Background

I am a cultural geographer of modern and contemporary France working at the intersections of urban studies, visual culture and the environmental humanities. In my research, I am mainly concerned with how humans learn to perceive, know and value urban environments, and how different practices of attention shape relations between people, place and more-than-human life.

I am currently working on a book project, Grounding Grand Paris, which examines gardens and cultivated landscapes in the banlieues to explore the continuing production of urban nature – that is, how living worlds are represented, how they become known and then governed, and how alternative forms of ecological relations become imaginable and practicable.

In the North East of England, where I’m based, I enjoy working alongside environmental practitioners, artists and community organisations on urban ground, wildlife, cultivation and ecological transition. A particular interest is in situated, everyday kinds of environmental knowledge and practices of attention.

I am co-lead of Newcastle University’s Centre for Researching Cities and founder and convenor of the Urban Ground network, which aims to bring researchers and practitioners and help catalyse impactful discussions and projects on issues related to urban land, urban wilding, ecology and environmental change.

A recent collaborative project includes The Comfrey Almanac, which was co-authored with volunteers of The Comfrey Project (a community garden charity supporting refugees and people seeking asylum), artists and community partners. This is an illustrated book which explores their urban community garden as a site for reestablishing rootedness, and shares diverse forms of knowledge and cultivation.

Affiliations

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.