Rachel Pain is Professor of Human Geography and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Disasters, violence and recovery

• Gender-based violence and its impacts on women, men and children

• Community and urban trauma and mental health

• The relationships between domestic and sexual abuse and terrorism/warfare

• Geopolitics and intimacy

• Transgender issues and feminist theory/practice

• Theory, politics and practice of participatory/co-production approaches to research, learning and action

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I was born in Northumberland and grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I began my career as a Lecturer at Northumbria University where I directed the undergraduate Geography degrees, before moving to Durham University where I served as Director of undergraduate and postgraduate Geography degrees, Deputy Head of Department, and was Co-Founder/Director of the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action and the Participatory Research Hub. I was happy to move back north of the river to join Newcastle University in 2017, where I have recently held the post of Newcastle Director of NINEDTP and Deputy Dean of Postgraduates. 

I am a social and political geographer whose research is founded in feminist and participatory praxis. Most of my research has focused on violence, community safety, trauma and fear, with gender-based violence an enduring interest as it affects women, men and children, including transgender people. I have collaborated with national and local government, charities, community organisations, activists, artists and survivors, often using Participatory Action Research. The conceptual thread running through these projects explores the social politics of what are commonly seen as personal and private experiences of violence and trauma. Equally, international forms of violence, such as war and terrorism, are recast as having intimate roots. Through developing concepts such as ‘globalised fear’, ‘intimacy-geopolitics’, ‘intimate war’ and 'geotrauma', the work tackles common myths that persist about scales of violence and harm.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

• Chair of Conference 2022, Royal Geographical Society / IBG Annual International Conference

• Urban Studies Best Paper Award 2019 for "Chronic Urban Trauma" https://journals.sagepub.com/page/usj/collections/awards

• Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences 2018 -

• Durham University Excellence in Research Impact Award 2014

• Durham University Excellence in Learning and Teaching Award 2012

• Julian Minghi Outstanding Research Award of the Political Speciality Group of the Association of American Geographers 2009. Awarded jointly with Susan J Smith for 'Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life'

• Royal Geographical Society Gill Memorial Award 2008, for contributions to social geography and participatory research

• Philip Leverhulme Prize 2005

RECENT REPORTS

• Chronic Trauma (2019) - by the Paper Dolls Research Group, in association with My Sisters Place, Middlesbrough
• After the Auctions: Impacts of the Disposal of Social Housing (2017)
• Mapping Alternative Impact: Alternative Approaches to Impact From Co-Produced Research (2016) - a project funded by ESRC/N8
• Disposal: the Housing Crisis in Horden’s Numbered Streets (2015) - a collaboration with Horden Colliery Residents Association  
• Everyday Terrorism: How Fear Works in Domestic Abuse (2012) - a collaboration with Scottish Womens Aid

