Newcastle University

Introduction

Alison Williams is a Lecturer in Human Geography, with interests in political geography and geopolitics. Between July 2008 - June 2011 she was an ESRC Research Fellow working on a programme of research entitled 'The Geographies of Military Airspaces'. Specifically, she is interested in what might be called 'vertical geopolitics'; analysing the role of aviation and aircraft in the projection of power across space. This interest has both historical and contemporary foci and, to date, includes work on the popular geopolitics of Pan American Airways' trans-Pacific air route, the enforcement of Iraq's international boundaries, and the use of UAV's to secure the US-Mexico border.

Roles and Responsibilities

Geography Employability Co-ordinator

Power, Space, Politics research cluster Co-ordinator  (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/geography/research/psp/)

ESRC Peer Review College member (2010-2012)

Vice Chair - RGS-IBG Political Geography Research Group (2011-2014) (http://polgrg.wordpress.com/)

Treasurer - RGS-IBG Political Geography Research Group (2007-2010)

Qualifications

2001-5: PhD Human Geography, University of Hull

1998-9: MA International Relations, Keele University

1995-8: BA (Hons) Geography, University of Liverpool

Previous Positions

2008-11: ESRC Research Fellow, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, Newcastle University

2007-8: Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Liverpool

2005-7: Post-Doctoral Research Associate, International Boundaries Research Unit, Geography Department, Durham University

Memberships

Fellow of Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research Interests

Critical geopolitics
Military geographies
Geographies of aviation and airspace
US aviation in the interwar Pacific

Current Work

From July 2008 to June 2011 I worked on a programme of research under the heading of the 'Geographies of Military Airspaces'. Within this ESRC-funded Fellowship I sought to theorise airspace; investigate how airspace is constructed through a variety of legal regimes; discover how military flight crews are taught to 'see' and understand airspace; consider popular geopolitical representations of military airspace in video gaming; and analyse the significance of unmanned aerial vehicles technologies within the military sphere.

I am also interested in the issue of transferable skills and the graduate skills agenda. To this end, I have recently developed a website for Newcastle Geography students to help them identify the transferables skills that completion of the various modes of assessment can enable them to advance (makinggeographywork.ncl.ac.uk). I have also recently received funding (with Simon Tate) from the Newcastle University teaching and learning Innovtion Fund to develop a website that focuses upon developing student's dissertation skills.

I am working on a project that brings my interests in the military and the graduate skills agenda together. I received a Faculty Research Fund Award to enable an RA to conduct a pilot study into the relationship between membership of the university's armed service units and the development of transferable skills. For more about this visit
http://research.ncl.ac.uk/military-research/index.html

During spring 2010 I was part of the Interventions Project, which brought together designers and researchers to collaborate to produce a piece of work related to our research. I worked with Nelly Ben Hayoun (www.nellyben.com), an award winning designer based in London. For more information on our project visit www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/research/geography/pms/interventions.htm

Future Research

My future research will continue to centre upon geographies of aviation and airspace in both historical and contemporary periods, and military geographies more widely.

I also plan to continue my work on the graduate skills agenda and student employability, and the relationship between the university and the military.

Research Roles

Power, Space, Politics research cluster coordinator (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/geography/research/psp/)

Postgraduate Supervision

2008-2011: Matthew Rech - Geographies of RAF recruitment (ESRC)

2011-2014: Daniel Bos - Popular geopolitics of military video games (ESRC DTC)

Funding

2011-12 Newcastle University Teaching and Learning Committee Innovation Fund (c£3000) 'Learning from Research Practice: developing a web-based video resource that will provide Geography dissertation students with examples of how Geography staff and postgrads do their research' (with Simon Tate)

2009-2010: Faculty Research Fund (£3650) 'The graduate skills agenda and the university armed services experience'

 2008-2011: ESRC Research Fellowship (c. £300,000)'The Geographies of Military Airspaces'

2001-2005: ESRC Open Competition PhD funding (c. £40,000)'Aviation Technogeopolitics and the Territorialisation of the Pacific as US Space, 1918-1941'

Projects

• The Geographies of Military Airspace
  Project Leader(s): Dr Alison Williams

Undergraduate Teaching

GEO1096 Study Skills (Personal Tutor)

GEO2044 Advanced Study Skills (Module Leader and Tutor)

GEO2047 Political Geography (contributor)

GEO2105 Military Environments and Landscapes Field Course (contributor)

GEO3099 Dissertation (Mentor)

GEO3102 Geopolitical Thought and Practice (Module Leader and contributor)

• Adey P, Whitehead M, Williams AJ. Air-Target: distance, reach and the politics of verticality. Theory, Culture and Society 2011, 28(7-8), 173-187.
• Ward K, Anderson B, Coward M, Sheller M, Williams AJ, Cresswell T, Adey P. Reading Peter Adey's Aerial Life. Political Geography 2011, 30(8), 461-469.
• Williams AJ. Enabling Persistent Presence? Performing the embodied geopolitics of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle assemblage. Political Geography 2011, 30(7), 381-390.
• Williams AJ. Blurring Boundaries/Sharpening Borders: Analysing the US’s Use of Military Aviation Technologies to Secure International Borders, 2001-2008. In: Wastl-Walter, D, ed. The Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011, pp.283-300.
• Williams AJ. Reconceptualising spaces of the air: performing the multiple spatialities of UK military airspaces. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2011, 36(2), 253–267.
• Jenkings KN, Woodward R, Williams AJ, Rech M, Murphy A, Bos D. Military Occupations: Methodological approaches and the Military-Academy research nexus. Sociology Compass 2011,5 1 37-51.
• Williams AJ. Beyond the Sovereign Realm: the geopolitics and power relations in and of outer space. Geopolitics 2010. , 15(4), 785-793.
• Williams AJ. Flying the flag: Pan American Airways and the projection of US power across the interwar Pacific. In: MacDonald, F.; Hughes, R.; Dodds, K., ed. Observant states: geopolitics and visual culture. London: I B Tauris, 2010, pp. 81-99.
• Williams AJ. A crisis in aerial sovereignty? Considering the implications of recent military violations of national airspace. Area 2010, 42(1), 51-59.
• Elden S, Williams AJ. The territorial integrity of Iraq, 2003-2007: invocation, violation, viability. Geoforum 2009, 40(3), 407-417.
• Donaldson JW, Williams AJ. Delimitation and demarcation: analysing the legacy of Stephen B. Jones’s Boundary-Making. Geopolitics 2008, 13(4), 676-700.
• Williams AJ. Hakumat al Tayarrat: the role of air power in the enforcement of Iraq's borders. Geopolitics 2007, 12(3), 505-528.
• Bialasiewicz L, Campbell D, Elden S, Graham S, Jeffrey AS, Williams AJ. Performing security: the imaginative geographies of current US strategy. Political Geography 2007, 26(4), 405-422.
• Donaldson JW, Williams AJ. Understanding maritime jurisdictional disputes: the East China Sea and beyond. Journal of International Affairs 2005, 59(1), 135-156.