(pg) Paul Simpson

Dr (pg) Paul Simpson

Job title: Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (Faculty of Science and Technology)
Address: Room 113, 8 Kirkby Place, Drake Circus,
Plymouth, Devon, PL4 8AA
Telephone: +441752584977
Email: paul.simpson@postgrad.plymouth.ac.uk

Role

Stage 1 Tutor

Qualifications & background

2010 - present: Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Plymouth

2010-2011: Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, University of Plymouth

2009-2010: Lecturer in Human Geography, Keele University

2010: PhD Human Geography, University of Bristol

2006: MSc Society and Space (distinction), University of Bristol

2005: MA Geography (1st class), University of Glasgow

Professional membership

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers

Member of the RGS History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group Committee 2010-2011.

Membership secretary of the RGS History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group Committee 2011-present.

Teaching interests
My teaching interests broadly lie in the areas of:

Social and Cultural Geography

Everyday life and public space

Music, practice, and performance

Qualitative methods

I currently teach on the following modules at Plymouth:

GGX100 Tutorial and Key Skills in Geography (combined honours) (Module Leader)

GGX1101 Tutorials and Key Skills in Geography (Module Leader)

GGX1102 Fieldwork - Bath

GGH1103 Practising Geography: the Human Environment (Module Leader)

GGH1105 Introducing Human Geography: Globalisation, Population and Development

EOE2224 Research Skills and Personal Development

GGX2106 Geographical Research: Principles and Practise

GGX3101 Dissertation in Geography

GGX3156 Advanced Work-based Learning in Geography

GGH3141 Urban Geography

EAR5101 Research Methods/MSc in Sustainable Environmental Management Dissertation

Research interests

My broad research interests relate to the study of the social and cultural geographies of artistic and everyday practices and the use of urban public spaces. I am particularly interested in developing understandings of the experiential aspects of this and how the use of space intersects with its layout and design. In doing so I draw on experimental ethnographic and visual methods and develop insights from post-structural and (post)phenomenological philosophy, particularly through an engagement with the works of Jean-Luc Nancy, Henri Lefebvre, Gilles Deleuze, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Edmund Husserl.

In addition to publishing material from my PhD research, Iam currently working on three main research projects related to these themes:

1) 2011 - 2012: 'The Perception of the Cycling Environment: Infrastructures, Atmospheres, and the Experience of Sustainable Cycling'. Funded by the RGS-IBG Small Grant scheme (£2889):

Taking Plymouth as a case study, and drawing on interviews with key stakeholders in cycling planning and advocacy, the analysis of recent cycling policy and provision, and video-interviews with cyclists, this research seeks to develop understandings of cycling behaviour in two key ways. Firstly, much of the study of cycling, and particularly that related to the evaluation of policy provision, has been quantitative in nature. As such, this research takes a qualitative approach in studying cycling and the provisions made for it by examining the interrelation of cyclists and the planned environments they move through at an experiential level. Secondly, drawing on recent work related to non-representational theory and discussions of embodied practices, this research expands upon the small amount of existing research which has begun to examine the more general experience of cycling by focusing on the affective elements of this interrelation. As such, the research draws attention to the significance of the various atmospheres (both meteorological and felt) experienced by cyclists in their moving through the planned urban environment to the uptake of this practice.

2) 2010 – 2014: ‘Sensory Enigmas of Contemporary Urban Mobilities’ Funded by L’Agence nationale de la recherché (French National Research Agency)(€210,000):

This research seeks to examine the ambiences and atmospheres produced in and through practices of travel in the context of key mobile sites.Taking St Pancras and Gare du Nord as case studies, the project will examine the interrelation of security practices and surveillance, social interactions and embodied performances, and the general spatio-temporal patterning of these sites, and how in combination they produce a specific experience of travel. The project is international and interdisciplinary in scope, bringing together academics from geography, urban studies, architecture and sociology based in the UK, France, Brazil and Venezuela. Further, in addition to traditional academic outputs, the material produced through the project fieldwork will be developed into an artistic exhibition.

3) Spatialities of the subject

Emerging out of aspects of my PhD research, I am working on the development of understandings of the spatial logics inherent in many recent critical discussions of the subject/subjectivity. As part of this, I am currently in the process of developing a book proposal that will entail an engagement with a range of phenomenological work that addresses this topic.This is provisionally titled 'Postphenomenological Geographies: Ambience, Appearance, and the Spatiality of Co-existence' and will discuss the spatial logics inherent in the conceptions of subjectivity presented in the writings of Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Emmanuel Levinas, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jean-Luc Marion, and Michel Henry.

UoP Research group membership

Centre for Research in Environment and Society (CeRES)
Environment, Society and Governance

Grants & contracts

2011-2012: ‘The Perception of the Cycling Environment: Infrastructures, Atmospheres, and the Experience of Sustainable Cycling’. Funded by the RGS-IBG Small Grant scheme (£2889)

2010 - 2014: Member of ‘Sensory Enigmas of Contemporary Urban Mobilities’ research network. Funded by L'Agence nationale de la recherché (French National Research Agency). Led by colleagues at ‘CRESSON’ (University of Grenoble) and in collaboration with ‘Emerging Securities’ (Keele University) and other international partners (€210,000)

Publications

Simpson, P. (Forthcoming) 'Apprehending everyday rhythms: Rhythmanalysis, time-lapse photography, and the space-times of street performance’. Cultural Geographies.