• Pain R, Cahill C. Critical political geographies of slow violence and resistance. Environment And Planning C: Politics And Space 2021. In Press.
• Pain R. Collective trauma? Isolating and commoning gender-based violence. Gender Place and Culture 2021, epub ahead of print.
• Sahdan Z, Pain R, McEwan C. Demonic Possession: Narratives of Domestic Abuse and Trauma in Malaysia. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2021, (ePub ahead of Print).
• Pain R. The politics of tears (in memory of Lynn Staeheli). Political Geography 2021. In Press.
• Pain R. Geotrauma: Violence, place and repossession. Progress in Human Geography 2020, epub ahead of print.
• Rezwana R, Pain R. Gender-based violence before, during and after cyclones: slow violence and layered disasters. Disasters 2020, ePub ahead of print.
• Pain R. 'One of the Lasses': Trans Inclusion and Safety in Abuse Services. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2021.
• Pain R, Rezwana N, Sahdan Z. Trauma, gender and space: insights from Bangladesh, Malaysia and the UK. In: Datta A; Hopkins P; Johnston L; Olson E; Silva JM, ed. Routledge Handbook of Gender and Feminist Geographies. London: Routledge, 2020, pp.287-296.
• Hopkins P, Newcastle Social Geographies Collective, Pain R, Shaw R, Gao Q, Bonnett A, Jones C, Richardson M, Rzedzian S, Benwell MC, Lin W, McAreavey R, Stenning A, Blazek M, Pande R, Najib K, Finlay R, Nayak A, Ridley G, Mearns G, Bonner-Thompson C, McLaughlin J, Boussalem A, Iqbal N, Heslop J, Jarvis H, Burrows R, Bambra C, Copeland A, Tate S, Campbell E, Thompson M, James A, Raynor R, Cunningham N, Powells G, Herbert J, Hocknell S, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London, UK: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020.
• Hopkins P, Pain R. Age. In: The Newcastle Social Geographies Collective, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020, pp.192-199.
• Pain R, Hopkins P. Researching Social Geographies. In: Newcastle Social Geographies Collective, ed. Social Geographies: An Introduction. London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020.
• Pain R. Chronic urban trauma: The slow violence of housing dispossession. Urban Studies 2019, 56(2), 385-400.
• Cahill C, Pain R. Representing Slow Violence and Resistance:On Hiding and Seeing. ACME: an International Journal for Critical Geographies 2019, 18(5), 1054-1065.
• Pain R, Heslop B, Heslop G. Slow Violence and the Representational Politics of Song. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 2019, 18(5), 1100-1111.
• Pain R, Hadjiyianni C, McLeod G. After the Auctions Impacts of the Disposal of Social Housing in a County Durham Village. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2017.
• Rezwana N, Pain R. Understanding Gender-based violence during disasters in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Newcastle upon Tyne: Newcastle University, 2017.
• Pain R, Heslop J, Ormerod E, Butler-Rees A, Crawshaw H, Davisson H, Dawson L, Fairhurst M, Galin M, Harman D, Holloway E, James T, Liu A, Chau C, Qing H, Read F, Smith M, Somerset C, Sporik E, Turner I. DISPOSAL: The Housing Crisis in Horden’s Numbered Streets. Durham University: Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, 2016.
• Pain R. Embodying intimate war: a reply to Sjoberg, Massaro and Bernazzoli. Political Geography 2015, 44, 82-83.
• Whitman GP, Pain R, Milledge DG. Going with the flow? Using participatory action research in physical geography. Progress in Physical Geography 2015, 39(5), 622-639.
• Pain R. Intimate War. Political Geography 2015, 44, 64-73.
• Pain R. Everyday Terrorism: Connecting Domestic Violence and Global Terrorism. Progress in Human Geography 2014, 38(4), 531-550.
• Pain R. Gendered violence: rotating intimacy. Area 2014, 46, 351-353.
• Pain R. Impact: striking a blow or walking together?. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 2014, 13(1), 19-23.
• Lave R, Wilson MW, Barron ES, Biermann C, Carey MA, Duvall CS, Johnson L, Lane KM, McClintock N, Munroe D, Pain R, Proctor J, Rhoads BL, Robertson MM, Rossi J, Sayre NF, Simon G, Tadaki M, Van Dyke C. Intervention: Critical physical geography. The Canadian Geographer / Le Géographe Canadien 2014, 58, 1-10.
