Newcastle University

I am a lecturer in Town Planning; 

My main over-arching interest is research on the sociology of nostalgia and urban memory; but I am also interested in the following:

a) Social and Cultural Theory  

b) Identity studies; particularly in relation to research on nationalism, ethnicity, social class, heritage and urban development. 

c) heritage; how does heritage develop or constrain the social and cultural politics of urban development?

In the last few years in particular, my work has been mainly concerned with research on Chinese culture, nostalgia, politics, heritage and urban development.  To develop these investigations I am also trying to learn Mandarin (albeit very slowly). 

I welcome applications for doctoral study; I welcome students, who want to develop projects on nostalgia and identity studies: particularly in relation to issues of nationalism, class and the urban environment.  And of course, reflecting my recent work, I am very interested in project students that are keen to study issues in and around Chinese culture, nostaglia, politics, heritage and urban development. 

Outside of work I am a keen walker, runner and Chess player.  I also spend my time reading and sometimes trying to write fiction.   

Research Interests

My main over-arching interest is research on the sociology of nostalgia and urban memory; but I am also interested in the following: 

a) New innovations in social theory: Poststructuralism, actor-network theory, neo-vitalism, Foucault, Baudrilliard, Derrida, Deleuze; Non-representational theory and affect. Historical thinkers behind planning: Patrick Geddes, Ebenezer Howard and Lewis Mumford.

b) Research into identity and cultural history: specifically I am interested in the role of national identities and classed environments in the construction of contemporary cities, towns and urban spaces.

c) Built heritage conservation: Specifically my main interest in this subject rests with the problems of conservation and the ‘weight’ and/or responsibility that built heritage (and architecture) places on the people and the communities who live around it; specifically I am fascinated by new initiatives and/or conservationist approaches that encourage the re-interpretation and revitalisation (as opposed to the intense commercialisation) of built heritage space. I am also interested in issues of built heritage and cultural power.

Current Work

Currently I am conducting research on Chinese cultural identities, nostalgia and urban development; specifically I am interested in the role that pre-modern imaginaries of the Chinese past are playing in the present.  Exploring new forms of "dynastic revivalism', I am conducting research on the way that new kinds of 'Han' and 'Tang' imaginary are worked out in new practices of place-making and urban branding. 

Furthermore I am also investigating nostalgia for colonial urban space in Shanghai and Beijing; at present I am exploring nostalgia for the Hutongs in Beijing and the Lilongs in Shanghai.

Esteem Indicators

I have been the Book Review editor for Landscape Research, (Taylor and Francis Group) which is edited by Maggie Roe.

I have reviewed papers for the Journal of Social and Cultural Geography and Landscape Research.

PhD Supervision

Tom Brigden (with Prof Adam Sharr).

Pattamon Selanon (with Dr Ian Thompson). 

Postgraduate teaching

Co-ordinator of the SAPL supplimentary training sessions 

Masters teaching: MSc in Town Planning

Asian Cities: I give lectures on Chinese cities: neo-liberalism, place-making and Hukou   

Conservation and the Historic City (with Dr J Pendlebury).

Planning for Developing countries: India Fieldtrip assistant

Reflexive practitioner: I give lectures on epistemology and deontological ethics.

Undergraduate teaching/supervision

Level 2 modules

European Planning module – and Amsterdam Field Trip

Understanding cities

Sustainable development - 1 lecture on China and sustainability 

Level 1 modules 

Reading the City

Social Worlds: lectures on identity, class, sexuality and gender

• Law A. Spirituality and Chinese astrology in California: influences on Philip k Dick and the construction of a new vision of space. To be confirmed 2012. In Preparation.
• LAW A. "Western" ways of life recast in Chinese urban space: The Contemporary cultural renaissance and the construction of "Han" and "Tang" imaginaries in the urban moment. To be Confirmed 2012. Submitted.
• Law A. Post-colonial Shanghai: An Urban Discourse of Prosperity and Futureority. In: Desai, M; Rajagopalan, M, ed. Colonial Frames, Nationalist Histories. London: Ashgate, 2012. Submitted.
• Law A. Weighty histories and the industrial city: New creative economic spaces in the production of alternative heritage and identity. Intertrade 2011, 356(8).
• Law A. Brace, C. John-Putra, A., 'Process, Landscape and Text', Amsterdam; New York: Rodopi, 2010. Landscape Research 2012. In Press.
• Law A. Rising Shanghai: state power and local transformations in a global megacity, edited by Xiangming Chen with Zhenhua Zhou, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2009 [Book review]. Planning Perspectives 2011, 26(2), 325-327.
• Ballantyne A, Law A. Architecture: The Tudoresque Diaspora. In: String, TC, Bull, M, ed. Tudorism: Historical imagination and the Appropriation of the Sixteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press/British Academy, 2011, pp.155-181.
• Ballantyne A, Law A. Genealogy of the Singaporean black-and-white house. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 2011, 32(3), 301-313.
• Ballantyne A, Law A. Tudoresque: In Pursuit of the Ideal Home. London: Reaktion Books, 2011.
• Law A. Theme Park, London: Reaktion books , Lukas, S.A (2008) [book review]. Landscape Research 2010, 35(1), 139-141.
• Grisola JM, Willis KG, Wymer C, Law A. Social engagement and regional theatre: patterns of theatre attendance. Cultural Trends 2010,19 3 225-244.
• Law A. The problem of sustainability and the historic city. Municipal Engineer 2010, 163(3), 127-130.
• Ballantyne A, Law A. Tudoresque Vernacular and the self-reliant Englishman. In: Guillery, P., ed. Built From Below: British Architecture and the Vernacular. Oxon, UK: Routledge, 2010, pp. 123-144.
• Law A. LOUKAKI, A, (2008) Living Ruins, Value Conflicts, (within the Heritage, Culture and Identity series), Aldershot: Ashgate.. European Spatial Research and Policy 2009. European Spatial Research and Policy. ESRP vol. 16, no 1, 2009., 16(1), -.
• Law A. Constructing a Sense of Place: Architecture andthe Zionist Discourse. Yacobi, Haim (ed.). Aldershot,Ashgate 2004.. Geografiska Annaler. Series B. Human Geography 2005. , 87(3), 241-242.
• Law A. English Townscape as Cultural and Symbolic capital. In: Ballantyne, A, ed. Architectures: Modernism and After. Malden, MA; Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004, pp.202-226.
• Law A. The built heritage conservation movement : landscapes of Englishness and social class. (PhD Thesis). Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2004.
• Law A. The City Cultures Reader edited by Malcolm Miles,Tim Hall and Iain Borden. London: Routledge, 2000.. Area 2002. , 34(2), 221-222.
• Law A. Out of place. Englishness, empire, and the locations of identity (Book review). Progress in Human Geography 2000, 24(4), 673-674.