Alistair Fraser

Biography

I graduated from The Ohio State University in 2006 with a PhD in Geography, based on research regarding land reform which I conducted in northern Limpopo province, South Africa. I held a Post-Doc position in UCD, Ireland between 2006-07 before starting to lecture in Geography in Maynooth in September 2007. My contract was made permanent in 2012. My work is diverse in nature, cutting across political, economic and cultural geography. Flowing out of my research in South Africa (e.g. see my publications in Geoforum 2007, Social & Cultural Geography 2007, TESG 2008, Environment and Planning A 2010), I have developed interests in the political economy of food, particularly how corporate control of the food system creates multiple forms of oppression as well as diverse practices of resistance. I have written about the Irish government's position within this scene (Human Geography 2011) and have published an article that deals with literary geography and the contemporary global politics of rurality, using Barbara Kingsolver's A Prodigal Summer (Journal of Rural Studies 2014). In 2016 I also published my first solo-authored book, Global Foodscapes: Oppression and Resistance in the Life of Food (Routledge). I am currently conducting new work on the relationship between agriculture and 'big data' (and our algorithmic world): see here for a working paper on this set of issues. Regarding quite different empirical issues (but allowing me to explore exciting literatures), I have also written about geographical research regarding dance music scenes (Geography Compass 2012), and more specifically drum & bass music (Geoforum 2008, co-authored with Nancy Ettlinger) and the role of MCs therein (DanceCult 2015). Finally, I should note that I've published papers about some aspects of conducting fieldwork (Area 2007, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 2012); supervised Dr Mavuto D Tembo's PhD thesis on climate change in Uganda; co-researched aspects of Ireland's economic crisis (Human Geography 2013, with Enda Murphy and Sinead Kelly); edited a 40 chapter, two-volume book called Anniversary Essays to celebrate the Geography department's 40th Anniversary; and have published numerous blog posts on diverse topics on Eye on the World (a blog hosted by Maynooth University's Department of Geography) and Ireland After Nama (a blog hosted by NIRSA at Maynooth).

Research Interest

Political Geography; Globalization, Development, Africa, South Africa; Political Economy of Africa; Land reform; Food Systems; Scalar practices ('scalecraft'), Neoliberalism, South Africa, Uganda, Ireland, Mexico,