• Pain R, Staeheli L. Introduction: intimacy-geopolitics and violence. Area 2014, 46(4), 344-347.
• Pain R. Seismologies of emotion: fear and activism during domestic violence. Social and Cultural Geography 2014, 15(2), 127-150.
• Curtis S, Pain R, Fuller SK, Khatib Y, Rothon C, Stansfeld SA, Daya S. Neighbourhood risk factors for Common Mental Disorders among young people aged 10-20 years: a structured review of quantitative research. Health & Place 2013, 20, 81-90.
• Pain R, Finn M, Bouveng R, Ngobe G. Productive tensions: engaging geography students in participatory action research with communities. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 2013, 37(1), 28-43.
• Olson E, Hopkins P, Pain R, Vincett G. Retheorizing the Postsecular Present: Embodiment, Spatial Transcendence, and Challenges to Authenticity Among Young Christians in Glasgow, Scotland. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 2013, 103(6), 1421-1436.
• Pain R, Kesby M, Askins K. The politics of social justice in neoliberal times: a reply to Slater. Area 2012, 44(1), 120-123.
• Alexander C, Pain R. Urban security: Whose Security? Everyday Responses to Urban Fears. In: Springer, ed. Ceccato V (ed) The Urban Fabric of Crime and Fear. Springer, Dordrecht, 2012.
• Vincett G, Olson E, Hopkins P, Pain R. Young people and performance Christianity in Scotland. Journal of Contemporary Religion 2012, 27(2), 275-290.
• Askins K, Pain R. Contact zones: participation, materiality and the messiness of interaction. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2011, 29(5), 803-821.
• Pain R, Kesby M, Askins K. Geographies of impact: power, participation and potential. Area 2011, 43(2), 183-188.
• Hopkins P, Olson E, Pain R, Vincett G. Mapping intergenerationalities: the formation of youthful religiosities. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2011, 36(2), 314-327.
• Jarvis H, Pain R, Poolley C. Multiple Scales of Time-Space and Life Course. Environment and Planning A 2011, 43(3), 519-524.
• kinpaisby-hill mrsc. Participatory praxis and social justice: towards more fully social geographies. In: Del Casino, V; Thomas, ME; Cloke, P; Panelli, R, ed. A Companion to Social Geography. Blackwell, 2011, pp.214-34.
• Pain R, Phillips D, Nagel C, Mohammad R, McLean J, Dunn K, Hopkins P. Reading Peter Hopkins' The Issue of Masculine Identities for British Muslims after 9/11: a social analysis. Political Geography 2011, 30(6), 339-348.
• Russell A, Cattermole A, Hudson R, Banks S, Armstrong A, Robinson F, Pain R, Gollan S, Brown G. Sustaining Community-University Collaborations: the Durham University Model. International Journal of Community Research and Engagement 2011, 4, 218-31.
• Pain R, Askins K. Engaging communities in research. In: Gardner et al, ed. Communicating geographical research beyond the academy. London: RGS/IBG, 2010.
• Smith SJ, Pain R, Marston S, Jones JP. Handbook of Social Geographies. Sage, 2010.
• Pain R, Panelli R, Little J, Kindon S. Moments in everyday/distant geopolitics: Young people’s fears and hopes. Geoforum 2010, 41(6), 972-82. In Preparation.
• Pain R, Panelli R, Little J, Kindon S. Moments in everyday/distant geopolitics: Young people’s fears and hopes. Geoforum 2010, 41(6), 972-982.
• Pain R. The New Geopolitics of Fear. Geography Compass 2010, 4(3), 226-240.
• Pain R. Ways beyond disciplinarity. Children's Geographies 2010, 8(2), 223-225.
• Pain R. Globalised fear? Towards an emotional geopolitics. Progress in Human Geography 2009, 33(4), 466-486.
• Pain R. Introduction: doing social geographies. In: Smith,S et al, ed. Handbook of Social Geographies. Sage, 2009.
• Pain R, Smith S. Introduction: geographies of well-being. In: Smith,S et al, ed. Handbook of Social Geographies Sage. Sage, 2009.
• Smith S, Pain R, Marston S, Jones JP. Introduction: situating social geographies. In: Smith et al, ed. Handbook of Social Geographies. Sage, 2009.
• Pain R, Hopkins PE. Social geographies of age: landscapes, lifecourses, equity and justice. In: Smith SJ; Pain R; Marston S; Jones JP, ed. The SAGE handbook of social geography. London: Sage, 2009, pp.78-98.
• Pain R. Working Across Distant Spaces: Connecting Participatory Action Research and Teaching. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 2009, 33(1), 81-87.
