Culture serves as a lens through which people interpret the experiences and interactions that occur in their everyday life. Advances in technology are changing every aspect of our lives, leading to contemporary issues. This includes the opportunities and pitfalls of globalisation as well as new human technological relations that create new challenges from different cultures and communities.
Exploring cultural practices helps us understand human activities. Cultural geography explores the relationship between humans and the elements of our environment by examining the way meaning is constructed according to differences in space, time and place. It emphasises the relationships not only between people and their physical environment but also their material, social and cultural landscapes.
Working at the intersection of science and art, cultural and human geography research at UNSW Canberra addresses a range of transformative social and cultural processes. We explore the challenges posed to traditional social science through reconfigurations and changes to human life including:
Our research capability and expertise in Cultural Geography include:
We have research capabilities, unique expertise and a strong tradition of conceptual innovation across many areas of human geography. This includes insights from non-representational theory, affect theory, post-humanism and new materialism—as well as from a wide variety of continental philosophers and political theorists.
We are a leader in global research in the science of cultural geography. Our strength comes from:
The following projects are currently active:
The following research proposals are in the planning stage:
The Cultural Geography group has developed collaborative networks with several Australian and international partners, including:
The group also has ongoing and developing interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with academics from the:
Dewsbury, J-D. (2019). 'Refrains of Lost Time: Collapse, Refrain, Abstract'. In T. Jellis, J. Gerlach & J-D. Dewsbury (eds.) Why Guattari? A Liberation of Cartographies, Ecologies and Politics (pp. 88-98). London: Routledge.
Dewsbury J-D. (2019). 'Foreword: Civic Space and Desire: after Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari', in C. Drozynski and D. Beljaars (eds.) Civic Spaces and Desire (pp. Xvii-xxi). London: Routledge.
Lapworth, A. (2020). ‘Gilbert Simondon and the Technical Mentalities and Transindividual Affects of Art-Science', Body & Society, 26, pp. 107-134. https://doi.org/10.1177/1357034X19882750
Lapworth, A. (2019). ‘Sensing’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44, pp. 657-660. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12327
Roberts, T. (2019). 'In Pursuit of Necessary Joys: Deleuze, Spinoza, and the Ethics of Becoming Active', GeoHumanities, 5, pp. 124 – 138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2019.1575762
Roberts, T. (2019). ‘Resituating post-phenomenological geographies: Deleuze, relations and the limits of objects,’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44, pp. 542-554. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12280
Sharpe, S. (2020). ‘Untoward laughter and the micropolitical: social action, politics and the will after the sovereign subject’, Cultural Geographies, 27, pp. 55-69. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1474474019866205
Sharpe, S. (2018). 'Pluralising affect: Encountering Ben Anderson's Encountering Affect', Dialogues in Human Geography, 8, pp. 225 – 228. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2043820617748270
Williams, N. (2019). 'Reframing politics in art: from representational subjects to aesthetic subjectification', In T. Jellis, J. Gerlach & J-D. Dewsbury (eds.), Why Guattari? A Liberation of Cartographies, Ecologies and Politics (pp. 202-213). London: Routledge.
Williams, N. (2019). 'Listening', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44, pp. 647-649. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12324
Our current research projects include:
The Cultural Geography group has established a vibrant research culture in the School of Science hosting a weekly reading group (Non-representational Theory and Geography) and bi-monthly research workshops (Space, Performance, Art, and Technology). We have an internationally diverse team of PhD students working on a variety of research projects and we are active supporters of the UNSW ALLY Network for LGBTIQ+ people.
As a Cultural Geography student, you will benefit from:
The following courses are available to students interested in Cultural Geography:
Undergraduate:
ZPEM2213 - Art & Science of Doing Geography
ZPEM4205 - Human Geography Honours Special Topic
ZPEM4002 - Science Honours Research 2
ZPEM4004 - Science Honours Research 4
Postgraduate:
ZPEM8208 - Human Factors and the Technological Interface
ZPEM8310 - Understanding Socio-Technical Systems: Ideas, Spaces, and Cultures