国产精品

Dr Nina Williams

Dr Nina Williams

Senior Lecturer
国产精品 Canberra
School of Science

I am a cultural geographer in the School of Science at 国产精品 Canberra.

My research explores conceptual innovations in the fields of nonrepresentational theory, process philosophy, speculative thinking and post-humanism. In an effort to bring theory into close relationship with practice, a central pursuit of my research is to foreground the role of aesthetics and creative processes as unique means for understanding cultural and ecological change.

My current research project 鈥楾heorising Biodesign: ethics, values, techniques鈥 (funded with a 国产精品 Seed Funding award) explores biodesign initiatives in the fields of textiles and architecture (see ; ; ). The project has involved occupying a Visiting Researcher role at the Design and Living Systems Lab at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. I have also听undertaken research visits as part of this project to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Co-Labs in Melbourne; 脡cole Nationale Sup茅rieure听de Cr茅ation Industrielle in Paris; and Open Cell in London.听The key questions guiding this research project are: what kinds of assemblages make up this form of design? How are the traditional durations of design disrupted by bioinspired or bioengineered techniques? What is implied by the ethos of collaborating or co-producing with nature in biodesign discourses? How do practitioners transition from the speculative to manufactured stages of design? What听role do regenerative designs play in the contexts of circular economies and ecological crises?

More broadly my research is concerned with two central themes:听

1. 听To amplify how distinct forms of evaluation and problematisation emerge as part of creative practices. For example, drawing on the philosophy of Henri Bergson, I have theorised creativity as a process that disrupts individual ingenuity and human durations (see ; ). After F茅lix Guattari,听I have challenged the idea that the political potential of art is limited to representational intentions (see discussion of Keiichi Tahara's portrait collection 1978-1987 in听) and subjects (see discussion of Nathalie Sarraute's听Tropisms听颈苍听).听I have sought to re-conceptualise听style, after Gilles Deleuze, Anne Sauvagnargues and Sonia Delaunay, understanding it as a transformative practice rather than as a fixed category (see ).听Also drawing on the philosophy of Deleuze, I have discussed how creative and arts-based geographic research can serve as a site of geographic critique (see听). I have also situated this theme of my research in the context of fashion and style, where the introduction to a special issue I co-organised with Dr Merle Patchett (Bristol University) sought to draw out globally-orientated and decentered approaches to the study of fashion and consider the microsocial problematics and potentials of fashion practices (see 听2022).

2. To develop experimental, qualitative research as generative practico-theoretical events. I have designed experimental methodologies in the contexts of art and curation, walking and mapmaking, and sonic geographies. Through this aspect of my research, I have pursued an interest in disseminating research beyond the academy,听having co-organised and听secured funding for听community and arts-based workshops and exhibitions. My PhD thesis 'An Aesthetic Gait: research in the minor registers of creativity and walking' (completed at the University of Bristol and funded through the Economic and Social Research Council, UK) involved walking interviews in rural landscapes, public workshops on urban field-recording, and immersive engagements with walking art.听I听have also developed Masters level and citizen-led workshops on listening to urban environments via audio recording devices (see ); I have utilised the post-card as a form of mapping (see听; ); and I have curated exhibitions and creative workshops to engage the public in thinking about documenting cities (see ; discussed in ). With collaborators in听Bristol, Canberra, and Link枚ping, I have addressed how post-humanist theoretical interventions reframe methodological practices and expectations in the humanities and social sciences (see ).

I obtained a BA (hons) in Geography at the University of Manchester听in 2011;听an听MSc in Human Geography: Society and Space听at the University of Bristol in 2012; and a听PhD in Human Geography at the University of Bristol听in 2017. Before commencing my current role at 国产精品 Canberra in 2019,听I worked听as a Research Associate in Urban Living听in the department of Civil Engineering听at the University of Bristol听and as a Lecturer听in Human Geography in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.