• Pain R, Smith SJ. Critical geopolitics and everyday fears. In: Lee,M; Farrell,S, ed. Fear of Crime: Critical Voices in an Age of Anxiety. London: Routledge, 2008.
• Pain R. Ethical possibilities: towards participatory ethics. Children's Geographies 2008, 6(1), 104-108.
• Pain R, Smith SJ. Fear, critical geopolitics and everyday life. In: Pain,R; Smith,SJ, ed. Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life. Ashgate, 2008.
• Pain R, Smith S. Fear/hope and reconnection. In: Pain,R; Smith,S, ed. Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life. Ashgate, 2008.
• Pain R, Smith SJ. Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life. Ashgate, 2008.
• kinpaisby-hill mrsc. Publishing from participatory research. In: Blunt, A; et al, ed. Publishing in Geography: a Guide for New Researcher. Wiley-Blackwell, 2008.
• kinpaisby-hill mrs c. Taking stock of participatory geographies: envisioning the communiversity. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 2008, 33(3), 292-99.
• Pain R, Smith S. Whose fear is it anyway? Resisting terror fear and fear for children. In: Pain,R; Smith,S, ed. Fear: Critical Geopolitics and Everyday Life. Ashgate, 2008.
• Pain R, Bailey C. British social and cultural geography: beyond turns and dualisms?. In: Kitchin,R; (ed), ed. Mapping worlds: international perspectives on social and cultural geographies. 2007.
• Kesby M, Kindon S, Pain R. Conclusion: the space(s) and scale(s) of participatory action research: constructing empowering geographies?. In: Kesby,M; Kindon,S; Pain,R, ed. Connecting People, Participation and Place: Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods. Routledge, 2007.
• Hopkins PE, Pain R. Geographies of age: Thinking relationally. Area 2007, 39(3), 287-294.
• Kindon S, Pain R, Kesby M. Introduction: connecting people, participation and place. In: Kindon,S; Pain,R; Kesby,M, ed. Connecting People, Participation and Place: Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods. Routledge, 2007.
• Kesby M, Kindon S, Pain R. Participation as a form of power: retheorising empowerment and spatialising participatory action research. In: Kesby,M; Kindon,S; Pain,R, ed. Connecting People, Participation and Place: Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods. Routledge, 2007.
• Kindon S, Pain R, Kesby M, ed. Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting People, Participation and Place. London: Routledge, 2007.
• Kindon S, Pain R, Kesby M. Participatory action research: origins, approaches and methods. In: Kindon,S; Pain,R; Kesby,M, ed. Connecting People, Participation and Place: Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods. Routledge, 2007.
• Alexander C, Beale N, Kesby M, McMillan J, Pain R, Ziegler F. Participatory diagramming. In: Kesby,M; Kindon,S; Pain,R, ed. Connecting People, Participation and Place: Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods. Routledge, 2007.
• Cahill C, Sultana F, Pain R. Participatory ethics: politics, practices, institutions. ACME: An International E-journal for Critical Geographies 2007, 6(3), 304-18.
• Pain R, Kindon S. Participatory geographies. Environment and Planning A 2007, 39(12), 2807-2812.
• Pain R. Paranoid parenting? Rematerializing risk and fear for children. Social and Cultural Geography 2006, 7(2), 221-243.
• Pain R. Social geography: seven deadly myths in policy research. Progress in Human Geography 2006, 30(2), 250-259.
• Pain R, MacFarlane R, Turner K. 'When, where, if, and but': qualifying GIS and the effect of streetlighting on crime and fear. Environment and Planning A 2006, 38(11), 2055-2074.
• Pain R, Grundy S, Gill S, Towner E, Sparks G, Hughes K. ‘So Long as I Take my Mobile’: Mobile Phones, Urban Life and Geographies of Young People's Safety. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 2005, 29(4), 814-830.
• Birnie J, Madge C, Pain R, Raghuram P, Rose G. Working a fraction and making a fraction work: a rough guide for geographers in the academy. Area 2005, 37(3), 251-259.
• Bailey C, Pain RH, Aarvold JE. A 'give it a go' breast-feeding culture and early cessation among low-income mothers. MIDWIFERY 2004, 20(3), 240-250.
