Shillington, Laura
Instructor
Biography
I recently completed my Ph.D. in Geography (Fall 2007) from York University and just completed a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Instituto de Geografía at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. My research focuses on the everyday political ecologies; more specifically, the urban political ecologies of homes in cities of the Global South. My doctoral research examined informal settlements and the everyday environmental challenges of households in Managua, Nicaragua. I looked at how different ideas and discourses of sustainability materialized (and were challenged and altered) in these homes, and how these emerged in the larger urban landscape. My current research examines the political ecologies of sewage and water in homes in Managua, Nicaragua and Mexico City. I am interested in examining the relationship between urban and rural homes and the environmental challenges and politics of water, and sewage.
I have taught undergraduate courses at York University for over 5 years, including courses on political ecology and gender, environment and development.
Research Interests
- Urban political ecology
- Everyday political ecologies
- Urban-Rural Sustainability issues
- Geographies of home
- Political ecologies of water and sewage
2009-2010 Courses
- ENST 1001 Envisioning Earth’s Environments
- ENST 2000 Nature and Environment
- GEOG 3000 Honours Field Course
- GEOG 4023 Seminar in Sustainable Urban Environments
- GEOG 5905 Masters Research Workshop
Recent Publications
Shillington, L. (forthcoming) El derecho a la ciudad y la producción socio-ecológica del espacio en la Ciudad de México, in A.G. Aguilar and I. Escamilla Herrera (eds) Procesos Metropolitanos y Grandes Ciudades (Sep. 2009), UNAM, Mexico City.
Shillington, L. (2008) Complex Ecologies and Cityspaces: Social-ecological Networks of UrbanAgriculture, Managua, Nicaragua, in M. Redwood (ed) Agriculture in Urban Planning: Generating Livelihoods and Food Security. Earthscan and International Development Research Council (IDRC),Ottawa, ON.
Shillington, L. (2008) Being(s) in relation at Home: Corporealities, Aesthetics, and Socialnatures in Managua, Nicaragua. Social and Cultural Geography 9(7).
Articles in Review
Shillington, L. (in review) The ‘Everyday’ Life of Water: Political Ecologies of Home in Managua, Nicaragua. Submitted to International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.
Shillington, L. (in review) Right to Food, Right to the City: Household Urban Agriculture, the Social-Ecological Production of Urban Space in Managua, Nicaragua. Submitted to as part of special edited edition Geoforum.
Shillington, L. (in review) (Re)Possessing the Commons: Genealogies, Socio-natures and Conservation in Solomon Islands. Submitted to Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography.
Articles in Progress
Shillington, L. (in progress) The Politics of ‘Tracing’ Socio-ecological Networks of Everyday, Mundane Spaces. To be submitted to Gender Place and Culture