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Staff Profile

Dr Robert Shaw

Reader in Geography

  • Email: robert.shaw2@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology,
    Henry Daysh Building
    Newcastle University,
    Newcastle upon Tyne,
    NE1 7RU
Background

Hello! My name is Rob and I'm an urban and social geographer interested in how cities are governed in relation to sensory and embodied experiences. I have been working at Newcastle since September 2015, having previously been at Durham University where I obtained my PhD in 2012. 


My current research focuses on a Leverhulme Trust-funded project called 'Urban Sensory Pollutants in Singapore and Johor Bahru' (2025-2028). Through research in Singapore and Johor Baru, this project opens a new interdisciplinary agenda crossing social and natural sciences to study urban sensory pollutants (eg light, noise, smell). In collaboration with my physical geography colleague Nick Cutler and an ecologist who we will hire as a Research Associate, we will analyse the impacts of urban sensory pollutants on humans and non-humans, establishing the harms of different pollutants and how they interact with each other. My interest in this project comes from the paradox in which the senses are problematic both when they are highly 'polluting' but also where there is sensory over-sanitization (that is, where cities become too dark, too quiet, etc). As such, I want the project also explores the politics of when and how sensory stimuli become labelled or not as ‘pollutants’.


My previous work has been centred on the sensory and the night, and my 2018 book,The Nocturnal City, was published by Routledge. I have carried out research exploring the night-time economy in the UK, changing artificial lighting technologies and the Nuit Debout protest movement in France. In addition, I have published conceptual work on the idea of 'atmospheres', as well as on ecosophical theories in geography, focusing on the work of Felix Guattari in particular.


I have shared my expertise with media such as BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed, the North-West Evening Mail, The Conversation, and even in stand-up comedy form at the Newcastle Bright Club.


 Google scholar: Click here.

Research

Summary

Potential PhD student? Then please get in touch if you're interested in any projects on the night, time and society, affect/non-representational theory and public space, social theory in geography....


My current research focuses on a Leverhulme Trust-funded project called 'Urban Sensory Pollutants in Singapore and Johor Bahru' (2025-2028). Through research in Singapore and Johor Baru, this project opens a new interdisciplinary agenda crossing social and natural sciences to study urban sensory pollutants (eg light, noise, smell). In collaboration with my physical geography colleague Nick Cutler and an ecologist who we will hire as a Research Associate, we will analyse the impacts of urban sensory pollutants on humans and non-humans, establishing the harms of different pollutants and how they interact with each other. My interest in this project comes from the paradox in which the senses are problematic both when they are highly 'polluting' but also where there is sensory over-sanitization (that is, where cities become too dark, too quiet, etc). As such, I want the project also explores the politics of when and how sensory stimuli become labelled or not as ‘pollutants’.


My previous work has been centred on the sensory and the night, and my 2018 book,The Nocturnal City, was published by Routledge. I have carried out research exploring the night-time economy in the UK, changing artificial lighting technologies and the Nuit Debout protest movement in France. In addition, I have published conceptual work on the idea of 'atmospheres', as well as on ecosophical theories in geography, focusing on the work of Felix Guattari in particular.

Publications