![Dr Nina Williams](https://api.research.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/images/profile/20190305adfa3443372_7540%20Dr%20WILLIAMS%2C%20Nina_0.jpg)
Dr Nina Williams
I am a cultural geographer in the School of Science at Canberra.
My research explores conceptual innovations in the fields of nonrepresentational theory, process philosophy, speculative thinking and post-humanism. In an effort to bring theory into close relationship with practice, a central pursuit of my research is to foreground the role of aesthetics and creative processes as unique means for understanding cultural and ecological change.
My current research project ‘Theorising Biodesign: ethics, values, techniques’ (funded with a Seed Funding award) explores biodesign initiatives in the fields of textiles and architecture (see ; ; ). The project has involved occupying a Visiting Researcher role at the Design and Living Systems Lab at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. I have alsoundertaken research visits as part of this project to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; Co-Labs in Melbourne; École Nationale Supérieurede Création Industrielle in Paris; and Open Cell in London.The key questions guiding this research project are: what kinds of assemblages make up this form of design? How are the traditional durations of design disrupted by bioinspired or bioengineered techniques? What is implied by the ethos of collaborating or co-producing with nature in biodesign discourses? How do practitioners transition from the speculative to manufactured stages of design? Whatrole do regenerative designs play in the contexts of circular economies and ecological crises?
More broadly my research is concerned with two central themes:
1. To amplify how distinct forms of evaluation and problematisation emerge as part of creative practices. For example, drawing on the philosophy of Henri Bergson, I have theorised creativity as a process that disrupts individual ingenuity and human durations (see ; ). After Félix Guattari,I have challenged the idea that the political potential of art is limited to representational intentions (see discussion of Keiichi Tahara's portrait collection 1978-1987 in) and subjects (see discussion of Nathalie Sarraute'sTropisms).I have sought to re-conceptualisestyle, after Gilles Deleuze, Anne Sauvagnargues and Sonia Delaunay, understanding it as a transformative practice rather than as a fixed category (see ).Also drawing on the philosophy of Deleuze, I have discussed how creative and arts-based geographic research can serve as a site of geographic critique (see). I have also situated this theme of my research in the context of fashion and style, where the introduction to a special issue I co-organised with Dr Merle Patchett (Bristol University) sought to draw out globally-orientated and decentered approaches to the study of fashion and consider the microsocial problematics and potentials of fashion practices (see 2022).
2. To develop experimental, qualitative research as generative practico-theoretical events. I have designed experimental methodologies in the contexts of art and curation, walking and mapmaking, and sonic geographies. Through this aspect of my research, I have pursued an interest in disseminating research beyond the academy,having co-organised andsecured funding forcommunity and arts-based workshops and exhibitions. My PhD thesis 'An Aesthetic Gait: research in the minor registers of creativity and walking' (completed at the University of Bristol and funded through the Economic and Social Research Council, UK) involved walking interviews in rural landscapes, public workshops on urban field-recording, and immersive engagements with walking art.Ihave also developed Masters level and citizen-led workshops on listening to urban environments via audio recording devices (see ); I have utilised the post-card as a form of mapping (see; ); and I have curated exhibitions and creative workshops to engage the public in thinking about documenting cities (see ; discussed in ). With collaborators inBristol, Canberra, and Linköping, I have addressed how post-humanist theoretical interventions reframe methodological practices and expectations in the humanities and social sciences (see ).
I obtained a BA (hons) in Geography at the University of Manchesterin 2011;anMSc in Human Geography: Society and Spaceat the University of Bristol in 2012; and aPhD in Human Geography at the University of Bristolin 2017. Before commencing my current role at Canberra in 2019,I workedas a Research Associate in Urban Livingin the department of Civil Engineeringat the University of Bristoland as a Lecturerin Human Geography in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
My Research Supervision
Tara Elisabeth Jeyasingh'Lives, Lines and Lights: problematising geographic thinking with Deleuze and Guattari and Glissant'
Sabrina Shanto-'Harassment and the Emotional Geographies of Fear on Public Transport in Dhaka'
Christian Sirois -'The Yassification of the Balkans: Media, Perception, and Power '
My Teaching
Current:
ZPEM2213 The Art and Science of Doing Geography
ZPEM2211 Special Topic in Geography: the social science of ecological crises
ZPEM1202 Geography 1B: understandingenvironments
Previous:
ZPEM2207 Social Geography
ZPEM4205 Human Geography Honours Special Topic
ZPEM4002 ZPEM4004 ScienceHonours Research