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Staff Profile

Dr Jen Bagelman

Reader in Human Geography Deputy Director for the Institute for Social Science

Background

I grew up on Coast Salish territories (Vancouver Island, Canada) where I completed my BA and MA at the University of Victoria. After finishing my PhD at the Open University, I taught at both Durham University and Exeter University. I am now based at Newcastle, as Reader in Geography & Deputy Director for the Institute of Social Science.

Broad research specialisms:

  • Migration & displacement
  • Reproductive geographies
  • Anticolonial environmental justice 
  • Creative geographies (experimenting with cookbooks, picturebooks, zines...)
Research

My academic and activist work critically examines how displacement is produced through exclusionary citizenship and bordering practices. I am also deeply interested in how people mobilize to enact more loving geopolitics. I explore these questions through two main streams of research.

The first stream of my research explores how sanctuary movements challenge (and sometimes inadvertently reproduce) the hostile treatment of refugees and other displaced peoples. My recently published book, Sanctuary City: A Suspended State, explores this topic.

Expanding on this work, I have led a GCRF-supported project entitled 'Birthing at the Borders' exploring how women with precarious status living in Kenya's Dadaab refugee camps mobilize 'sanctuary' to establish alternative networks of maternal care. Following on this project, I led a GCRF-UKRI Network Grant entitled Migrant Mothers: Digital Health Network which brings together scholars and practitioners from Newcastle University, Kenyatta University, UNHCR and refugee midwives to consider how digital tools might be developed to support maternal care in camps. 

The second stream of my research addresses the settler colonial logics that intrude into the health and wellbeing of Indigenous communities. Along with collaborators, I have recently completed a 5-year SSHRC project Seascape Stories which explored the impacts of proposed energy development projects on Indigenous coastal communities in the Pacific Northwest of Canada. Building on this work, I am now co-leading a new POLAR/UKRI-funded project 'Carving out Climate Testimony' within Inuit Nunangat. Alongside Inuit communities and UK-Canadian collaborators (academics/artists/activists) we are exploring youth-led environmental activism in Nunangat, addressing intersections between climate and mental health.

Within the university, I am a member both 'Power, Space, Politics' and 'Geographies of Social Change' research groups. I am also the Deputy Director for the Institute for Social Science.

Beyond the university, I volunteer in my community to support sanctuary. With my sister, Carly, I also run a non-profit organization called Glean, which seeks to nourish more equitable foodscapes. When not working I'm crafting, surfing, yoga-ing or being walked by my hyper dog.


Teaching

I am passionate about working with students as I see education as a powerful catalyst for generative change. I have written on creative pedagogy and, in keeping with a ‘service-led’ teaching model I aim to make coursework relevant to and useful for communities that extend beyond the classroom. In the past my students have created beautiful community maps that have been used by NGOS and urban designers and zines that have informed campus policies to embed diversity and ensure more sustainable food practices.

I warmly welcome the opportunity to work with students interested in the themes outlined on my research page.

Publications