Dr Julian Brigstocke

(he/him)

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Research

My primary research interests lie in cultural theory, cultural geographies of authority, philosophy of geography, geohumanities, experimental participatory and action-research methods, and creative forms of geographical writing. I am  a Managing Editor of Agoriad: A Journal of Spatial Theory. 

I am currently completing two monographs. The first is a theoretical study of 'non-authoritarian authority', framed through a series of creative experiments with forms and genres of academic geographical writing. The second is a study of creative embodied practices, gender, and public security in a Brazilian favela. These projects extend themes explored in an earlier book, The Life of the City, which analysed authority, art, literature, and anarchist spatial culture in late 19th century France. I have also edited collections on topics incuding  Authority, Experience and the Life of Power (Routledge); Space, Power, and the Commons (Routledge); Spaces of Attunement (GeoHumanities special section); Spaces and Politics of Aesthetics (GeoHumanities special section); and Problems of Participation (ARN Press); 

I have worked on diverse empirical topics and sites, focusing 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 cultural theory and philosophies of geography, as well as cultural, social, and political geography. My teaching aims to guide students towards understandings of contemporary issues by starting from embodied and creative practices and theories. 

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

I joined the School in 2014. As well as doing teaching and research, I have various administrative roles:

• Course Director, BSc Human Geography
• School Coordinator, Welsh Graduate School of Social Sciences
• Recruitment and Outreach officer
• RGS coordinator
• Gregynog conference coordinator

Career

• 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)

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)

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)

Supervisions

Supervision

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

• Cultural and non-representational geographies
• Creative geographical writing
• Spaces and politics of aesthetics
• Geographies of power and authority
• Race, gender, and intersectionality
• Border spaces
• Gender, Inequality and Violence in Brazil's Favelas
• Geographies of Hong Kong

Current supervision

Barbora Adlerova

Graduate Tutor

Tirion Jenkins

Graduate Tutor

Fabiana D'Ascenzo

Graduate Tutor