Current Postgraduate Students
Dr Paul Harrison
Contact Dr Paul Harrison (email at paul.harrison@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Paul’s broad research interests lie at the intersection of geography, philosophy and social and cultural theory. His work focuses on the development of specifically geographic engagements with phenomenology, post-structuralism and deconstruction, and, in particular, with the writings of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida. His recent research has been concerned with the incommunicable and the ‘non-relational’; with aspects of existence which exceed stable knowledge and representation and with understanding the implications of such 'aspects' for the constitution of knowledge, the nature of sociality and subjectivity and the performance of politics. In the context of contemporary geographic work his work has been associated with the development of 'non-representational theories' and has engaged with issues around performative, affectual and, most recently, relational geographies.
Paul’s current research has three main themes. Firstly, an on-going series of papers which explore the ‘radically passive’ or non-intentional nature of corporeal existence, (for example, vulnerability, susceptibility, suffering, lassitude and sleep), and which consider the existential, ethical and political significance of these aspects of being a body. Secondly, an examination of the act of bearing witness or giving testimony to traumatic or so-called ‘unspeakable’ events and, in particular, the singular nature of such acts, (in terms of, for example, structure, grammar, rhythm, timbre), and the problems which they consequently pose to the development of social scientific knowledge. Thirdly, and most recently, the beginnings of a project on thanato-geographies, or, the geographies of death and the dead, particularly with regard to memory, fidelity and sociality.
Paul joined the Geography Department in 2000. He completed his BA (hons) in Geography (1994) at the Department of Geography, University of Liverpool, and an MSc in Society and Space (1996) and PhD (2000) at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol.
Research Groups
Supervises
Selected Publications
Books: edited
- Anderson, B. & Harrison, P. (2010). Taking-Place. Non Representational Theories and Geography. London: Ashgate.
Books: sections
- Harrison, P. (2010). Testimony and the truth of the other. In Taking-Place. Non Representational Theories and Geography. Anderson, B. & Harrison, P. London: Ashgate. 161-179.
- Harrison, P. (2010). The broken thread: on being still. In Stillness in a Mobile World. Bissell, D. & Fuller, G. London: Routledge.
- Anderson, B. & Harrison, P. (2010). The Promise of Non-Representational Theories. In Taking-Place. Non Representationl Theories and Geography. Anderson, B. & Harrison, P. London: Ashgate. 1-34.
- Harrison, P. (2006). Poststructuralist Theories. In Approaches to Human Geography. Aitken, S. & Valentine, G. London: Sage. 122-133.
Journal papers: academic
- Harrison, P. (2009). In the absence of practice. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 27(6): 987-1009.
- Harrison, P. (2008). Corporeal remains: vulnerability, proximity, and living on after the end of the world. Environment and Planning A 40(2): 423-445.
- Harrison, P. (2007). 'How shall I say it.?' Relating the nonrelational. Environment and Planning A 39(3): 590-608.
- Harrison, P. (2007). The space between us: Opening remarks on the concept of dwelling. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25(4): 625-647.
- Anderson, B. & Harrison, P. (2006). Questioning Affect and Emotion. Area 38(3): 333-335.
- Dewsbury, J.D., Harrison, P., Rose, M. & Wylie, J. (2002). Enacting geographies. Geoforum 33(4): 437-440.
- Harrison, P. (2002). The Caesura: remarks on Wittgenstein's interruption of theory, or, why practices elude explanation. Geoforum 33(4): 487-503.
- Harrsion, P. (2000). Making Sense: embodiment and the sensibilities of the everyday. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 18: 497-517.
Journal papers: online
- Harrison, P. (2009). Remaining Still. M/C Journal 12(1).