James S Duncan, BA MA PhD

Formerly Reader in Cultural Geography.

Emeritus Fellow of Emmanuel College.

Cultural geographer, with research interests in Sri Lanka and the United States.

Biography

Career:

1996-2010: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.
1985-1996 Department of Geography, Syracuse University.
1977-1985 Department of Geography, University of British Columbia.

Qualifications

BA Dartmouth College 1970
MA Syracuse University 1974
PhD Syracuse University 1977

Research

Society and Space - Culture, History, Space and Place

Landscapes of colonialism in Sri Lanka
Culture Theory
Landscape and Identity in the United States

Publications

Books

2011 A Companion to Human Geography. Oxford: Blackwell. Edited with John Agnew.
2007 In the Shadows of the Tropics: Climate, Race and Biopower in 19th Century Ceylon. Aldershot: Ashgate. 228 pp.
2004 Landscapes of Privilege: The Politics of the Aesthetic in an American Suburb. New York: Routledge. (with N. Duncan) 256 pp.
2004 A Companion to Cultural Geography. Oxford: Blackwell. (Edited with N. Johnson and R. Schein) 520 pp.
2004 (1990) The City as Text: The Politics of Landscape Interpretation in the Kandyan Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 229 pp.
1999 Writes of Passage: Reading Travel Writing. London: Routledge. Edited with D. Gregory. pp. 225.
1993. Place/Culture/representation. London: Routledge. Edited with D. Ley pp. 341.
1992 Writing Worlds: Discourse, Text and Metaphor in the Representation of Landscape. London: Routledge. Edited with T. Barnes. PP. 282.
1989 The Power of Place: Integrating the Sociological and Geographical Imagination. London: Unwin Hyman. pp. 231.
1981 Housing and Identity: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. London: Croom Helm. Pp. 250

Articles

2009 "Coffee, disease and the 'simultaneity of stories so far' in the highlands of ninteenth century Ceylon." in C. Brun and T. Jazeel (eds.) Spatialising Politics. Sage Publications.
2009 "Landscape interpretation" in S. Aitkin, P. Crang, D. Delyser, L. McDowell (eds.) Handbook of Qualitative research in Human Geography. Sage Publications. (with N. Duncan).
2006. "Cultural Geography." in B. Warf et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Sage Publications.
2006 "Aesthetics, Abjection and White Privilege in Suburban New York" in Richard Schein (ed) Race and Landscape in America. N.Y. Routledge. (with N. Duncan), pp. 157-176.
2005 "Home Alone? Masculinity, Discipline and Erasure in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ceylon," in L. Dowler, J. Carubia, & B. Szczygiel (eds.) Gender and Landscape: Renegotiating Morality and Space. New York: Routledge, pp. 19-33.
2004 "Culture Unbound," Environment and Planning A: (with N. Duncan) Vol 36, pp. 391-403.
"Can't live with them. Can't landscape without them": Racism and the pastoral aesthetic in suburban New York" in Landscape Journal: Design, Planning and Management of the Land, Volume 22, pp.88-98. (with N. Duncan).
Duncan, J.S. (2003) "Representing Empire at the National Maritime Museum" in S. Peckham (ed) Heritage: Culture and Politics. London: I.B. Taurus, pp. 17-28.
"Sombres pensées dans la maison coloniale:masculinité, contrôle et refoulement domestiques à Ceylan au milieu du XIXème siècle " In Espaces Domestiques. Construire, Aménager, Représenter. Edited by B. Collignon and J.-F. Staszak, Paris: Bréal, pp. 241-253.
Duncan, J.S. (2002) "Embodying Colonialism?: Domination and Resistance in 19^th century Ceylonese Coffee Plantations." Journal of Historical Geography 28, 3, pp. 317-38.
Duncan, J.S. and Duncan, N.G. (2001) "Theory in the Field" Geographical Review 91, pp. 399-406.
Duncan, J.S. And Duncan, N.G (2001) 'The Aestheticization of the Politics of Landscape Preservation." Annals, Association of American Geographers. 91
Duncan, J.S. (2001) 'Notes on Emancipatory Collaborative Historical Research.' Historical Geography. 29, 65-67.
Duncan, J.S. (2000) 'The Struggle to be Temperate: Climate and "Moral Masculinity" in Mid-Nineteenth Century Ceylon.' Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Vol 21, 34-47.
Duncan, J.S. (2000) 'Apos a Guerra Civil: Recontruindo a Geografia Cultural Como Heterotopia' in: R.L. Correa and Z. Rosendahl (eds) Geografia Cultural: Um Seculo (2). Rio De Janerio: Editori da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janerio, 61-84.
Duncan, J.S. (1999) 'Complicity and resistance in the colonial archive: some issues of method and theory in historical geography.' Historical Geography 27: 119-128.
Duncan, J. (1998) 'Classics in human geography revisited - J.S. Duncan 1980: 'The superorganic in American cultural geography' author's response.' Progress In Human Geography 22(4): 571-573.
Duncan, J. (1998) 'Dis-Orientation: the shock of the familiar in a far-away place.' in: J. Duncan and D. Gregory (eds) Writes of passage: reading travel writing London: Routledge, 151-163.
Duncan, J. and Gregory, D. (eds) (1998) Writes of passage: reading travel writing. London: Routledge, 225.
Duncan, J.S. and Duncan, N. (1997) 'Deep suburban irony.' in: R. Silverstone (ed.) Visions of suburbia London: Routledge, 161-179