Phone
+61 2 5114 5039
  • Books | 2022
    , 2022, Speculative Geographies, Williams N; Keating T, (ed.), Springer Nature Singapore,
  • Book Chapters | 2022
    Williams N; Keating T, 2022, 'From Abstract Thinking to Thinking Abstractions: Introducing Speculative Geographies', in Williams N; Keating T (ed.), Speculative Geographies: Ethics, Technologies, Aesthetics, Palgrave MacMillan, pp. 1 - 32,
    Book Chapters | 2019
    Williams N, 2019, 'Non-Representational Theory', in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (Second Edition), pp. 421 - 427,
    Book Chapters | 2019
    Williams N, 2019, 'Reframing politics in art : from representational subjects to aesthetic subjectification', in Why Guattari? A Liberation of Cartographies, Ecologies and Politics, Routledge
  • Edited Books | 2022
    Williams N; Keating TP, (ed.), 2022, Speculative Geographies: ethics, technologies, aesthetics, Palgrave Macmillan,
  • Journal articles | 2023
    Cotsaftis O; Williams N; Chyon G; Sadar J; Va Pesaran DM; Wines S; Naarden S, 2023, 'Designing conditions for coexistence', Design Studies, 87,
    Journal articles | 2023
    Gerlach J; Debaise D; Wiame A; Roberts T; Lapworth A; Dewsbury JD; Colebrook C; Williams N; Keating TP, 2023, 'Correction: Geophilosophy round table (Subjectivity, (2023), 30, 1, (91-106), 10.1057/s41286-023-00150-1)', Subjectivity, 30, pp. 112,
    Journal articles | 2023
    Gerlach J; Debaise D; Wiame A; Roberts T; Lapworth A; Dewsbury JD; Colebrook C; Williams N; Keating TP, 2023, 'Geophilosophy round table', Subjectivity, 30, pp. 91 - 106,
    Journal articles | 2022
    Keating TP; Williams N, 2022, 'Geophilosophies: towards another sense of the earth', Subjectivity, 15, pp. 93 - 108,
    Journal articles | 2022
    Williams N; Burdon G, 2022, 'Writing subjectivity without subjecthood: the machinic unconscious of Nathalie Sarraute鈥檚 Tropisms', Social and Cultural Geography, 24, pp. 1403 - 1421,
    Journal articles | 2022
    Williams N, 2022, 'Waiting for Geotropic Forces: Bergsonian duration and the ecological sympathies of biodesign', Qualitative Inquiry, 28, pp. 1 - 10,
    Journal articles | 2021
    Patchett M; Williams N, 2021, 'Geographies of Fashion and Style: Setting the Scene', GeoHumanities, 7, pp. 198 - 216,
    Journal articles | 2021
    Williams N, 2021, 'The problem of critique in art-geography: five propositions for immanent evaluation after Deleuze', Cultural Geographies, 29,
    Journal articles | 2020
    Williams N; Collet C, 2020, 'Biodesign and the Allure of 鈥淕row-made鈥 Textiles: An Interview with Carole Collet', GeoHumanities, 7, pp. 1 - 13,
    Journal articles | 2020
    Williams N, 2020, 'Theorizing Style (In Three Sketches)', GeoHumanities, 7, pp. 1 - 18,
    Journal articles | 2019
    Williams N; Patchett M; Lapworth A; Roberts T; Keating T, 2019, 'Practising post-humanism in geographical research', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44, pp. 637 - 643,
    Journal articles | 2019
    Williams N, 2019, 'Listening', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 44, pp. 647 - 649,
    Journal articles | 2016
    Cook S; Davidson A; Stratford E; Middleton J; Plyushteva A; Fitt H; Cranston S; Simpson P; Delaney H; Evans K; Jones A; Kershaw J; Williams N; Bissell D; Duncan T; Sengers F; Elvy J; Wilmott C, 2016, 'Co-Producing Mobilities: negotiating geographical knowledge in a conference session on the move', Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 40, pp. 340 - 374,
    Journal articles | 2016
    Williams N, 2016, 'Creative processes: From interventions in art to intervallic experiments through Bergson', Environment and Planning A, 48, pp. 1549 - 1564,
  • Creative Works (non-textual) | 2014
    Williams N, 2014, Mapping in Momentum, The Walking Encyclopaedia Exhibition, AirSpace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, 07 February 2014 - 15 March 2014, at: https://www.airspacegallery.org/index.php/2020/project_entry/the_walking_encyclopaedia_incl._paths_of_variable_resistance
    Curatorial Outputs | 2014
    Williams N, 2014, Sounding the City, exhibited at: The Edwardian Cloakroom Bristol, UK, 14 August 2014 - 16 August 2014

My Research Supervision

Tara Elisabeth Jeyasingh听'Lives, Lines and Lights: problematising geographic thinking with Deleuze and Guattari and Glissant'

Sabrina Shanto听-听'Harassment and the Emotional Geographies of Fear on Public Transport in Dhaka'

Christian Sirois -听'The Yassification of the Balkans: Media, Perception, and Power '

My Teaching

Current:

ZPEM2213 The Art and Science of Doing Geography听

ZPEM2211 Special Topic in Geography: the social science of ecological crises听

ZPEM1202 Geography 1B: understanding听environments听

Previous:

ZPEM2207 Social Geography

ZPEM4205 Human Geography Honours Special Topic

ZPEM4002 ZPEM4004 Science听Honours Research听