Prof Gillian Rose

Professor of Cultural Geography

Geography

Qualifications

BA (Cambridge), PhD (London)

Course Development and Teaching Commitments

I chaired the production of Living in a globalised world (DD205) and am currently presentation chair of Understanding cities (DD304).

Research Interests

My current research interests lie broadly within the field of visual culture. I'm interested in the ways social subjectivities and relations are pictured or made invisible in a range of media, and also very interested in how what is done with images also produces social power relations. I'm also interested in how different ways of seeing and not-seeing work in social spaces like living rooms and shopping malls. I have a long-standing interest in feminist film theory and in Foucauldian and feminist accounts of photography in particular, but more recently I've been working with material culture and practice theory . I'm particularly concerned to ground these theoretical approaches by undertaking specific empirical investigations. I've also written about methodologies for interpreting visual materials.

One long-term project, which will result in book from Ashgate Press in 2010, has been looking at family photos. I've approached family snaps by thinking of them as objects embedded in a wide range of practices. I've been interviewing women with young children about their photos for a long time, and more recently I've looked at the politics and ethics of family snaps moving into more public arenas of display when the people they picture are the victims of violence. The book explores the different 'politics of sentiment' in which family snaps participate in both their domestic spaces in the public space of the contemporary mass media.

Current work is extending my interest in subjectivities, space and visual display by exploring experiences of designed urban spaces. I have recently completed an ESRC-funded project on this theme with Dr Monica Degen at Brunel University (ESRC grant number RES-062-23-0223), in which we compared how people experienced two rather different town centres: Milton Keynes and Bedford. We argue that everyday practices in these town centres, in all their diversity, complexity and multisensoriality, produce an inconsistent and erratic enagement with built urban spaces. The experiencing of such places switches and flickers, as people undertake a range of ordinary practices within them. You can find more information about this project on the Urban Experience website and on the ESRC website.

I'm also interested in more innovative ways to produce social science research, especially using visual materials.

Future plans include more work on the various visualisations entailed in urban design, architecture and public art.

Recent Publications

Rose G (2004) 'Everyone's cuddled up and it just looks really nice': the emotional geography of some mums and their family photos', Social and Cultural Geography 5 549-64

Rose G (2007) Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Interpreting Visual Materials, second edition, Sage

Degen, M, DeSilvey, C and Rose, G (2008) ' Experiencing visualities in designed urban environments: learning from Milton Keynes', Environment and Planning A 40 1901-1920

Rose, G (2008) 'Spectres and spectacle: London 7 July 2005', New Formations 62 45-59

Rose, G (2009) Who cares for which dead and how: British newspaper reporting of the bombs in London, July 2005 Geoforum 40 46–54

Rose G, Degen, M and Basdas, B (forthcoming) Using the web to disseminate research on urban spatialities Geography Compass

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.