The University of Sheffield
Department of Geography

Dr Pat Noxolo

Lecturer in Human Geography

Pat Noxolo Room number: F19
Telephone (internal): 27983
Telephone (UK): 0114 222 7983
Telephone (International): +44 114 222 7983
Email: P.Noxolo@Sheffield.ac.uk

Since receiving her PhD from Nottingham Trent University, Pat Noxolo has held research posts at Birmingham University and at Leicester University, and lectureships at Coventry University and at Loughborough University. She joined Sheffield as a temporary lecturer in 2009 and became a permanent member of staff in 2010.

Research interests

My research covers three broad areas – development geography, postcolonial geographies and geographies of security and insecurity.

Current research

All my work is underpinned by a version of postcolonial theory that I have been developing through a range of publications and research projects, which focuses on political and cultural responses to traumatic and catastrophic change. Historically-informed, it begins with colonial conquest and slavery, but also looks at the legacies of these in responses to rapid environmental change, impoverishment and displacement, as well as insecurity and conflict. My most recent research examines the ways in which the resources required to live through these historical and contemporary shocks are often packaged and reproduced within established socio-cultural practices, such as media texts, dance and literature, with a focus on the transnational practices of the Caribbean diaspora.

My work on intergovernmental and popular development practices maintains a globalised perspective on everyday forms of responsibility in relation to inequality. It examines development volunteering as a form of transnational professional practice, and explores the changing ways in which the British government frames its postcolonial responsibilities in an increasingly interconnected world.

Finally, my work in the growing field of security and insecurity uses broadly Foucauldian notions of securitisation to explore the ways in which everyday interactions and negotiations – from the contents and consumption of media texts, to the interactions and discursive moves that reproduce non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as a professional field - both maintain high levels of insecurity, but also challenge and negotiate the boundaries between security and insecurity.

I welcome applications from potential postgraduate research students in areas related to those described above.

Teaching

I currently teach at both Masters and Undergraduate level, in my research areas of cultural/postcolonial geographies, development geographies, and geographies of (in)security. At undergraduate level I teach on a range of level one and two courses, as well as a level three course that aims to examine the ways in which the increasingly global presence of media is changing our relationships with space and place. At postgraduate level I focus on research methods and making sure students are supported as they work towards dissertation research in a range of overseas contexts.

In all of my teaching I aim to support and challenge students to engage with cultural and geographical theory, in order to think more deeply and more critically about their own place in a highly unequal world. In particular, my teaching pushes students to think about identity and difference, and in particular to find ways to appreciate the value of multiple perspectives on place and space.

Pat teaches on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses including:

GEO112 Introducing Social and Cultural Geographies
GEO151 Qualitative Methods in Human Geography
GEO217 Environment, Society and Policy
GEO221 Geographies of Development
GEO336 Development and Global Change
GEO374 Mediated Geographies

GEO6801 Ideas and Practice in International Development
GEO6802 Research Design and Methods for Development
GEO6803 Professional Skills for Development
GEO6805 Dissertation with Placement

All staff also engage in personal supervision and tutoring of individual students at all three undergraduate levels in the following modules:
GEO163 (Information & Communication Skills for Geographers)
GEO263 or GEO264 (Research Design in Human or Physical Geography)
GEO356 (Geographical Research Project)

Key Publications