Dr. Leila Alexandra Dawney

Transcription

1 Dr. Leila Alexandra Dawney 53 St Anne s Crescent Lewes BN7 1SD UK l.a.dawney@ex.ac.uk Current Employment Research Assistant, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University: Immanent authority and the making of community Duties involve: compiling and writing 2 literature reviews, website maintenance and content generation, grant administration, co authoring research papers and organising conferences and events. The grant for this project was successfully applied for by me along with other members of the Authority Research Network. Temporary contract: March September 2011 Education Doctor of Philosophy, Human Geography, University of Exeter, UK The Embodied Imagination: affect, bodies, experience. Supervisors: Dr. John Wylie, Prof. Jo Little Examiners: Dr. Ben Anderson, Prof. Paul Cloke Master of Arts, Sociology and Philosophy of Culture, University of Exeter, UK Dissertation: Nationalism, Racism and the Imagined English Countryside. Bachelor of Arts, Cultural and Political Studies, University of Exeter Degree class: first. Research Interests / Research Profile Spinoza and new materialist cultural/political theory I am interested in the concept of affect as figured through the philosophy of Spinoza and the way in which it has been and can be turned to political and social analysis. My PhD research focused primarily on recent theoretical developments concerned with embodiment, politics, affect and materiality, and as such considered a politics of the body through an engagement with Spinoza and his relation to critical theory. The thesis engaged with the sociality of the body and the connections between lived experience and social relations, explored through ethnographic research on long distance walking in Britain. In particular, I explored the sociological concept of the social imaginary through a Spinozist materialism in order to propose an account of experience production that could supplement a Foucauldian account of subjectivation. Spatiality and materiality Through my concern with Spinozist and new materialist thought I have worked towards an account of materiality and spatiality that responds to poststructuralist and posthumanist critique. This is part of an ongoing project in collaboration with colleagues at Cambridge and Durham Universities. Cultural Geographies of embodied practice, performance and landscape Through feminist theory, especially feminist perspectives on gender as performance and as a lived embodied relation, I explore ways in which recent geographies of embodied practice inspired by phenomenology can encounter corporeal

2 difference. I have also contributed to the development and critique of nonrepresentational theory in geography through a Spinozist approach to the body that emphasises the sociality of the embodied response. Immanent authority and the production of community I have an ongoing interest in accounts of authority in classical social theory and the way in which these can be rethought after poststructuralism. In collaboration with other members of the Authority Research Network, I explore postfoundational accounts of authority production and the emergence of a new politics of immanence through an engagement with the classical work on authority of Weber and Arendt, as refigured through postfoundational thinkers such as Jean Luc Nancy, Bernard Stiegler and Michel Foucault. Therapeutic landscapes and the relationship between place and well being My PhD research focused on the landscape of the South West Coast Path as being productive of specific imaginaries based on the therapeutic, and also on ideas of nation and belonging. Migration, racism and postcolonial cultural forms This was the subject of my MA research and subsequent research project. My more recent work on the politics of affect is brought to bear on these topics through an encounter with the production of corporeal difference. Awards, Distinctions and Fellowships January 2011 AHRC Connected Communities award for Authority Research Network project: Immanent authority and the making of community 39,859 for research assistance, symposium and network meetings AHRC Collaborative PhD studentship. Collaborative Partner: South West Coast Path Team. May 2010 Department of Geography, University of Exeter: 500 towards ARN conference session, Tampere, Finland. April 2009 University of Bristol Institute of Advanced Studies: 800 towards setting up Authority Research Network. May 2009 University of Bristol Roberts Skills award : 300 for Authority Research Network. October 2003 University of Exeter: Department of Sociology Masters Scholarship. Undergraduate Dean s commendation. Teaching Qualifications PGCE Secondary English with Media Studies, University of Worcester Associate of the Higher Education Institute, HEI Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (TLHE), University of Exeter Teaching Experience Lecturer: Introducing Sociology, Department of Sociology, Bath Spa University, st year module introducing a broad range of sociological theories and topics Course Tutor: Undergraduate Field Module (New York), School of Geography, University of Exeter, March 2008 Second year module on the city, politics and memory. Course Tutor: Cultural Geographies of Landscape, School of Geography, University of Exeter, Final year module on theories of and approaches to landscape.

