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Staff Profile

Dr Olivia Mason

Lecturer in Political Geographies

  • Email: olivia.mason2@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: Room 3.24, Henry Daysh Building
    School of Geography Politics and Sociology
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
    NE1 7RU
Background

I am a Lecturer in Political Geography. I re-joined the department in September 2024, having worked in Geography at Newcastle from 2018-2021 and 2022-2023. I have also worked at Northumbria University and the University of Glasgow. I hold a PhD in Human Geography from Durham University (2019), a MRes in Human Geography from the University of Glasgow (2013), and a BA in Human Geography from Newcastle University (2012)


My work sits across cultural, environmental, and political geography, and is broadly centred on mobility politics and resource colonialism, and to date has mostly been focused on Jordan. I am currently PI of three projects: the first an ESRC funded research project looking at the resource politics of nature reserves in Jordan; the second a British Academy funded knowledge exchange partnership with a conservation organisation in Jordan, Wadi for Sustainable Ecosystems Development, that integrates social and physical science knowledge to address biodiversity loss; the third a project with a Bedouin artist in Jordan, Gazua Matruak, that explores changing Bedouin cultural heritage in Jordan.


I also hold the following roles:

Forum and Review Editor for the journal Geopolitics.

Chair of the Political Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Committee member of the RGS-IBG Higher Education Committee.

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

External Examiner for the Geography BA at King's College London.

Research

My current research covers four main areas:


1) Mobility politics

I am interested in the politics of movement, especially how movement is conditioned by situated cultural politics, colonialism, and how it can unearth embodied accounts of territory. My interest in mobility politics has resulted in work exploring the politics of walking and cultural geographies of trail making in Jordan and the infrastructural geopolitics of walking trails across the Middle East. I also have also written about the politics of walking as a method in political geography, the im/mobilities of international fieldwork, and the cultural geopolitics of hosting.


2) Resource colonialism

My research examines how historical and contemporary forms of colonialism shape the environment. I am currently PI of an UKRI-funded project entitled ‘A cultural politics of nature reserves in Jordan’ that examines the relationships between resource extraction and scarcity, indigenous rights, and postcolonialism. I have written about the (post)colonial politics of British expeditions to establish nature reserves in Jordan, environmental futures in Jordan and how the concept of landscape can be used to understand the current violent socio-ecological epoch. Further work has explored the politics of indigeneity in Jordan and the complex relationships between local communities, cultural heritage, and conservation sites.


3) Environmental justice

I am committed to environmental and social justice and I have conducted fieldwork using a range of qualitative methods including participatory filmmaking, story-mapping, and mobile interviews. I have worked extensively with NGOs, policymakers, artists and local communities to produce more equitable environmental futures.


4) The politics of knowledge production in higher education

My research has explored the production of academic knowledge within an increasingly neoliberalised academic system. This has resulted in work exploring the impacts of casualisation and how neoliberalism is shaping what it means to be a geographer. My interest in how geography is changing as a discipline has also resulted in editorial pieces exploring changing research agendas in political geography.


Teaching

I have over 10 years undergraduate and postgraduate teaching experience across a variety of topics and subjects including political geography, geopolitics, environmental politics, the Middle East and North Africa, mobile research methods, and cultural politics. I believe in centring students in real world issues and concerns and connecting teaching to community and justice led work.


I currently lead the following modules:

  • GEO8028: Political Geographies of the Middle East.


And I also teach on the following modules:

  • GEO1010: Interconnected World.
  • GEO1026: Becoming a Geographer.
  • GEO2047: Political Geography.
  • GEO3102: Geopolitics


I would welcome contact from postgraduates interested in PhD supervision, especially on topics related to mobility politics, environmental politics, and political geographies of the Middle East.

Publications