Dr Evelina Gambino

Margaret Tyler Research Fellow

My research is concerned with a situated analysis of global logistics. Working across large infrastructures in the Republic of Georgia and the South Caucasus, I seek to map the ways in which planetary projects of circulation, such as the Belt and Road Initiative, are translated into local contexts. In dialogue with feminist critiques of capitalism, my analysis highlights the different kinds of work that this translation entails.

Biography

Career

• October 2022 – Present: Margaret Tyler Fellow in Human Geography, Girton College.
• January 2022 – September 2022: Associate Lecturer, Department of Politics, Goldsmiths College, University of London.
• October 2021 – December 2021: Visiting Lecturer, Anthropology Department, UCL.
• September 2019 – December 2021: Post-Graduate Teaching Assistant, Geography Department, UCL.

Qualifications

• 2021 Ph.D. in Geography 2021, UCL.
• 2017 M.A. Russian and East European Studies, University of Nottingham
• 2014 M.A. Anthropology and Cultural Politics, Goldsmiths College, University of London
• 2012 B.A. Anthropology Goldsmiths College, University of London

Awards

• 2020 Mead Research Travel Award, UCL.
• 2017 -2020 ESRC UBEL DTP +3 Scholarship, UCL.
• 2015 – 2017 ESRC DTC PhD 1+3 Scholarship, University of Nottingham.

Research

My research challenges mainstream accounts that depict logistics as the smooth circulation of commodities, capital, data and practices across the globe. Throughout several research projects, I have performed ethnographic fieldwork across a number of mega infrastructures in the Republic of Georgia, analysing their relation to future-oriented developments such as the Belt and Road Initiative and to the legacies of the Soviet Union.

I am currently pursuing several interlinked lines of inquiry:

1. A feminist analysis of logistical capitalism

The performance of global logistical connectivity as smooth, seamless and necessary requires work. Feminist scholars across disciplines have shown how the circulation of capital and labour is sustained by a host of relations, exchanges and practices traditionally deemed outside the bounds of productive labour. My research builds on these insights by showing the work that pre-existing taxonomies (of gender, race, expertise) do to shape the everyday operations of the companies in charge of developing large transit infrastructures and their relations to workers, affected publics, potential investors and governments.

2. An ethnography of infrastructural failure and post-Socialism

Infrastructures materialise promises of progress, however, a staggering number of such projects remains unfinished. Since its independence from the Soviet Union, the Republic of Georgia has sought to transform itself into a transit corridor connecting resource rich countries of Central Asia with European markets. Yet most of the infrastructural projects set to sustain the country’s logistical ambitions have been punctuated by failure. I am currently working on a monograph that takes these infrastructural failures as a starting point in order to question the promise of prosperity underpinning investment in transit corridors, showing the social, environmental and economic consequences of its trials and errors.

3. Interdisciplinary collaborations for an alternative infrastructural forecasting.

A final, area of research, is informed by the inquiries I have performed alongside Andrew Barry on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and the Namkahvani HPP. Mapping the controversies surrounding these infrastructural projects in Italy and Georgia, we observed how specific forms of knowledge come into existence from the encounter of different constituencies involved in a single struggle. In both cases, the forms of expertise born out of these tactical alliances have been successfully deployed to challenge the financial forecasting that justifies large infrastructures. During my Research Fellowship, I aim to carry these insights forward into future collaborations aimed at developing an alternative, recursive model of forecasting the hazards connected to large infrastructure.

Publications

Journal articles

• Knox, H. Gambino, E. (2023) “infrastructure”. Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Anthropology. http://doi.org/10.29164/23infrastructure
• Gambino, E., (2022) “For Other Logistical Worlds: Accretion and Infrastructure in the Making of Anaklia Port”, Connections. https://www.connections.clio-online.net/article/id/fda-133279
• Gambino, E., Jenss, A. (2021) ‘The Politics of Seamless Connectivity’, in Aiken, G., Rella, L., Van Veelen, B. ‘Intervention on the Democratic Politics Of Infrastructure’, Political Geography, Vol 87, No. 102378, pp 4-6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102378
• Gambino, E. (2020) ‘Logistica in (s)composizione: spazio-tempo, espropriazione e infrastrutture nel Caucaso Meridionale’, Scienza e Politica, Vol. 11, No. 2. https://iris.unica.it/retrieve/handle/11584/300242/422382/2020%20Una%20logistica%20della%20colonizzazione%20interna%20nell%27Europa%20moderna.pdf
• Gambino, E. (2019) “The Georgian Logistics Revolution: Questioning Seamlessness Across the New Silk Road” Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 190-206. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/workorgalaboglob.13.1.0190
• Barry, A., Gambino, E. (2019). ‘Pipeline Geopolitics: Subaquatic Materials and the Tactical Point’, Geopolitics, Vol 25, No. 1, pp 109-142. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2019.1570921

Edited volumes

• Benvegnú, C., Cuppini, N., Frapporti, M., Gambino, E., Millesi, F., Peano, I., Pirone, M. (2021) Gendering Logistics: Feminist Approaches for the Analysis of Supply-Chain Capitalism. Bologna: University of Bologna Press. ISBN 9788854970601. DOI 10.6092/unibo/amsacta/6745.

