Alex Jeffrey MA PhD

University Lecturer and Fellow of Emmanuel College

Political Geographer interested in state-building after conflict, particularly within the former Yugoslavia. His research has sought to contribute to debates concerning critical geopolitics, civil society and transitional justice.

Biography

Career

2012-present: University Lecturer, University of Cambridge
2011-2012: Senior Lecturer, Newcastle University
2006-2011: Lecturer, Newcastle University
2005-2006: ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow Durham University

Qualifications

2001-2005: PhD Durham University
2000-2001: MA Durham University
1995-1999: MA University of Edinburgh

Awards

2012 The AAG Stanley D. Brunn Young Scholar Award
2009 Newcastle University Vice Chancellor's Teaching Award (with Nick Megoran)

Research

Alex is a member of the Society, Environment and Development research cluster within the Department of Geography. Over the past decade Alex has sought to examine the nature and consequences of international intervention after conflict, particularly focusing on the former Yugoslavia. This work has been roughly divided into three areas of inquiry:

Everyday Geopolitics of Intervention. This research has explored the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in fostering democratic participation after violent conflict. Over several periods of residential fieldwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina Alex has sought to investigate how donors, new state institutions and intervening agencies shape the agendas of NGOs. This work has been funded by an ESRC Studentship (R42200134266), an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship (PTA-026-27-0576) and internal funding from Newcastle University. Key outputs include papers in Political Geography (2006) and Development and Change (2007) and a research monograph entitled The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia.
Geographies of Transitional Justice. Focusing specifically on the experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this strand of research has explored the process of establishing a domestic War Crimes Chamber with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes undertaken during the 1992-5 war. Key publications exploring this area of work include papers in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (2009) and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (2011). Alex is the Principal Investigator on a two-year ESRC First Grant (RES-061-25-0479, FEC £267 248) entitled Localising International Law exploring how the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo has communicated with victim populations.
Citizenship in Divided Societies. This strand of research seeks to explore how ideas of citizenship are negotiated, contested and learnt following periods of political instability. Alex is an Academic Fellow on a European Research Council Advanced Grant entitled Youth Experiences of Citizenship in Divided Societies: Between Cosmopolitanism, Nation, and Civil Society" (Principal Investigator Professor Lynn Staeheli, FEC €2.5M)

Research supervision

Alex Jeffrey is interested in hearing from scholars who wish to conduct masters, doctoral or post-doctoral work on state formation, geographies of law and justice, the role of non-governmental organisations after conflict and state/society relations both within and beyond the states of the former Yugoslavia.

Publications

Books

Jeffrey, A. (2012) The Improvised State: Sovereignty, Performance and Agency in Dayton Bosnia. Oxford: Royal Geographical Society Book Series Wiley-Blackwell.
Nayak, A. and Jeffrey, A. (2011) An Introduction to Geographical Thought. Harlow: Pearson.
Painter, J. and Jeffrey, A. (2009) Political Geography: An Introduction to Space and Power. London: Sage. Italian translation published in 2011 as Geografia Politica (Novara: UTET)

Other selected publications:

