Nishat Awan’s research focuses on the intersection of geopolitics and space, including questions related to diasporas, migration and border regimes. She is interested in modes of spatial representation, particularly in relation to the digital and the limits of witnessing as a form of ethical engagement with distant places. She is Senior Research Fellow at the Borders & Territories group at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft. Previously, she was Senior Lecturer in Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London at the Centre for Research Architecture. In 2015 she was an Independent Social Research Foundation early career fellow working on the project, Edges of Europe, exploring European belonging through migrant experience. Her book, Diasporic Agencies(Routledge, 2016) addressed the subject of how architecture and urbanism can respond to the consequences of increasing migration. She has also addressed alternative modes of architectural production in the co-authored book Spatial Agency(Routledge, 2011) and the coedited book Trans-Local-Act (aaa-peprav, 2011).
The podcast series, developed in conversation with academics, economists, lawyers, activists and journalists, explores how risk associated with the supply of Critical Raw Materials is unevenly shaping international relations while perpetuating colonial legacies in Europe’s periphery and the Global South. The discussions aim to look beyond these extractive practices to the possibility of thinking and doing otherwise.