Rate My Professor John-David Dewsbury

Professor John-David Dewsbury serves as Head of School of Science and Professor in Human Geography at UNSW Canberra, part of the University of New South Wales. His scholarly work concentrates on the performative and non-representational dimensions of social life, examining perspectives on space, environment, affects, human behaviour, and subjectivity. Employing post-continental philosophy, his investigations address habit, agency, technology, politics, and identity via the interplay of ontology and events, alongside the roles of assemblage theory and affect in research methodologies. Although rooted in human geography, his contributions foster collaborations across performance studies, political theory, sociology, and environmental studies. Currently, he spearheads advancements in Cultural and Environmental Geography and cultivates research in Behavioural Science amid Social-Technical Innovation, pertinent to Australia's policy, defence, and emergency services sectors.

Prior to his current role, he was affiliated with the University of Bristol, securing notable grants including the ESRC Seminar Series on Behaviour Change and Psychological Governance (2013-14, £23,870.28), AHRC Follow-up Impact Grant for Beyond the Flood (£100,000, 2012), British Council UK/US Connect Partnerships (£14,000, 2011-12), and various AHRC and WUN funding awards. Key publications encompass the co-edited volume Why Guattari? A Liberation of Cartographies, Ecologies and Politics (Routledge, 2019), along with journal articles such as 'Witnessing Space: ‘Knowledge without Contemplation’' (Environment and Planning A, 2003), 'Performativity and the Event: Enacting a Philosophy of Difference' (Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2000), 'Vital Aspirations for Geography in an Era of Negativity: Valuing Life Differently with Deleuze' (Progress in Human Geography, 2021, with T. Roberts), and 'On Habit and Performance' (Performance Research, 2023, with F. Camilleri). He has supervised over twenty PhD theses exploring non-representational theory, affect, embodiment, and performance. His scholarship features prominently in premier outlets like Cultural Geographies, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and Area.