• Pain R, Bailey C. British social and cultural geography: beyond turns and dualisms?. Social and Cultural Geography 2004, 5(2), 319-329.
• Pain R. Introduction: children at risk?. Children's Geographies 2004, 2(1), 65-67.
• Pain R, Francis P. Living with crime: spaces of risk for homeless young people. Children's Geographies 2004, 2(1), 95-110.
• Pain R. Social geography: participatory research. Progress in Human Geography 2004, 28(5), 652-663.
• Pain R. Old age and Victimisation. In: Davies,P; Francis,P; Jupp,V; (eds), ed. Victimisation: Theory, Research and Politics. London: Macmillan, 2003.
• Pain R, Francis P. Reflections on participatory research. Area 2003, 35(1), 46-54.
• Pain R. Social geography: on action-orientated research. Progress in Human Geography 2003, 27(5), 649-657.
• Shirlow P, Pain R. The geographies and politics of fear. Capital and Class 2003, 60, 15-26.
• Pain R. Youth, age and the representation of fear. Capital and Class 2003, 60, 151-171.
• Pain R, Townshend T. A safer city centre for all? Senses of 'community safety' in Newcastle upon Tyne. Geoforum 2002, 33(1), 105-119.
• Pain R. Gender, race, age and fear in the city. Urban Studies 2002, 38(5-6), 899-913.
• Pain R, Gill S. Where can children turn?. Criminal Justice Matters 2002, 50, 16-17.
• Pain R. Writing essays and related assignments. In: Rogers,J et al, ed. he student's companion to geography. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002.
• Bailey C, Pain R. Geographies of infant feeding and access to primary health care. Health and Social Care in the Community 2001, 9(5), 309-317.
• Pain R, Bailey C, Mowl G. Infant feeding in North East England: contested spaces of reproduction. AREA 2001, 33(3), 261-272.
• Pain R, Barke M, Gough J, Fuller D, MacFarlane R, Mowl G. Introducing Social Geographies. London: Arnold, 2001.
• Townshend T, Pain R. Community safety in the city centre. Town and Country Planning 2000, 69(4), 120-1.
• Pain R, Mowl G, Talbot C. Difference and the negotiation of 'old age'. ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING D-SOCIETY & SPACE 2000, 18(3), 377-393.
• Pain R. Place, social relations and the fear of crime: a review. Progress in Human Geography 2000, 24(3), 365-387.
• Koskela H, Pain R. Revisiting fear and place: women's fear of attack and the built environment. GEOFORUM 2000, 31(2), 269-280.
• Mowl G, Pain R, Talbot C. The ageing body and the homespace. AREA 2000, 32(2), 189-197.
• Bailey C, White C, Pain R. Evaluating qualitative research: dealing with the tension between 'science' and 'creativity'. AREA 1999, 31(2), 169-178.
• Pain R. Women’s experiences of violence over the lifecourse. In: Teather, E, ed. Embodied geographies. Routledge, 1999.
• Pain R. ‘Old age’ and ageism in urban research: the case of fear of crime. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 1997, 21(1), 117-28.
• Pain R. Social geographies of women’s fear of crime. Social Geographies of Women's Fear of Crime 1997, 22(2), 231-244.
• Pain RH. Social geographies of women’s fear of crime. Social Geographies of Women's Fear of Crime 1997, 22(2), 231-244.
• Pain RH. Whither women’s fear? Perceptions of sexual violence in public and private space. International Review of Victimology 1997, 4(4).
• Pain R, Mowl G. Improving geography essay writing using innovative assessment. JOURNAL OF GEOGRAPHY IN HIGHER EDUCATION 1996, 20(1), 19-31.
• Pain RH. Elderly women and fear of violent crime: the least likely victims?. British Journal of Crimonology 1995, 35(4), 584-598.
• Pain R. Local contexts and the fear of crime: elderly people in north east England. Northern Economic Review 1995, 24, 96-111.
• Mowl G, Pain R. Using self and peer assessment to improve students' essay writing: A case study from geography. INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATION AND TRAINING INTERNATIONAL 1995, 32(4), 324-335.
• Pain R. Women's fear of sexual violence: explaining the spatial paradox. In: Jones,H, ed. Crime and the Environment: the Scottish Experience. Aldershot:Avebury, 1993.
• Pain R. Space, sexual violence and social control: integrating geographical and feminist analyses of women's fear of crime. Progress in Human Geography 1991, 15(4).