/ interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and writer passionate about how art and the creative actions of everyday citizens transform city and society

writing approach and impact

I write with artists and arts professionals, policy-makers, practitioners, students, and the broader public in mind and strive to publish works that are engaging and accessible to audiences beyond academia. My last three publications have all been published open-access, which I prioritise wherever possible. I appreciate slow-scholarship approaches to publication and prioritise quality over quantity. I aim for a kind of elegance in my published work and see individual papers as all linked, building logically upon each other. Above all, I want my work to be read and used. My papers have been added to course curricula in diverse disciplines including criminology, geography, sociology, and visual studies in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

upcoming publications

I am working on a number of different writing projects. Here is a sneak preview of a few confirmed publications, coming later in 2024 and 2025.

  • Highlights from the Greenlight Triennale

    2024/2025
    The Greenlight Triennale is an arts festival spread across four arts institutions, two cities, and featuring the work of more than 14 international artists. I have visited Skien and Posgrunn several times, seen the exhibitions, spoken with artists involved in Greenlight. I am working on an article about the triennale exploring how art shines a light on critical environmental issues.

  • Book review of Urban Surfaces, Graffiti, and the Right to the City by Sabina Andron

    2024
    I have been invited to write a book review of Sabina Andron’s monograph Urban Surfaces, Graffiti, and the Right to the City for the journal Planning Perspectives.

  • Image-making in crisis

    2025
    This paper explores my photographic practice through the lens of crisis, drawing on photographs taken of climate activism in Berlin in 2019.

  • Artistic climate activism, art attacks, and the aesthetic logics of space

    After an uncomfortable and admittedly traumatic close-hand experience with climate activists attacking works of art, I have decided to channel my complicated views on the actions into an invited book chapter. The chapter is for the proposed book Saying the Unsayable: Essays and Meditations on the Transformative Power of Aesthetic Experiences, edited by Christian Beck and John Venecek.

  • Stories of a climate fiction book club

    2025
    Developing an article on climate fiction stories and my experiences leading a climate fiction book club for a special Issue of Education in the North on the theme Grounding Knowledge in Community, edited by Jennifer Markides, Liisa-Rávná Finbog, and Beth Cross

  • Book review of Environmental Futures, edited by Caren Irr

    2024/2025
    Working on a book review of the international literary anthology Environmental Futures, edited by Caren Irr for the journal cultural geographies.

published academic work

Below you will find a selection of my published work, including online essays, book chapters, and journal articles.

blogs, essays, etc

Below you will find a selection of various online essays and other published works.

  • Arts of Futuring

    2024
    Reflecting on the future, futuring, and Catherine Leroux’s dystopian novel The Future in Medium.
    READ ON MEDIUM

  • School of climate fiction

    2024
    Introducing LAX LAB 2.0, a community, book club, and educational resource dedicated to the stories and worlds of climate fiction in Medium.
    READ ON MEDIUM

  • Illustration for short story

    2019
    Illustration in book Our Entangled Future – Short Stories to Empower Quantum Social Change Edited by Karen O’Brien, Ann El Khoury, Nicole Schafenacker, and Jordan Rosenfeld

  • Women's right to the city: Contesting and subverting the masculine and sexualised city

    2016
    Essay for independent publication edited and published by Nuart Festival

  • The art of urban transformations

    2015
    Co-authored with Karen O’Brien for the journal/blog: Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) Viewpoints, edited by Mark Watkins.
    Read on UGEC

list view

academic papers, book chapters, and reviews

2022. ‘Extinction Rebellion and the future city’ [open access]
Book: Haste: The slow politics of climate urgency
Editors: Håvard Haarstad, Jakob Grandin, Kristin Kjærås, and Eleanor Johnson
Publisher: University College London Press
DOWNLOAD PDF

2021. ‘Mercurial images of the COVID-19 city’
Book: Global Reflections on COVID-19 and Cities, Volume3: Public Space and Mobility
Editors: Brian Doucet, Rianne van Melik, and Pierre Filion
Publisher: Policy Press (Bristol University Press)
DOWNLOAD PDF

2021. ‘Sexualised advertising and the production of space in the city’ [open access]
Journal: CITY: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action
DOWNLOAD PDF

2021. ‘Photography, composition, and the ephemeral city’ [open access]
Journal: Area
DOWNLOAD PDF

2020. ‘Book review: Graffiti and Street Art: Reading, Writing, and Representing the City’, edited by Konstantinos Avramidis and Myrto Tsilimpounidi’
Journal: Urban Studies
DOWNLOAD PDF

2019.  ‘Aesthetics of zero tolerance’
Journal: CITY: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action
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2018. ‘Aesthetic practices of psychogeography and photography’ 
Journal: Geography Compass
DOWNLOAD PDF

2018. ‘Book review: The Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art, edited by Jeffrey Ian Ross’
Journal: Journal of Urban Design
DOWNLOAD PDF

2018. ‘Aesthetic appreciation of tagging’
Book: The Urban Planet: Knowledge towards Livable Cities
Editors: Debra Roberts, David Maddox, and Mark Watkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
DOWNLOAD PDF

2014. ‘Sustainability implications of textile graffiti in public space’
Book: Animation of Public Space through the Arts: Toward More Sustainable Communities
Editor: Nancy Duxbury
Publisher: Livraria Almedina (Lisboa, Portugal)

blogs, essays, etc

2024. ‘Arts of Futuring: Reflecting on the future, futuring, and Catherine Leroux’s dystopian novel The Future’, Essay for Medium

2024. ‘School of climate fiction’, Essay for Medium.

2019. Illustration published in book Our Entangled Future – Short Stories to Empower Quantum Social Change, Edited by Karen O’Brien, Ann El Khoury, Nicole Schafenacker, and Jordan Rosenfeld

2016. ‘Women’s right to the city: Contesting and subverting the masculine and sexualised city’
Essay for independent publication edited and published by Nuart

2015. ‘The art of urban transformations’, co-authored with Karen O’Brien
Online journal/blog: Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) Viewpoints, Edited by Mark Watkins

A full list of my academic publications is available on Google Scholar and on ORCID.

While I have primarily published in academic journals and books, I am interested in new writing challenges and am exploring freelance writing opportunities. If you are interested in commissioning writing for a more general audience on any topic connected to my research, please contact me at emma @ emmarnold.org.