Progressive Geographies

At his ever interesting Informed Comment, Juan Cole discusses the new project Out of Sight, Out of Mind.

The project, Out of Sight, Out of Mind, aims to capture the scale and human cost of the drone war in Pakistan through its visual representation of the CIA’s covert Pakistan drone war from the first event in 2004 to the latest strike.

Wesley Grubbs, who leads the team at Pitch Interactive, told the Bureau that the team set out ‘to cause people to pause for a moment and say “Wow I’ve never seen this in that light before”.’

The visualisation uses an average of the casualty data collected by the Bureau’s Covert Drone War project, combined with data collected by New America Foundation which tallies the number of high value targets reported killed in the strikes.

Do go to the project site – it plays as a short animation of the results and then becomes interactive for details and sources.

As part of my move to Warwick, two PhD studentships are available to work with me and colleagues in the broad area of Political Spaces. Closing date is end of May 2013. Full details here, but below are the headlines – please spread the word.

The Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick is pleased to announce a competition for two PhD studentships in the broad area of Political Spaces. These department-funded scholarships are aimed at candidates starting their PhD in PAIS in 2013, or possibly 2014.

The successful candidates should have an interest in questions around political spaces, including topics relating to borders, territory, security, sovereignty, sanctuary, migration, mobility, urban politics, biopolitics, geopolitics, globalisation and nationalism. Projects utilising approaches from poststructuralist political thought are particularly welcome.

This doctoral research will form part of PAIS’s programme to consolidate the study of political spaces, which is a growing research area in the department and across the University more broadly. The successful candidate will be supervised by Professor Stuart Elden, who is joining the department in September 2013, and another member of staff in PAIS. In addition to pursuing their own doctoral research, the holder of the Fellowship will be expected under Prof Elden’s direction to form part of a research team and provide assistance in a range of activities to promote research on political spaces.

Because women are under-represented in this field, female candidates in particular are encouraged to apply.

The scholarship includes for the payment of full academic fees and a maintenance grant in line with the UK Research Council standard stipend for three years.

Successful candidates may be asked in consultation with their supervisors to undertake up to 100 hours of assistance in a year within the PAIS department. This assistance may take the form of research assistance, undergraduate teaching, or administrative duties.

The fellowships will be highly competitive and are open to Home/EU and Overseas students. In addition to meeting standard PAIS PhD entry criteria, successful candidates should:

Have obtained at least an upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) from a recognised institution of higher education before 31 July 2012.

Note that possession of MA in a relevant discipline would also be an advantage.

Note that some pre-existing knowledge of geopolitics or political geography would be an advantage.