Covid surfaces. Public walls in lockdown London (1)

Highbury/ Stoke Newington / Dalston / Brick Lane Leave it to city surfaces to tell the stories of our times, even during lockdown. This is an ever-so-limited perspective of a city that seems far and is dearly missed, but remains accessible in a compressed, guarded, hyperlocal iteration. First block of photos is from seven weeks …

Strike teach-out: Greek Academic Asylum Law

I did a talk on the Greek Academic Asylum Law as part of the Bartlett picket line teach-outs on 10 March 2020. The teach-outs have been taking place during the most recent national UCU "four fights" strike, which concerns workloads, casualisation, pensions and pay inequalities. The Academic Asylum Law in Greece was introduced in 1982 …

I adore my work, yet I consider quitting every day: this is teaching

I wrote this text to reflect on my workload in Higher Education, seven weeks into Term 1 of 2019-20. I hope friends in similar situations add their voice, while friends in better situations and students become fully aware of the following example (here, mine). If nothing more, getting this down on paper was a meaningful …

Mended Matter and Layered Politics: Talk at Nuart Aberdeen 2019

I am taking part in the Nuart festival of public art in Aberdeen between 18-21 April 2019. My talk is part of the Nuart Plus series that complements the artworks produced during the festival. The title is "Mended Matter and Layered Politics – The Challenges of Researching Urban Surfaces" - and the content will cover …

Venice surface semiotics paper at CityStreet3 conference in Beirut, Lebanon

I am taking part in the CityStreet3 conference in Beirut between 31 October - 3 November 2018, with a paper on Venetian surface semiotics. The paper is entitled "This way to San Marco: A semiotic examination of vernacular signage in Venice" and will be presented as part of a conference track on communication, visualisation and …

Selling streetness as experience: Article on open access with the Sociological Review

"Selling streetness as experience: the role of street art tours in branding the creative city" is now free to access on the Sociological Review Journal website. Particularly relevant for anyone interested in Bourdieu, Becker and the sociology of art, and also in how the street art world becomes established as a part of the creative …

Urban Walls book is out with Routledge

  Urban Walls: Political and Cultural Meanings of Vertical Structures and Surfaces is out now with Routledge. The volume is edited by Andrea Mubi Brighenti and Mattias Kärrholm and contains an essay I wrote, alongside many brilliant contributions by scholars I so deeply admire!  Mubi Brighenti's first edited volume on walls, The Wall and the City, …

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