Jeffrey, A. (2013/in press) "The politics of 'democratization': Lessons from Bosnia and Iraq." In: Grugel, J. Democratization Sage Library of Political Science. London: Sage.
Pande, R., Jeffrey, A., Megoran, N., and Young, R. (2013/In press) "Connecting lectures to current affairs: the 'letters to newspapers' assignment." Journal of Geography in Higher Education
Bolton, M., Froese, S., and Jeffrey, A. (2013) "This space is occupied!: The politics of Occupy Wall Street's expeditionary architecture and de-gentrifying urbanism." In: Welty, E., Bolton, M., Nayak, M., and Malone, C. eds. Occupying Political Science: The Occupy Wall Street Movement from New York to the World New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jeffrey, A. (2013) "Non-State Actors." In: Dodds, K., Kuus, M. and Sharp, J. eds. Ashgate Companion to Critical Geopolitics. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 387-404.
Jones, B., Jeffrey, A. and Jakala, M. (2013) "The 'Transitional Citizen': Civil Society, Political Agency and Hopes for Transitional Justice in Bosnia-Herzegovina." In: Simić, O and Volčić, Z Transitional Justice and Civil Society in the Balkans. New York: Springer Publishing. pp. 87-104
Jeffrey, A. and Jakala, M (2012) "Beyond Trial Justice in the former Yugoslavia." The Geographical Journal 178(4) 290–295
Jeffrey, A., McFarlane, C. and Vasudevan, A. (2012) "Rethinking enclosure: space, subjectivity and the commons." Antipode 44(4) 1247–1267
Jeffrey A. (2011) "The political geographies of transitional justice." Transactions of The Institute of British Geographers 36(3) 344-359.
Jeffrey A. (2011) "The masks of Europe in contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina." In: Bialasiewicz, L. ed. Europe in the World: EU Geopolitics and the Making of European Space. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Jeffrey A. (2011) "Civil Society and Transitional Justice in Bosnia and Herzegovina." In: Simko, D. and Mader, U. eds. Stabilization and Progress in the Western Balkans. Bern: Peter Lang. pp.163-180.
Megoran, N., Atkin, M., Abbas, N., Harris, C., Jeffrey, A. and Heathershaw, J. (2010) "Author–critic forum: the politics of peace building in Tajikistan." Central Asian Survey 29(2) 219-230
Jeffrey, A. (2009) "Justice incomplete: Radovan Karadžic, the ICTY and the spaces of international law." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 27(3) 387-402.
Jeffrey, A. (2009) "Containers of fate: problematic states and paradoxical sovereignty." In: Dodds, K. and Ingram, A. eds. Spaces of Security and Insecurity: Geographies of the War on Terror. Aldershot: Ashgate. pp. 43-64.
Jeffrey, A. (2008) "Zilho's Journeys: displacement and return in post-conflict Bosnia." In: Jeffrey, C. and Dyson, J. eds. Telling Young Lives. Temple University Press: Philadelphia. pp. 113- 122.
Jeffrey, A., McFarlane, C.. and Vasudevan, A. (2008) "Guest Editors' Introduction: Debating Capital, Spectacle and Modernity." Public Culture 20(3) 531-538.
Bolton, M. and Jeffrey, A. (2008) "The politics of NGO registration in international protectorates: The cases of Bosnia and Iraq." Disasters 32(4) 586-608.
Vasudevan, A, McFarlane, C. and Jeffrey, A. (2008) "Spaces of Enclosure." Geoforum 39(5) 1641-1646.
Jeffrey, A. (2008) "Adjudications of civility: gentrifying civil society." Geopolitics 13(4) 740-744.
Jeffrey, A. (2008) "Contesting Europe: the politics of Bosnian integration into European structures." Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 26(3) 428-443.
Bialasiewicz, L., Campbell, D., Elden, S., Graham, S., Jeffrey, A. and Williams, A. (2007) "Performing security: The imaginative geographies of current US strategy." Political Geography 26(3) 405-422.
Jeffrey, A. (2007) "The politics of 'democratization': Lessons from Bosnia and Iraq." Review of International Political Economy 14(3) 444-466.
Jeffrey, A. (2007) "The geopolitical framing of localized struggles: NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina." Development and Change 38(2) 251-274.
Jeffrey, A, McFarlane, C. and Vasudevan, A. (2007) "Spectacle, state, modernity." Geopolitics 22(1) 202-225.
Jeffrey, A. (2006) "Building state capacity in post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina: the case of Brčko District." Political Geography 25(2) 203-227.
Jeffrey, A. (2006) "Writing terriorial conflict" Review of International Political Economy 13(5) 830-845.

Teaching

1A Human Geography: People, Place and the Politics of Difference (Part G: Geopolitics and Political Geography)
1B Citizenship, Cities and Civil Society

External activities

Editorial Board Member, Political Geography
Section Co-Editor (Social Theory), AAG International Encyclopaedia of Geography
Fellow, Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)