Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Geography
Staff Profile
Simon Hutta
j.s.hutta@open.ac.uk
Research Student
Geography
Qualifications
German Diplom in Psychology (2005, Berlin)
Research Interests
Experience of space; safety, security and Geborgenheit; queer politics; LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) movements in Brazil; Benjamin, Deleuze, Guattari, feminism, critical psychologies.
My doctoral project deals with the question of how LGBT people in different parts of Rio de Janeiro experience the places and spaces they inhabit. The acuteness of this question ensues not only from the diverse forms of violence queer people encounter in their everyday lives, but also from recent initiatives for citizenship and security enacted by the Brazilian LGBT movement in order to counter violence. By considering experiences of city spaces, the current project seeks to explore the conditions of violence, safety and 'Geborgenheit' (see below), and thus to enable an interrogation of political engagements. The project, furthermore, aims at making a contribution to theorisations of subjectivity, affectivity, experience and space.
The PhD project relates to the research for my German Diplom in Psychology where I have theorised subjective-spatial relations by drawing on the German concept of ‘Geborgenheit’, which is semantically located somewhere near the notions of ‘security’, ‘belonging’ and ‘shelter’. I have contrasted geographies of geborgenheit, which imply a multiplicity of positive affective articulations, with the hegemonic deployment of safety, which is characterised by a focus on fear and the binary of order/disorder (see Hutta 2009). The dynamics of safety and Geborgenheit were analysed in two neighbourhoods of Berlin.
Recent Publications
Hutta, J.S. (forthcoming) 'Paradoxical publicness: Becoming-imperceptible with the Brazilian LGBT movement'. In: C. Barnett, N. Mahony, J. Newman (eds) Rethinking the Public: Innovations in Research, Theory and Policy. Policy Press.
Brown, G., Browne, K., Elmhirst, R. and Hutta, J.S. (forthcoming) 'Sexualities in/of the Global South' Geography Compass.
Hutta, J.S. (2009) 'Engaging the untranslatable: tasks for the responsible translator' Graduate Journal of Social Science, 6:3.
Hutta, J.S. (2009) 'Geographies of Geborgenheit: beyond feelings of safety and the fear of crime' Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 27:2 (251-73).
A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.
Conference Presentations
Hutta, J.S (2009) 'Placing and displacing difference: Geborgenheit and queer politics of citizenship in Brazil.' presented at the SSQWG/DARG “Sexualities in/of the Global South” workshop, Manchester, August 2009.
Hutta, J.S. (2009) 'Tasks for the responsible translator: towards a methodology of the untranslatable'. Presented at the 13th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology in Nanjing, China.
Hutta, J.S. (2007) 'Beyond the modern deployment of safety: analysing geographies of Geborgenheit'. Presented at the Annual International Conference of the RGS-IBG in London.
Hutta, J.S. (2007) 'Becoming (queer) citizens: paradoxical struggles for safety in Brazil'. Presented at the Sex/life/politics conference, hosted by the RGS-IBG Sexualities, Space and Queer Working Group in Lougborough.
Apel, O. and J.S. Hutta (2006) 'We're straight, we're also here: solidarity, visibility, and safety at this year's Equality March in Warsaw'. Presented at the one day event 'Spaces of sexualities unlimited: still queerying geographies?' hosted by the RGS-IBG Sexualities, Space and Queer Working Group in Brighton.
Hutta, J.S. (2005) ''How Safe Do You Feel at Night?': Beyond the Modern Deployment of Safety'. Presented at the 11th Biennial Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology in Cape Town.
Hutta, J.S. (2005) 'Urban Geographies of Safety and Fear'. Presented at the International Critical Psychology Conference in Durban.
Haarbrücker, J., J. Hutta, T. Rieske, et al. (2004). 'Does Gay Sex Hurt?': Queer Theory Meets Educational Practice. Presented at the 5th International Queer and Gender Studies Conference in Wroclaw.