Background

Stephen Graham is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Durham and Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Cities and Regions (http://www.dur.ac.uk/cscr/) He is also Associate Director of the International Boundaries Research Unit (http://www.dur.ac.uk/ibru/).

Over the last fifteen years Professor Graham's research has sought to understand the relations between urban places and mobility, infrastructure and technology on the one hand, and war, surveillance and geopolitics on the other. In particular, his recent work has explored the ‘splintering’ of urban spaces and infrastructures, mobilities and cities; the implications of new media technologies for urban life; and the proliferation of urban surveillance systems which are increasingly automated through computer software.

Emerging work is addressing the connections between cities and critical geopolitics. Themes here include: how global urbanisation is affecting military doctrine; how the ‘war on terror’ impacts on cities; the ways in which infrastructures are targeted by political violence; and how the 'surge' of surveillance since 9/11 is impacting on urban life.

Professor Graham’s books include 'Managing Cities' (co-edited, 1995), Telecommunications and the City' (1996), 'Splintering Urbanism' (2001)(both with Simon Marvin), 'The Cybercities Reader' (2004) and 'Cities, War and Terrorism' (2004). His next book, Cities Under Siege, explores the links between urbanism and militarisation in the post-Cold War world.

Professor Graham has acted as a consultant to the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, acted on two international urban development juries, and, with a range of colleagues, has won research awards from the ESRC, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the British Academy, and the United Nations. Professor Graham has also acted on the Editorial Boards of a wide range of international peer-reviewed journals and three book series. He is a founding co-editor of the peer-reviewed web journal ‘Surveillance and Society’ (insert web link http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/) and founding co-Director of the Surveillance Studies Network. Between 2003 and 2005 he is a British Academy Reader undertaking a research project exploring how software code automatically sorts people’s life chances in the UK.

Professor Graham holds a degree in Geography (Southampton, 1986), an M. Phil. In Urban Planning (Newcastle, 1989), and a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Policy (Manchester, 1995). Between 1989 and 2002 he worked in planning and economic development at Sheffield City Council.

From 1992 to Spring, 2004, he was a planning academic in Newcastle University, initially as a lecturer and later as a Reader, then Professor, of Urban Technology. Whilst at Newcastle he co-founded the Centre for Urban Technology (CUT 1994 - 2002), a major interdisciplinary centre exploring the intersections of mobility, technology and urban life.

In 1999 - 2000 he was a Visiting Professor at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has also held Visiting Professorships at Salford University’s Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures (2003 - 2004) (http://www.surf.salford.ac.uk/) and Newcastle University’s Global Urban Research Unit (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/guru/home.htm).

Download Stephen Graham’s CV and Full List of Publications (Word file)