Simpson, P. (2011) 'Street Performance and the City: Public Space, Sociality, and Intervening in the Everyday'. Space and Culture, 14(4) pp. 415-430. DOI: 10.1177/1206331211412270.

Simpson, P. (2011) ‘So, as you can see…’: some reflections on the utility video methodologies in the study of embodied practices’. Area, 43(3) pp. 343-352. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2011.00998.x

Abrahamsson, S. & Simpson, P. (2011) The limits of the body: boundaries, capacities, thresholds. Social and Cultural Geography, 12:4: pp.331-338. DOI: 10.1080/14649365.2011.579696.

Simpson, P. (2009) ‘Falling on Deaf Ears: a post-phenomenology of sonorous presence’. Environment and Planning A, 41:11 pp. 2556-2575. DOI: 10.1068/a41247.

Simpson, P. (2008) ‘Chronic Everyday Life: Rhythmanalysing Street Performance’. Social and Cultural Geography, 9:7 pp. 807-829. DOI: 10.1080/14649360802382578.

Reports & invited lectures

Invited Seminars

2011 'Materiality, Sociality and the Embodied Experience of (street) Performing'. Presented at the School of Geography, University of Exeter (1st December).

2011 'Ecologies of Performance'. Presented at the Technological Natures Research Cluster at the School of Geography, University of Oxford (21st November).

2010 ‘Theatre without separation: the presencing of self and other’. Presented at the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance, The Open University (3^rd March). Podcast available at: http://www.open.ac.uk/ccig/media/paul-simpson-talk

Conference Papers

2011 ‘'So, as you can see...' Some reflections on the utility of video methodologies in the study of embodied practices'. Presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2011, London (31-2nd September), in the session ‘Sensory video and the embodied spaces of film and video’.

2011 'What remains of the intersubjective?: on the presencing of self and other'. Presented at the IVth Nordic Geographers Meeting, Roskilde (24-27th May), in the track 'Human Remains: the place of the human in a post-human world'.

2010 ‘Legislating street performance: responses to the street music problem in Victorian London’. Presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2010, London (1-3^rd September), in the session ‘Urban Subversions: Conceptualising alternative urban pastimes in the modern World City’.

2010 ‘On seeking stability in the street: Street performing and territoriality’. Presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2010, London (1-3^rdSeptember), in the session ‘Living on the Move: Finding and Maintaining Stability Through Movement’.

2010 ‘The spatiality of performance: materiality, affect, and the embodied experience of street performing’. Presented at the AAG Annual Conference 2010, Washington DC (14-18^th April), in the session ‘Embodied methodologies: using the body as a research instrument’.

2009 ‘The affection of the object: a post-phenomenology of a glance and becoming aware’. Presented at ‘Visuality/Materiality: Reviewing Theory, Method and Practice’, The Royal Institute for British Architects, London, (9-11^th July).

2009 ‘Theatre without separation: or, on saying “I love you” to a street performer’. Presented at ‘Living Landscapes: An International Conference on performance, landscape, and environment’, Aberystwyth University, (June 18-21^st), in the panel ‘Landscapes of Encounter’.

2009 ‘Theatre without separation: or, on saying ‘I love you’ to a street performer’. Presented at the AAG Annual Conference 2009, Las Vegas (22-27^th March), in the session ‘The Limits of the Body’.

2009 (co-written with Sebastian Abrahamsson) ‘Introducing the Limits of the Body’. Presented at the AAG Annual Conference 2009, Las Vegas (22-27^th March), in the session ‘The Limits of the Body’

2008 ‘The affection of the object: a post-phenomenology of a glance and becoming aware’. Presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2008, London (26-29^th August), in the session ‘Non-representational Geographies: implications’.

2008 ‘“Falling on Deaf Ears”: A post-phenomenology of sonorous presence’. Presented at the AAG Annual Conference 2008, Boston (15-19^th April), in the session ‘Non-representational Geographies: Performances’.

2007 ‘Chronic Everyday Life: Rhythmanalysing Street Performance’ Presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2007, London (29-31^st August), in the session ‘Lively non-human temporalities’.

2007 ‘Towards an Ecology of Street Performance’. Presented at the Wessex Postgraduate Consortium Meeting, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Park (16-18^th April).

2007 ‘Doing Lefebvre’s Rhythmanalysis in Covent Garden, London. Presented at ‘Doing Theory’, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol (16^th February).

2006 '"And then you get a microphone in the teeth": Conflict and Creativity in the Performance of Blues Music in Glasgow'. Presented at 'Creativity: the word, the concept, and practice', School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol (3rd February).

Conferences organised

Conference Sessions Convened

(Co-organized with JD Dewsbury, University of Bristol) ‘Performative Imaginations, Cultural Formations and Political Subjectivities’ paper session at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2011, London (31^st August-2^nd September).

(Co-organized with Sebastian Abrahamsson, University of Oxford) ‘The Limits of the Body’ double paper session at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, 22-27^th March 2009.

Links

My blog:

http://psimpsongeography.wordpress.com/