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Julian Brigstocke

Dr Julian Brigstocke

(he/him)

Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

School of Geography and Planning

Email
BrigstockeJ@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone
+44 29208 76085
Campuses
Glamorgan Building, Floor 2, Room 2.91, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA
Comment
Media commentator
Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

I am a Reader in Human Geography, with primary expertise in Social, Cultural and Political Theory, philosophies of geography, cultural geography, and the geohumanities. I am interested in experimental, creative, and arts-based research methods, including experiments with the forms of academic writing.

My research is often collaborative, including working with local community groups, activists, and artists. Most recently I have been working with communities in a community of favelas in Rio de Janeiro. These interests have been shaped by my involvement with a research collective called the Authority Research Network.  

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Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

  • Simpson, P. and Brigstocke, J. 2019. Affect. In: Atkinson, P. et al. eds. SAGE Research Methods Foundations.. London: SAGE

2018

2017

  • Brigstocke, J. et al. 2017. Implicit values: uncounted legacies. In: Facer, K. and Pahl, K. eds. Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research: Beyond Impact. Policy Press, pp. 65-84.

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

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  • Simpson, P. and Brigstocke, J. 2019. Affect. In: Atkinson, P. et al. eds. SAGE Research Methods Foundations.. London: SAGE
  • Brigstocke, J. 2018. Humour, violence and cruelty in late nineteenth century anarchist culture. In: Ferretti, F. et al. eds. Historical Geographies of Anarchism: Early Critical Geographers and Present-Day Scientific Challenges. Routledge, pp. 65-86.
  • Brigstocke, J. et al. 2017. Implicit values: uncounted legacies. In: Facer, K. and Pahl, K. eds. Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research: Beyond Impact. Policy Press, pp. 65-84.
  • Dawney, L., Kirwan, S. and Brigstocke, J. 2015. The promise of the commons. In: Kirwan, S., Dawney, L. and Brigstocke, J. eds. Space, Power and the Commons: The Struggle for Alternative Futures. London: Routledge, pp. 1-28.
  • Brigstocke, J. 2015. Occupy the future. In: Kirwan, S., Dawney, L. and Brigstocke, J. eds. Space, Power and the Commons: The Struggle for Alternative Futures. Routledge Research in Place, Space and Politics London: Routledge, pp. 150-165., (10.4324/9781315731995-17)
  • Brigstocke, J. 2014. Immanent authority and the performance of community in late nineteenth century Montmartre. In: Blencowe, C., Brigstocke, J. and Dawney, L. eds. Authority, Experience and the Life of Power. London: Routledge, pp. 107-126.
  • Blencowe, C., Brigstocke, J. and Dawney, L. 2014. Authority and experience. In: Blencowe, C., Dawney, L. and Brigstocke, J. eds. Authority, Experience and the Life of Power. London: Routledge, pp. 1-7.

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Research

Research

My research interests currently focus on geographies of power, authority, and embodiment. Previously I have worked on broader issues around art, activism, humour, and literature. I am especially interested in thinking about these issues through the lens of political aesthetics, the geohumanities, and non-representational geographies. 

Currently I am working on a project using creative emodied research methods to understand everyday life, authority, and violence in a community of favelas in the north zone of Rio de Janeiro. We are currently writing this research up into a co-authored monograph to be published in 2025. The research was funded by a £253,000 AHRC project from 2020-2023. 

I am also working on a study of the aesthetics of 'nonauthoritarian authority', framed through a series of creative experiments with forms and genres of academic geographical writing. This work has been funded by various AHRC, Leverhulme, and Newton Fund projects. A monograph on this topic is contracted with LSE Press, as part of the Royal Geographical Society book series, to be published in late 2024. 

My earlier work, funded by the ESRC, focused on art & literature, biopolitics, authority, the politics of aesthetics, and anarchist urban culture. This work was published in a monograph titled The Life of the City: Space, Humour, and the Experience of Truth in fin-de-siecle Montmartre (Ashgate, 2014), as well as edited collections including Authority, experience and the life of power (Routledge, 2014); Space, power and the commons: the struggle for alternative futures (Routledge, 2015); and Problems of participation: reflections on democracy, authority, and the struggle for common life  (2013, ARN Press). More recently, I co-edited a special issue of GeoHumanities on Spaces and Politics of Aesthetics

I also have a strong ongoing interest in creative posthumanist geographies, explored in particular through a £55,000 AHRC Project 'The voice of the other: A cartography of creative listening practices'. Research in this area culminated in an edited book in the form of a 'choose your own adventure' book, Listening with Nonhuman Others (ARN Press, 2016), as well as a special issue of GeoHumanities on Spaces of Attunement (GeoHumanities special section, 2016).

