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2012). "Place Brand Practitioners Perspectives on the Management of Brand Experience", Academy of Marketing Annual Conference.  Won best paper in track award for tourism.
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2011). "A Practitioner Led Strategic Place Brand Management Model", Academy of Marketing Annual Conference.
• Hanna, S., (2007). "Objectives and Processes in Place Branding", Academy of Marketing Annual Conference.
• Rowley, J., Jones, R., Hanna, S, Vassiliou, M., (2010). “Using Card-based Methods in Semi-Sturctured Interviews", European Conference on Research Methodologies for Business and Management Studies.

Book chapters:

• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2021). "Co-creation of Place Brands?" in: A Research Agenda for Place Branding. Publisher: Edward Elgar.
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2017). "Do places have a personality? A perspective from place branding", in: Strategic Place Branding Methodologies and Theory for Tourism Attraction (Advances in Hospitality, Tourism, and the Service Industry), Editors: Bayraktar, A., and Uslay, C. Publisher: Business Science Reference (IGI Global).
• Hanna, S., and Rowley, J., (2015)."‘Re-thinking Strategic Place Branding in the Digital Age" in: Rethinking Place Branding - critical accounts of an emerging discipline, Editors: Kavaratzis, , Warnaby, G., and Ashworth, G. Publisher: Springer.

• Lead working with co-investigators (Dr's Sara Parry and Grame Pearce) BA Leverhulme Small Grants (£10,000), "Nudging for nature: reducing single-use litter through smart behavioural design" (submitted). 
• Co-lead with Dr Sara Prry, Williamson Trust and Learned Society of Wales maxi grant £10,000, "Trusted Voices: Evidence-Based Knowledge for Wales" (submitted).
• Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Awards, (lead Dr Lyda York) "Reparative Futures: justice-led systematic change to achieve sustainable resilience beyond 2100" (unsuccessful).
• Co-lead with Dr Sara Parry, maxi grant £3,000 Leading an Arts and Humanities Promotional Event in North or West Wales, maxi grant £3,000 to run an event "Connecting Gen Z, Industry, and Policy in Northwest Wales: a collaborative approach to sustainable skills and employment" linked to impact case (unsuccessful).
• Co-investigator working Prof Michael Butler (principal investigator) and Dr Jieling Xiao (co-investigator, Birmingham City University) working on an interdisciplinary consultancy project to develop the strategic experiential delivery and promotion of the The Anglesey Column Trust. Maxi grant £10,000 awarded by the Shared Prosperity Funding Scheme (skills and innovation voucher scheme).
• In collaboration with Prof Milja Kurki (Aberystwyth) and Dr Matluba Khan (Cardiff) we applied to Wales Innovation Network: small grant (maxi grant £7,500) to run 3 workshops at Aberystwyth, Bangor and Cardiff on Place based Approaches To Climate Change (unsuccessful).
• Principal investigator, attained £3,000 seed funding and leading on a project titled ‘North Wales UNESCO World Heritage Sites: a business tourism perspective on destination brand image’, Drs Sara Parry and Linda Osti are co-investigators along with Kate McCoubrey (PhD student, School of History, Law, and Social Sciences) project research assistant.  
• In collaboration with Dr Sopan Patil (Lecturer at the School of Natural Sciences), as CoI with Dr Sara Parry we are leading the development of a work-package (WP) on a project titled ‘AI-enabled digital framework for sustainable management of land, freshwater, and marine resources.’  The WP will examine stakeholder perceptions on the suitability of AI models for decision making.  The project is in response to UKRI's Artificial Intelligence Call ‘Artificial intelligence research to enable UK’s net zero target, 2022’, for £2.97m involving 18 academics from two universities (unsuccessful, 2nd round).  
• Principal investigator working with Dr Sara Parry attaining BUII Award of £20,000 in aid of project titled 'Capitalising on the Slate Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Development of Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism in Northwest Wales' (August 2022 to July 2023).
• Co-investigator working on an interdisciplinary project titled 'Lucozade and Litter: how can we prevent single-use plastic pollution', awarded £10,000 NERC discipline-hopping scheme (January 2022 - May 2022). 

• Director for PLoCC (Places of Climate Change) research centre at the university - ongoing. 
• Editorial Board Member: Journal of Place Management and Development - ongoing. 
• Scientific Conference Committee Member for the International Place Branding Association (IPBA) Conference - ongoing.
• Scientific Panel Member for The Place Brand Observer (research hub on the branding and reputation of places) - ongoing.
• Lead developer of a multidisciplinary MA titled 'Environmental and Sustainability Management' for BBS (commenced 2025).
• Nominated for the 'Teacher of the Year' Award (student led-teaching, 2019 - 2020).
• External examiner: University of Wolverhampton (2017 - 2021)
• Lead organiser of the 1st and 2nd Consumer Research Summit, a one-day conference held in London (2016) and Chester (2017). 

Awards:

• Top downloaded article 'Place and Destination Branding: a review and conceptual mapping of the domain', European Management Review (2019-2020 and 2021-2022).
• Outstanding Reviewer for Journal of Place Management and Development (2017) Emerald Literati Awards.
• Centre for the Enhancement of Learning: CELT Associate Award (2016).
• Best Paper in Track Award - Hanna, S., and Rowley, J. (2012), "Place Brand Practitioners Perspectives on the Management of Brand Experience", Academy of Marketing Conference on Marketing: catching the technology wave, University of Southampton Management School, UK.  

Memberships:

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
• Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science.
• Member of The Chartered Institute of Marketing.
• Member of the Institute of Place Management.

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: 01248 38 8077

Location: Room 2.07, Alun Building