3 Course Tutor: Undergraduate Field Module (Berlin), School of Geography, University of Exeter, March 2008 Second year module on the city, politics and memory. Assessed through field notes and group based film making projects using digital camcorders. Lecturer in Sociology, Hereford Sixth Form College, Course coordinator for AS World Development, Personal Tutor, Departmental IT Champion, Gifted and talented students coordinator, Humanities and Social Sciences Collegiate Activity Founder member/co ordinator of the Authority Research Network An interdisciplinary research network focusing on theorizing authority. Organised 2 week long writing retreats, a series of one day workshops and a conference session for the 2010 Power conference in Tampere, Finland. Recently awarded AHRC Connected Communities grant. See for more information. Founder/co ordinator of Work in Progress sessions, School of Geography, University of Exeter Organise and manage twice termly sessions for research students to showcase/present their work in a supportive environment. Founder/co ordinator of Theory Cluster, School of Geography, University of Exeter Co ordinator of the School of Geography s theory cluster reading group. Member of Non representational theory reading group, University of Bristol Member of Critical Theory Group, University of Bristol Other Employment March June 2007: Freelance Researcher, Diocese of Hereford Council for Social Responsibility Research commissioned to investigate ways in which integration of new migrants from Central and East Europe could be supported by the Diocese of Hereford. The research explored issues of discrimination and racism, housing, employment and access to services and included policy recommendations. Dec 2002 Sept 2004: Freelance Arts Marketing and Management Specialist Sept 2000 Dec 2002: Co ordinator, Birmingham Art Trust Publications Dawney, L (forthcoming) Social Imaginaries and Therapeutic Self work: the ethics of walking as embodied imagination Accepted by Sociological Review. Dawney, L (2010) Book Review: Therapeutic Landscapes edited by Alison Williams, Emotion, Space and Society Vol 3 issue 2 pp Dawney, L (2011) Being with in S. Adams (ed.) Moving Between the Lines publication sponsored by AHRC Beyond Text Programme. Also available at Dawney, L (2009) Landscape and the embodied imagination Submitted to Cultural Geographies.

4 Dawney, L (2010) What do we mean when we talk about walking? Submitted to Qualitative Researcher. Dawney, L (2009) Temporality and Techniques of the Self submitted to University of Bristol Connections conference publication. Dawney, L (2010) Authority and Experience: thinking the figure of authority after humanism : in preparation. For a special edition of The Journal of Power. Dawney, L Commentary on Steve Pile s Emotions and Affect in Recent Human Geography for Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. In preparation. Dawney, L, Sorensen, T, Harris, O A Materially Affective Manifesto. In preparation. Dawney, L (2008) Racialisation of Central and East European migrants in Herefordshire Sussex Centre for Migration Research Working Paper no 53 available at Dawney, L (2007) Supporting Integration of Migrants and Seasonal Workers in the Diocese of Hereford Hereford: Minky Publications. Conference Sessions Organised 1 3 September 2010: Getting away from it all: embodied engagements with nature RGS/IBG Annual Conference, London 6 8 September 2010: Authority, Experience and Power stream: Power and Knowledge 2010, Tampere, Finland Conference Papers May 2008, University of Exeter mid term postgraduate forum: Rethinking the habitus: some supplements to Bourdieu October 2008, University of Exeter PhD Upgrade presentation: Paths, bodies, landscapes 7 March 2009, RGS/IBG Mid Term Conference, University of Plymouth: The social imaginary in practice: Beating the bounds of the nation March 2009, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Las Vegas: Therapeutic bodies/landscapes 22 May 2009, Connections Conference, Bristol University: Temporality and techniques of the self 3 June 2009, Sociological Review 100 th Anniversary Conference: Imagining the Political: The Social Imaginary and therapeutic self work (with Tehseen Noorani) 20 June 2009, Living Landscapes conference, University of Aberystwyth: Landscape, Foundation, Testimony August 2009, RGS IBG Conference, Manchester: Future memory and Future Ruins 7 8 October 2009, Motion and Emotion within Place Network Conference, University of Aarhus: Dreamspaces and their others: Imagining the Affective Landscape 6 7 May 2010, ALGC conference: Politics, Spaces: Experimenting with Affect: the body as litmus paper

5 3 4 June 2010, International Social Theory Consortium, University of Sussex: Experimenting with Affect June 2010, Event, Signal, Affect Workshop, University of Aarhus: The interruption as site of enquiry 1 3 September 2010, RGS/IBG Annual Conference, London: Science Fiction, Future Ruins and the Politics of Present Becoming 6 8 September 2010, Power and Knowledge 2010, Tampere, Finland: Authority, Foundation, Testimony December 2010, Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, Bristol University: A materially affective manifesto (with O. Harris and T. Sørensen) References Dr. John Wylie (PhD supervisor) Department of Human Geography University of Exeter Rennes Drive Exeter J.W.Wylie@ex.ac.uk Professor Paul Cloke (PhD examiner) Department of Human Geography University of Exeter Rennes Drive Exeter P.Cloke@ex.ac.uk Dr. Ben Anderson (PhD examiner) Department of Geography Durham University Science Laboratories South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK ben.anderson@durham.ac.uk