Book chapters

• Gambino, E., Peano, I. (2021) ‘Introduction: Reading logistical Operations Through the Prism of Gender’, in Benvegnú et al (eds) Gendering Logistics: Feminist Approaches for the Analysis of Supply-Chain Capitalism. Bologna: University of Bologna Pres, pp 7-13.
• Gambino, E. (2021) ‘Big Dick Energy at the End of the World: Technopolitics for a Global Hustle’, in Benvegnú et al (eds) Gendering Logistics: Feminist Approaches for the Analysis of Supply-Chain Capitalism. Bologna: University of Bologna Press, pp61-75.
• Aslanishvili T., Gambino, E. (2018) “Remaking Anaklia: Landscapes of Trial and Error Across the New Silk Road” in Anfrage // Werkleitz Festival Catalogue 2018 HOLEN UND BRINGEN, pp 72-79.
• Gambino, E. (2017) ‘The Gran Ghetto: Migrant Labour and Militant Research in Southern Italy’. De Genova, N. (ed) The Borders of ‘Europe’: Autonomy of Migration, Tactics of Bordering. Durham: Duke University Press, pp 255-281. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822372660-011

Other Publications

• Gambino, E. (2021) “Excavating BRI Futures”. Transformations, downstream effects of the BRI, Munk School for Global Affairs and Public Policy (available at https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/beltandroad/article/excavating-bri-futures/)
• Gambino, E. (2021) “Infrastructures to Other Words”. Into the Black Box (available at https://www.intotheblackbox.com/articoli/black-box-east-infrastructures-to-other-worlds/)
• Barry, A., Gambino, E. (2020) ‘ Unsustainable Transition? Hydropower and the Post-Covid Recovery in Georgia (available at https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/unsustainable-transition-hydropower-and-post-covid-recovery-georgia/)
• Aslanishvili, T., Gambino, E. (2020) “Anaklia, la città del futuro che non c’è”. Il Giornale dell’Architettura (available at https://ilgiornaledellarchitettura.com/2020/11/09/anaklia-la-citta-del-futuro-che-non-ce/)
• Gambino, E. (2020) ‘Logistical Nightmares: What Can We Learn From the Crisis of Anaklia Deep Sea Port’, 1Tv პირველი არხი (available at https://1tv.ge/analytics/logistical-nightmares-what-can-we-learn-from-the-crisis-of-anaklia-deep-sea-port/)
• Gambino, E. (2019). ‘Georgia, the South Caucasus and the BRI: a Situated View’, Caucasus Analytical Digest, Vol 11, pp 10-14. https://css.ethz.ch/en/publications/cad/cad-all-issues/details.html?id=/n/o/1/1/no_110_chinas_belt_and_road_initiative_a
• Gambino, E. (2019). ‘Beyond Seamlessness: the Making and Unmaking of a Logistical Territory’, Lo Squaderno, Vol 51, pp 59-63.
• Gambino, E. (2018) . ‘The New silk Road and Logistical Geopolitics’, Society and Space Open Site. (available at http://societyandspace.org/2018/03/27/the-new-silk-road-and-logistical-geopolitics/)
• Gambino, E., (2017). La Nuova via della Seta. Euronomade (available at http://www.euronomade.info/?p=10029).

Video works

• Aslanishvili, T., Gambino, E. (research and script) (2022) “A State in a State”, Germany, 47′. Film developed with the support of the Han Nekfens Foundation—Fundació Antoni Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2020. https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/479574/tekla-aslanishvili-a-state-in-a-state/
• Aslanishvili, T., Gambino, E. (2020) ‘Remaking Anaklia, the Architecture of Ruin’, lecture performance commissioned by the 2nd Tbilisi Architecture Biennial. https://youtu.be/Jz4QKd5hOgc
• Aslanishvili, T., Gagoshidze, G. (2021) “The Stone of Hell”, Georgia, Germany, 26′. Video-Essay commissioned by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Tbilisi. (script editor). https://pact-zollverein.de/en/programme/tekla-aslanishvili-giorgi-gago-gagoshidze-stone-hell

Teaching

Lecturer

• Associate Lecturer PO52052A Politics and Technology, Goldsmiths (2nd year BA)
• Visiting Lecturer ANTH0073 Digital Infrastructure, UCL (3rd year BA, MA).
• Visiting Lecturer GEOG0065 Geographies of Infrastructure (3rd year BA).
• Guest Tutor + Trip Coordinator, DS3 MA Architecture Studio, Oxford Brookes (Master in Architecture year 2).

Post graduate teaching assistant, UCL

• 2021/2022 – GEOG0065: Geographies of Infrastructure (3rd year BA)
• 2020/2021 – GEOG0056: Geopolitical Events (3rd year BA), GEOG0039: Migration and Transnationalism (3rd year BA), GEOG0086: Advanced Geopolitics (3rd year BA)
• 2019/2020 – GEOG0084: Geo-Politics (MA), GEOG0023: Economic Geography (2nd year BA)

Guest lectures

• Jan 2021 – Guest Lecture Ma Research Architecture: “Key Works: Collaboration, Conflicts and Negotiation Within and Against The Field”, Centre For Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College.
• Oct 2019 – Guest Lecture Ma Environment Politics and Society, “Logistical Geopolitics”, Geography Department, UCL.
• Jan 2019 – Guest Lecture Ma Program Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College: “(Re)making the Georgian New Silk Road”, Centre For Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College.
• Jan 2018 – Guest Lecture Ma Program Research Architecture: “The Logistics of trial and error on the Black Sea”, Centre For Research Architecture, Goldsmiths College
• Sep 2017 – Guest Lecture Ma Program Policy Lab: “Participatory Research and Militant Ethnographies”, Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths College

External activities

• Founding member of the Sited Logistics Network
• Member of Environment, Politics and Society, UCL
• Associate-fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• Member of the Fair Infrastructure Platform, Tbilisi
• Member of Georgian Urban Sketchers