Angela Last
Biographic Data
| ID | 197370 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Angela Last |
| GIVEN NAMES | Angela |
| FAMILY NAME | Last |
| SIGNATURE | LAST A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leicester |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4272-3114 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 151 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Whose Geography, Whose History? Reimagining How We Teach the History of Geography
In this roundtable, we share our reflections on how to teach more critical histories of geography in Anglo-American institutions. Ashutosh offers a contrapuntal reading of the history of geography, looking for ways to represent both the forces of consolidation and resistance in telling the history of our discipline. Last considers how we might “re-expand” the history of the discipline through the teaching of countergeographies. Sundberg argues th…
Ecologies of theory
This commentary responds to the tensions and synergies highlighted by Williams et al. in ‘Black livingness and insurgent ecological politics: Thinking across Black geographies/Atlantics/ecologies’ by bringing their argument in dialogue with the work of Martinican theorist Suzanne Césaire. In particular, it addresses the tension between geographies of the Black Atlantic and Black geographies in relation to the reproduction of Whiteness. The dimens…
The ‘creative thesis’ in the academic ‘anxiety machine’
This article discusses the tension between economic and intellectual demands that play into the authoring of a ‘creative thesis’. At least since the ‘cultural turn’, human geographers have voiced support for creativity in research. Although ‘creative theses’ are often discussed in relation to artistry and innovation, the economic conditions in which such research is produced are less often in focus. At present, time and funding pressures are maki…
Trapdoors: Palestine solidarity and the authoritarian potential of invisible academic bureaucracies
In this intervention, we raise concerns about the latent authoritarian potential of academic bureaucracies to restrict or even prohibit spaces for critical exchange on highly politicized issues. We introduce the term “trapdoors” to describe how academic bureaucracies are able to silently limit free speech on controversial topics such as Palestine solidarity. Trapdoors are rules and regulations, such as fire safety measures, that normally do not i…
Economic Myth Making and the Anthropocene
Tischer, Jenni, and Eva Maria Stadler, eds. Abstraction & Economy: Myths of Growth. Edition Angewandte. Boston: DE GRUYTER, 2024
Anti‐racist learning and teaching in British geography
This special section illustrates how learning and teaching in UK higher education reinforces, but can potentially also help to counteract, racism. This introduction provides some context for this intervention and provides an outline of key themes that emerge from the collection of papers. We use these themes to sketch out three guiding principles for the incorporation of explicitly anti‐racist praxis in our learning and teaching within British Ge…
Global Social Theory: Building resources
There has been an intensification of student protests around the world addressing issues of racial exclusion and racialised hierarchy within the university, including its teaching and research practices. These movements point to urgent concerns about what and how we teach and research, and how the resources of universities might be used to support the amelioration of injustice rather than its reproduction. This short piece focuses on the curricul…
Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods
Open Space to Risk the Earth: The Nonhuman and Nonhistory
The file associated with this record is under embargo until 12 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above
Making Nature, Making Energy, Making Humans: Two Exhibitions at the Wellcome Trust
This article reviews the Wellcome Collection exhibitions ‘Making Nature: How We See Animals’ and ‘Electricity: The Spark of Life’. While the two exhibitions appear to have disparate topics—one exhibition speaks about our co-existence with animals, the other about energy futures—they speak to each other in thought-provoking ways around the questions: how are we human in these times, and what possible trajectories are available to us
Re-reading worldliness: Hannah Arendt and the question of matter
Both new and historical materialisms have attracted a reputation for leading to 'bad politics'. Historical materialisms have been accused of reducing too much to material relations and their production, whereas new materialisms have been accused of avoiding politics completely. This article reads the critique directed at materialisms against Hannah Arendt's exceptional distrust of matter. Focusing on her concept of 'worldliness', it grapples with…
We Are the World? Anthropocene Cultural Production between Geopoetics and Geopolitics
The proposal of the 'Anthropocene' as a new geological epoch where humans represent the dominant natural force has renewed artistic interest in the 'geopoetic', which is mobilized by cultural producers to incite changes in personal and collective participation in planetary life and politics. This article draws attention to prior engagements with the geophysical and the political: the work of Simone Weil and of the editors of the Martinican cultur…
Fruit of the cyclone: Undoing geopolitics through geopoetics
Who's the Pest? Imagining Human–Insect Futures Beyond Antagonism
Joining the effort to reimagine our relationships with insects, the Wellcome Collection's ‘Who's the Pest?’ programme attempts to challenge the stigma of insects as ill-disposed ‘bugs’. The article reviews two events in the series, the workshop ‘Insects au gratin’ and the debate ‘Insects vs. humans’, and places them in the context of recent engagements with ‘pests’ in the public realm
Negotiating the Inhuman: Bakhtin, Materiality and the Instrumentalization of Climate Change
The article argues that the work of literary theorist Mikhail M. Bakhtin presents a starting point for thinking about the instrumentalization of climate change. Bakhtin's conceptualization of human-world relationships, encapsulated in the concept of 'cosmic terror', places a strong focus on our perception of the 'inhuman'. Suggesting a link between the perceived alienness and instability of the world and in the exploitation of the resulting fear …
Experimental geographies
