Joshua Kirshner
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Human Geography

Profile

Biography

I am a geographer and an urban and regional planning scholar in the Department of Environment and Geography. I joined the Department in 2015, and I am currently Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Human Geography. My research explores the relationships between resource governance, urban and environmental conflict, and the economic and political geographies of low-carbon transition. I have researched these questions in various sectors, working at international levels and with colleagues in several global regions. I previously held academic posts at Durham University, UK, and Rhodes University and University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

I am co-investigator on the CESET project (Community Energy and the Sustainable Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique), and I co-directed a UK DFID-funded project on improving electricity grid access and reliability in urban Mozambique. These projects are intended to have academic and practical relevance through their focus on multi-scale development processes, environmental regulation, and on governance and politics. My previous work has focused on the spatial governance of energy systems, including questions around resource extraction and decline of carbon-centric energy systems while also exploring alternative and renewable energy technology pathways, including their effects on energy access and intersections with poverty and inequality concerns, global supply chains and networks, and health and wellbeing. I have also studied migration and displacement, and urban and infrastructural histories in Africa and Latin America. My research and teaching combine critical theory (uneven development, critical geopolitics, discourse analysis) with participatory methods for collective learning and change. I have worked on projects supported by a range of funding agencies, including research councils (ESRC, NERC), government agencies (UK Aid, Fulbright Commission), and foundations (British Academy, Atlantic Philanthropies, Tinker Foundation). 

My work has been published in international journals across the planning, geography, energy, and environmental policy fields. I am a member of the editorial board for Energy Research & Social Science. I have a PhD from Cornell University in City and Regional Planning, an MA from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Urban Planning, and a BA (magna cum laude) from Harvard University in Social Anthropology.

PhD opportunities I welcome prospective PhD students with complementary research interests.

Career

Teaching

Other teaching

At its heart, my approach to teaching involves encouraging students to build up their own critical views and understandings, and to ‘problematize’ the information they receive rather than amassing a collection of facts. I draw on ideas in research-based teaching, problem-based learning and non-directive pedagogies for inspiration. The fields of geography and urban studies and planning are highly engaged disciplines, offering students and scholars alike the opportunity to develop grounded and critical views of the world from early stages of study, rather than to merely acquire technical skills. Teaching in this area enables a focus not only on entrenched problems and deficiencies, but the prospect to consider and advocate for solutions for 21st Century challenges, including transforming towards more sustainable, equitable and regenerative futures.

The importance of varying cultural perspectives and viewpoints in shaping and creating knowledge is central to my teaching. Enhancing students’ own interpretation and questioning of readings, rather than their simple digestion, underpins my teaching philosophy. I strongly support the value of internationalization in teaching, and this ranges from welcoming students from abroad to drawing on alternative sources, including those from outside the English-speaking world.

I joined the University of York in 2015 for the launch of the Human Geography and Environment BA program in the department. Being involved in this endeavour has offered me the opportunity to bring together the different disciplinary approaches I have worked with (geography, planning, development studies, environmental humanities) into my teaching. During this period, I was nominated for YUSU Excellence Awards 2019 for ‘Teacher of the Year.’ The program is attracting an engaged and diverse group of students who have been a pleasure to work with. While in the department, I have developed and contributed to the following modules:

Undergraduate

1st year

Global Geographies (convener)
Qualitative Approaches to Social Science Research (contributor)
Introduction to Human Geography (contributor)
Frontiers in Sustainability Studies (contributor)

2nd year

Megacities & Urbanisation (convener)
Tenerife Field Course – Human Geography and Environment (convener)
Energy and the Environment (contributor)

Masters

Current Research in Human Geography & Environment (contributor)

Research

Overview

I am a geographer and development planning scholar with expertise in energy, urbanization and sustainability transitions, with a focus on southern Africa and Latin America. I have a growing record of collaboration with interdisciplinary groups that span the social and environmental sciences, and the global North and South. My research draws on traditions in urban studies, urban and political geography, development thought and practice, political ecology, and studies of energy and society. 

I have authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, with publications in high-impact journals such as Nature Energy, Climate Policy, Planning Perspectives, Environment and Planning A, Geoforum, Antipode, Cities, Energy Research & Social Science, Applied Energy, Latin American Perspectives, Environmental Development, along with policy briefings, reviews and edited collections. I am a member of the editorial board for Energy Research & Social Science.

