Dr Pepe Romanillos

I graduated from the University of Bristol in 2004, gaining a BSc in Geography. This was followed by postgraduate study at Bristol where I completed the MSc in Society and Space and my doctoral research. I first joined the School of Geography at Exeter in October 2008 as an Associate Teaching Fellow. I have since worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen, and as a Lecturer at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol. I returned to Exeter in August 2011 to take up a lectureship in Human Geography.

Broad research specialisms:

History and philosophy of geographical thought; Geographies of death, absence and finitude; Cultural geographies of literature and visuality.

Office Hours:

Held in Amory 415. No booking required, for dates and times see below.

Week 1:  Monday 23rd Sep. 10-11, Wednesday 25th Sep. 11-12

Week 2: Monday 30th Sep. 10-11, Wednesday 2nd Oct. 12-1

Week 3: Wednesday 9th Oct. 11-12, Friday 11th Oct. 1-2

Week 4: Tuesday 15th Oct. 11-12, Wednesday 16th Oct. 12-30:1:30

Week 5: Monday 21st Oct. 12-1, Wednesday 23rd Oct. 11-12

Week 7: Monday 4th Nov. 10-11, Wednesday 6th Nov. 11:30-12:30

Week 8: Wednesday 13th Nov. 11-12, Friday 15th Nov. 10-11

Week 9: Wednesday 20th Nov. 11-12, Thursday 21st Nov. 1-2

Week 10:  Monday 25th Nov. 10-11, Wednesday 27th Nov. 11-12

Week 11: Wednesday 4th Dec. 11-12, Thursday 5th Dec. 10-11

Week 12: Monday 9th Dec. 10-11, Tuesday 10th Dec. 10-11

Interests:

Geographies of death, absence and finitude

A large part of my doctoral research centred on developing a agenda on the notion of finitude. The thesis, Experiences of Finitude: Spatiality as Communication after Georges Bataille and Alain Robbe-Grillet, argued for the value of thinking about finitude in the following terms: addressing the phenomenological basis of spatiality; exploring the senses and limits of communication and representation; questioning anthropocentric perspectives and divisions between the human and nonhuman; conceptualisations of inter-subjectivity and the ethical relation; reflecting on absence, mourning, memory and compassion; and developing an environmental ethics that addresses the phenomenon of extinction and conceptualisations of a finite earth.

Cultural geographies of literature and visuality
My research interests in the field of literary geographies stem from my doctoral research where I explored the work of two modernist French authors, Georges Bataille and Alain Robbe-Grillet. I used their work to affirm the value of literature in questioning a range of geographical concepts such as landscape, place and spatiality, and in disrupting habitual approaches to text, context and representation. I have published in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space on aspects of this research, exploring the literary landscapes of Alain Robbe-Grillet. I have recently developed a paper on Louis-Ferdinand Céline that explores his groundbreaking work Journey to the End of the Night in the context of the geographies of modernity. I am also interested in the geographical function of images in constituting and shaping particular cultural geographies. My third year undergraduate module, Images of the Earth, draws upon this research interest and concentrates on how different visualizations of the earth (from cartography and aerial photography, to landscape perspectives and documentary film), mediate and configure understandings of space, nature, territory and world.

History and philosophy of geographical thought
I have a broad interest in the interactions between philosophy and geographical thought. This interest ranges from the historical development of phenomenological approaches in human geography, to the Swedish geography of Gunnar Olsson and Torsten Hägerstrand and their respective approaches to questions of representation and spatial agency. I am particularly interested in the role of continental philosophy in advancing the intellectual agendas of contemporary human geography – found, for example, in recent work on affect and performance, new political subjectivities, geo-philosophy, and attempts to re-theorize and address matter and the non-human. In this context, I have a longstanding interest in spatial theory and continental philosophy, and the relations between phenomenology and post-structuralism. I am particularly interested in the spatial implications of authors such as Martin Heidegger, Alexandre Kojève, Georges Bataille, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Jean-Luc Nancy.

I am a member of the department’s Geographies of Creativity and Knowledge research group.

Qualifications:

BSc (University of Bristol)
MSc (University of Bristol)
PhD (University of Bristol)