The proliferation of the term 'experimental' in human geography has given rise to the question of how geographers experiment. Given the range of different examples - from explorations of sensory methods to attempts at transforming the role of publics in decision-making - it becomes clear that one cannot talk about a unified experimental geographical approach. While projects share common themes such as challenging methodological limitations or wis…
Mutable Matter: Using Sensory Methods in Public Engagement with Nanotechnology
Mutable Matter is an experimental public engagement pilot program that seeks to enable non-scientists to explore and co-imagine the future of nanotechnology. Located at the intersection of geography, science communication and art practice, Mutable Matter is intended as a starting point for examining playful sensory engagement methods bridging tangible public and intangible scientific spaces. The project both challenges the role of non-scientists …
We Are the World? Anthropocene Cultural Production between Geopoetics and Geopolitics
The proposal of the 'Anthropocene' as a new geological epoch where humans represent the dominant natural force has renewed artistic interest in the 'geopoetic', which is mobilized by cultural producers to incite changes in personal and collective participation in planetary life and politics. This article draws attention to prior engagements with the geophysical and the political: the work of Simone Weil and of the editors of the Martinican cultur…
Experimental geographies
The proliferation of the term 'experimental' in human geography has given rise to the question of how geographers experiment. Given the range of different examples - from explorations of sensory methods to attempts at transforming the role of publics in decision-making - it becomes clear that one cannot talk about a unified experimental geographical approach. While projects share common themes such as challenging methodological limitations or wis…
Fruit of the cyclone: Undoing geopolitics through geopoetics
Re-reading worldliness: Hannah Arendt and the question of matter
Both new and historical materialisms have attracted a reputation for leading to 'bad politics'. Historical materialisms have been accused of reducing too much to material relations and their production, whereas new materialisms have been accused of avoiding politics completely. This article reads the critique directed at materialisms against Hannah Arendt's exceptional distrust of matter. Focusing on her concept of 'worldliness', it grapples with…
Anti‐racist learning and teaching in British geography
This special section illustrates how learning and teaching in UK higher education reinforces, but can potentially also help to counteract, racism. This introduction provides some context for this intervention and provides an outline of key themes that emerge from the collection of papers. We use these themes to sketch out three guiding principles for the incorporation of explicitly anti‐racist praxis in our learning and teaching within British Ge…
Negotiating the Inhuman: Bakhtin, Materiality and the Instrumentalization of Climate Change
The article argues that the work of literary theorist Mikhail M. Bakhtin presents a starting point for thinking about the instrumentalization of climate change. Bakhtin's conceptualization of human-world relationships, encapsulated in the concept of 'cosmic terror', places a strong focus on our perception of the 'inhuman'. Suggesting a link between the perceived alienness and instability of the world and in the exploitation of the resulting fear …
Global Social Theory: Building resources
There has been an intensification of student protests around the world addressing issues of racial exclusion and racialised hierarchy within the university, including its teaching and research practices. These movements point to urgent concerns about what and how we teach and research, and how the resources of universities might be used to support the amelioration of injustice rather than its reproduction. This short piece focuses on the curricul…
Mutable Matter: Using Sensory Methods in Public Engagement with Nanotechnology
Mutable Matter is an experimental public engagement pilot program that seeks to enable non-scientists to explore and co-imagine the future of nanotechnology. Located at the intersection of geography, science communication and art practice, Mutable Matter is intended as a starting point for examining playful sensory engagement methods bridging tangible public and intangible scientific spaces. The project both challenges the role of non-scientists …
Open Space to Risk the Earth: The Nonhuman and Nonhistory
The file associated with this record is under embargo until 12 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above
Trapdoors: Palestine solidarity and the authoritarian potential of invisible academic bureaucracies
In this intervention, we raise concerns about the latent authoritarian potential of academic bureaucracies to restrict or even prohibit spaces for critical exchange on highly politicized issues. We introduce the term “trapdoors” to describe how academic bureaucracies are able to silently limit free speech on controversial topics such as Palestine solidarity. Trapdoors are rules and regulations, such as fire safety measures, that normally do not i…
Who's the Pest? Imagining Human–Insect Futures Beyond Antagonism
Joining the effort to reimagine our relationships with insects, the Wellcome Collection's ‘Who's the Pest?’ programme attempts to challenge the stigma of insects as ill-disposed ‘bugs’. The article reviews two events in the series, the workshop ‘Insects au gratin’ and the debate ‘Insects vs. humans’, and places them in the context of recent engagements with ‘pests’ in the public realm
Experimental geographies
The proliferation of the term 'experimental' in human geography has given rise to the question of how geographers experiment. Given the range of different examples - from explorations of sensory methods to attempts at transforming the role of publics in decision-making - it becomes clear that one cannot talk about a unified experimental geographical approach. While projects share common themes such as challenging methodological limitations or wis…
Mutable Matter: Using Sensory Methods in Public Engagement with Nanotechnology