Projects

Recently funded research has included:

I am a Co-investigator in ‘Community Energy Systems and the Sustainable Energy Transition in Ethiopia, Malawi and Mozambique (CESET),’ a UKRI-GCRF project (2021-24), led by Vanesa Castán Broto (Sheffield University), which explores the potential of community energy to support inclusive and clean energy transitions in multiple contexts. The project focuses on diversity of community energy models and unpacks the notion of community through the lens of intersectionality.

I co-led (with Matthew Cotton, Teesside University) a two-year project (2019-21), ‘A Political-Economic Analysis of Electricity Grid Access Histories and Futures in Mozambique,’ supported by UK Aid through the Energy and Economic Growth Applied Research programme. Working with local partners, the research demonstrated how energy access in Mozambique is shaped by the country’s colonial and post-colonial histories. Focusing on four cities of Maputo, Matola, Beira and Nampula, the research has shown how past decisions, institutional frameworks and norms have generated a pattern of exclusion and inequality for some groups.

I was a Co-I in ‘Integrating Ecological and Cultural Histories to Inform Sustainable and Equitable Futures for the Colombian Páramos,’ a NERC and Colombia Bio programme project (2018-2021) led by Piran White (York Environment), in partnership with Universidad de Los Andes and the Humboldt Institute in Colombia. 

Previously, I was Co-I in ‘Sustainable Energy Access in Mozambique: Socio-political factors in conflict-laden urban areas,’ developed in collaboration with Vanesa Castán Broto (PI, Sheffield) and Idalina Baptista (Co-I, Oxford) and funded by the British Academy’s Sustainable Development Programme (2016-2018). I led the project’s Work Package 2, “Political Economy of the Energy Sector,” which examined how conflict around access to resource wealth between the ruling and opposition parties has created instability in Mozambique’s insertion in global trade circuits. 

I was Co-I in STRIPES (‘Social Transformative Research Informing Processes of Environmental Science’), a British Academy-funded Knowledge Frontiers project that examined knowledge production, innovation and socio-environmental implications of advanced bioethanol generation in Alagoas, northeast Brazil. The project included an interdisciplinary team, spanning the social and natural sciences at York and University of São Paulo, led by Eleanor Brown (York Education).

I have also contributed towards developing a partnership between academics at York and University of Ghana to study the management of sustainable mining, exploring its socio-environmental impacts while enhancing research capacity.

Impact and engagement

I have contributed to the Regional Energy Learning Alliance through the UKRI CESET project, which fosters knowledge exchange on community energy in the region, including hosting an international conference on territorial strategies for delivering off-grid energy, publishing briefing papers and hosting a webinar series. We are involved in setting up a Community Energy Lab in peri-urban Maputo with community members and local and district-level officials. This includes an on-site solar PV mini-grid, to be managed by community members who will determine how it will be used. It will serve as a demonstration site to explore and test what works for off-grid energy services in peri-urban communities. 

Previously, I convened a two-day workshop, ‘Learning from Cyclone Idai: Response, Recovery and Future Risk’ held in York to explore post-disaster recovery in coastal southern and East Africa, with participants from the national electricity provider and municipal governments in Mozambique, along with researchers from University of York.

I have contributed to planning a street lighting project in peri-urban Maputo, together with local community leaders, a social enterprise (Kaya Clínica), and urban planners at University of Eduardo Mondlane. We prepared an evidence note to share findings with municipal councillors, planners and the power utility. The public utility has referred to our research on decentralized energy for its 2018-2028 strategy. Mozambique’s National Energy Fund has also engaged with our work for its insights on supporting and financing off-grid systems, including in peri-urban areas.

I contributed to staging a public exhibit, ‘Living with the Network: Experiences of energy access in Maputo,’ for British Academy’s Summer Showcase in London in 2019. We depicted everyday domestic practices with energy, using an installation with objects and soundscape.

I have consulted on the filmmaker Sean Lovell’s short animation on charcoal and cooking, ‘Life of a Cookstove,’ and another short film on off-grid energy in Malawi, ‘Community Energy in Malawi: On the Ground Experiences.’