Empirically, my work has centred on Paris, Hong Kong, and Rio de Janeiro. I have published on diverse topics including biopolitics, authority, urban avant-gardes, literature in fin-de-siecle Paris, creative geographies,  more-than-human and experimental participatory methods,  the commons, future generations, the politics of aesthetics,  urban infrastructure in colonial Hong Kong, the aesthetics of sand, and experimental neuro-urbanism methods using mobile galvanic skin response biosensors. 

Funded Projects

  • Co-Designing Spaces of Care in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: An Embodied Approach (Principal Investigator, £21,673, Global Challenges Research Fund, 2022-2023)
  • Transforming Atmospheric Authority: Experimental Embodiments in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro (Principal Investigator, £253,000, AHRC, 2020-2023).
  • What it is to Be There: Exploring grief, place and memory (Co-Applicant, £2000, Brigstow Institute, 2022)
  • Urban Humanities Research Network (Co-Applicant, £6134, GW4 Building Communities Programme, 2021-2022)
  • Harena (Principal Investigator, £3000 creative residency, Leverhulme, 2018)
  • Social Change Through Creativity and Culture, Brazil (Co-Investigator, Newton/AHRC, £280,000, 2016)
  • An Affective Map of Journeys in the Mare Complex of Favelas (Principal Investigator, Newton, £12,000, 2016)
  • The Museum of Living Exchange (Co-Investigator, Newton, £8000, 2016)
  • Participation's "Others": A Cartography of Creative Listening Practices (Principal Investigator, AHRC, £55,000, 2014 - 2015).
  • Starting From Values: Evaluating Intangible Legacies (Co-Investigator, AHRC, £128,000, 2014-2015).
  • Landscapes of Authority (Principal Investigator, Plymouth University, £3000, 2013-2014)
  • Authority, Knowledge and Performance in Participatory Practice (named researcher, AHRC, £40,000 (2012)
  • Immanent Authority and the Making of Community (named researcher, AHRC, £40,000, 2011)

Teaching

Teaching

My teaching interests lie in Social and Cultural Geography and Social Theory. I love teaching, and I aim to guide students towards understandings of contemporary issues by starting from embodied and creative practices and theories, as well as problem-based, active learning. 

I currently teach on modules including:

  • Border Spaces: Identities, Cultures, and Politics in a Globalizing World (module leader)
  • Critical Geographies of Race and Power
  • Gender, Space and Place
  • Researching Contemporary Issues in Geography: Paris (final year field study visit)
  • Urban Theory Provocations
  • Research Methods
  • Dissertations (undergraduate and postgraduate)

Biography

Qualifications

  • PGDip Academic Practice, Plymouth University (2014)
  • PhD Human Geography, Bristol University (2011)
  • MSc Society & Space, Bristol University (2006)
  • BA (Hons) Philosophy, Bristol University (2003)

 

Professional memberships

  • Chair of the Royal Geographical Society's History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group
  • Managing Editor, Agoriad: A Journal of Spatial Theory
  • Editorial Board, GeoHumanities
  • Editorial Board, Aurora: Revista de Arte, Mídia e Política
  • Editorial Board, Cardiff University Press
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Founding member of the Authority Research Network (ARN)
  • Peer Review College member, Arts and Humanities Research Council (2016-2021)

Academic positions

  • Senior Lecturer, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2020-present)
  • Lecturer, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (2014 - 2020).
  • Lecturer, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University (2012-2014).
  • Research Associate, Warwick University, Department of Sociology (2012)
  • Senior Research Assistant, Northumbria University, Department of Sociology (2012)
  • Research Associate, Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology (2011)
  • Teaching Associate, Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology (2010-2011)
  • Project Editor, Canopus Books (2003-2006)

Supervisions

Supervision

I am interested in supervising research students working in the following areas:

  • Cultural geography, geohumanities, and non-representational geographies
  • Cultural theory
  • Creative / experimental geographical writing or methods
  • Geographies of power and authority
  • Borders
  • Brazil, Hong Kong, Paris, UK

Current supervision

Fabiana D'Ascenzo

Fabiana D'Ascenzo

Graduate Tutor

Tirion Jenkins

Tirion Jenkins

Graduate Tutor

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Cultural theory
  • Aesthetics
  • Cultural geography
  • Geohumanities
  • borders
Historical Geographies of Anarchism

Historical Geographies of Anarchism

16 July 2017

External profiles