Mutable Matter is an experimental public engagement pilot program that seeks to enable non-scientists to explore and co-imagine the future of nanotechnology. Located at the intersection of geography, science communication and art practice, Mutable Matter is intended as a starting point for examining playful sensory engagement methods bridging tangible public and intangible scientific spaces. The project both challenges the role of non-scientists …
Who's the Pest? Imagining Human–Insect Futures Beyond Antagonism
Joining the effort to reimagine our relationships with insects, the Wellcome Collection's ‘Who's the Pest?’ programme attempts to challenge the stigma of insects as ill-disposed ‘bugs’. The article reviews two events in the series, the workshop ‘Insects au gratin’ and the debate ‘Insects vs. humans’, and places them in the context of recent engagements with ‘pests’ in the public realm
Negotiating the Inhuman: Bakhtin, Materiality and the Instrumentalization of Climate Change
The article argues that the work of literary theorist Mikhail M. Bakhtin presents a starting point for thinking about the instrumentalization of climate change. Bakhtin's conceptualization of human-world relationships, encapsulated in the concept of 'cosmic terror', places a strong focus on our perception of the 'inhuman'. Suggesting a link between the perceived alienness and instability of the world and in the exploitation of the resulting fear …
Fruit of the cyclone: Undoing geopolitics through geopoetics
Making Nature, Making Energy, Making Humans: Two Exhibitions at the Wellcome Trust
This article reviews the Wellcome Collection exhibitions ‘Making Nature: How We See Animals’ and ‘Electricity: The Spark of Life’. While the two exhibitions appear to have disparate topics—one exhibition speaks about our co-existence with animals, the other about energy futures—they speak to each other in thought-provoking ways around the questions: how are we human in these times, and what possible trajectories are available to us
Re-reading worldliness: Hannah Arendt and the question of matter
Both new and historical materialisms have attracted a reputation for leading to 'bad politics'. Historical materialisms have been accused of reducing too much to material relations and their production, whereas new materialisms have been accused of avoiding politics completely. This article reads the critique directed at materialisms against Hannah Arendt's exceptional distrust of matter. Focusing on her concept of 'worldliness', it grapples with…
We Are the World? Anthropocene Cultural Production between Geopoetics and Geopolitics
The proposal of the 'Anthropocene' as a new geological epoch where humans represent the dominant natural force has renewed artistic interest in the 'geopoetic', which is mobilized by cultural producers to incite changes in personal and collective participation in planetary life and politics. This article draws attention to prior engagements with the geophysical and the political: the work of Simone Weil and of the editors of the Martinican cultur…
Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods
Open Space to Risk the Earth: The Nonhuman and Nonhistory
The file associated with this record is under embargo until 12 months after publication, in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. The full text may be available through the publisher links provided above
Global Social Theory: Building resources
There has been an intensification of student protests around the world addressing issues of racial exclusion and racialised hierarchy within the university, including its teaching and research practices. These movements point to urgent concerns about what and how we teach and research, and how the resources of universities might be used to support the amelioration of injustice rather than its reproduction. This short piece focuses on the curricul…
Anti‐racist learning and teaching in British geography
This special section illustrates how learning and teaching in UK higher education reinforces, but can potentially also help to counteract, racism. This introduction provides some context for this intervention and provides an outline of key themes that emerge from the collection of papers. We use these themes to sketch out three guiding principles for the incorporation of explicitly anti‐racist praxis in our learning and teaching within British Ge…
Economic Myth Making and the Anthropocene
Tischer, Jenni, and Eva Maria Stadler, eds. Abstraction & Economy: Myths of Growth. Edition Angewandte. Boston: DE GRUYTER, 2024
Whose Geography, Whose History? Reimagining How We Teach the History of Geography
In this roundtable, we share our reflections on how to teach more critical histories of geography in Anglo-American institutions. Ashutosh offers a contrapuntal reading of the history of geography, looking for ways to represent both the forces of consolidation and resistance in telling the history of our discipline. Last considers how we might “re-expand” the history of the discipline through the teaching of countergeographies. Sundberg argues th…
Ecologies of theory
This commentary responds to the tensions and synergies highlighted by Williams et al. in ‘Black livingness and insurgent ecological politics: Thinking across Black geographies/Atlantics/ecologies’ by bringing their argument in dialogue with the work of Martinican theorist Suzanne Césaire. In particular, it addresses the tension between geographies of the Black Atlantic and Black geographies in relation to the reproduction of Whiteness. The dimens…
The ‘creative thesis’ in the academic ‘anxiety machine’
This article discusses the tension between economic and intellectual demands that play into the authoring of a ‘creative thesis’. At least since the ‘cultural turn’, human geographers have voiced support for creativity in research. Although ‘creative theses’ are often discussed in relation to artistry and innovation, the economic conditions in which such research is produced are less often in focus. At present, time and funding pressures are maki…
Trapdoors: Palestine solidarity and the authoritarian potential of invisible academic bureaucracies
In this intervention, we raise concerns about the latent authoritarian potential of academic bureaucracies to restrict or even prohibit spaces for critical exchange on highly politicized issues. We introduce the term “trapdoors” to describe how academic bureaucracies are able to silently limit free speech on controversial topics such as Palestine solidarity. Trapdoors are rules and regulations, such as fire safety measures, that normally do not i…
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (9 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works)