Hayden explores the modern history of geographical ideas and topographical cultures.
His attentions focus on the not-too-distant past, the almost-present and near-future considering the geographical dimensions of a series of themes: landscape, place, nature, fieldwork, ecology, memory, mobility, biography and the life of the senses.
He is also a writer and recording artist who uses differing formats (essays, documentary features, roundtable discussion, word and music collage) for the BBC.