Background

Gillian Jein is Reader in French and Cultural Geography. Her research focuses on the intersections of urban studies, cultural production, and ecological imaginaries, with a particular emphasis on Paris and contemporary urban transformations. She has published widely on urban aesthetics, spatial justice, and the role of visual culture in shaping perceptions of the city.

Her monograph, Alternative Modernities in French Travel Writing: Engaging Urban Space in London and New York, 1851–1986 (Anthem Press, 2016), examines representations of urban space in French travel writing. She has contributed to several edited volumes, including Aesthetics of Gentrification: Seductive Spaces and Exclusive Communities in the Neoliberal City (Amsterdam University Press, 2021) and Making Do in Urbanism and the Arts (Amsterdam University Press, forthcoming). Her work has appeared in journals such as French Studies, The Journal of Contemporary European Studies and The Irish Journal of French Studies.

Gillian has led multiple funded research projects, including Inventing Grand Paris: Visual Culture, Regeneration and the Right to the City, supported by an AHRC Leadership Fellowship (2018–2019). This project examines the cultural and artistic responses to large-scale urban redevelopment in Paris. More recently, she has developed Growing Resonance, Grounding Cities, which explores ecological and community-led urban practices in the UK and France. This project has been supported by Newcastle University’s Pioneer Award (2022), a Knowledge Exchange Sabbatical (2023), as well as the Economic and Social Research Council’s Impact Acceleration Account (2024) and the North East Combined Authority (2024).  

She is actively engaged in interdisciplinary research initiatives, serving as Theme Lead for “Defining and Experiencing Cities” at Newcastle University’s Centre for Researching Cities. She has also been involved in public engagement and knowledge exchange activities, including collaborations with The Comfrey Project, an urban gardening initiative supporting refugees and asylum seekers in the North East of England. Together they are composing a book, The Comfrey Almanac: Growing the Intercultural Garden.

Affiliations

• Theme Lead for Newcastle University Centre for Researching Cities (Defining and Experiencing Cities) (2019– )
• Member of the Anthropocene Research Group (Newcastle University)
• Member of The Comfrey Project
• Co-Editor Irish Journal of French Studies (2011–2019)
• External member and co-founder of the Irish Centre for Transnational Studies (2010–2021)
• Member of the Executive Committee, Association des études françaises et francophones d’Irlande (ADEFFI) (2011-2014)

Education

• PhD in French Studies, Trinity College, Dublin. Supervised by Prof. David Scott and fully funded by the TCD Ussher Fellowship.
• Diplôme d’études approfondies (DEA), Université Sorbonne Nouvelle—Paris III. Supervised by Philippe Hamon. Pensionnaire at the École Normale Supérieure, rue d’Ulm, Paris.
• B.A. Two Subject Moderatership in French & History, Trinity College, Dublin. Funded by the Drogheda Credit Union Scholarship.
• 2017 F.H.E.A., Bangor University, Wales (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy / Advance HE).
• 2010 F.L.E. (Stage de perfectionnement en Français Langue Étrangère / Teaching French as a Foreign Language), Université de Laval, Québec. 
• 2005 T.E.F.L. (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), The Language Centre of Ireland, Dublin.