Marcus Nyman BA (Hons), MSc

PhD Student in Geography

My research is concerned with the intersection of urban nature, food and the urban commons, combining aspects of (urban) political ecology with more-than-human geographies. More broadly speaking, I am interested in the sustainability and governance of food systems, the politics of urban space and nature, the role of environmental knowledges, as well as the geographies of sport.

Biography

Education

• (2010 – 2011) MSc Environment, Science and Society, Department of Geography, University College London
• (2007 – 2008) Universitá degli Studi di Pavia, Italy
• (2005 – 2009) BA (Hons) Politics and Sociology, University of Warwick

Career

• (2012 – 2015) Senior Policy & Outreach Coordinator, ISEAL Alliance, London
• (2010 – 2011) Research & Administrative Assistant, Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, London

Funding and awards

• (2017) Downing College Graduate Travel Fund Grant
• (2016) Downing College Graduate Travel Fund Grant
• (2016) Department of Geography Transferable Skills Grant
• (2015 – 2018) PhD Studentship Award – ERC funded project ‘Rethinking Urban Nature’

Research

My doctoral research forms part of the ERC project ‘Rethinking Urban Nature’ and focuses on the politics and geographies of urban food and nature by exploring informal practices of food production, gathering, exchange and consumption in cities. It draws on political ecological accounts, as well as thinking within the sphere of more-than-human geographies, and connects (re)emergent practices of ‘foraging’ in London to scientific, legal, historical and cultural accounts of urban nature. Using ethnographic, visual and archival methods, it explores how embodied practices of engagement with wild plants and fungi for food and other purposes have and continue to offer alternative renderings of nature, cities and urban life. In so doing, I aim to reappraise our understandings of (the) ‘urban commons’ and the potential role that unplanned and informal socio-ecological assemblages can play in critical urban geographies.

Publications

• Nyman, M. (2019). ‘Food, meaning-making and ontological uncertainty: Exploring ‘urban foraging’ and productive landscapes in London’, Geoforum, 99, pp. 170-180
• Tregurtha, N. & Nyman, M. (2014). ‘Voluntary standards for sustainable food systems: the role of public procurement’, in A. Meybeck & S. Redfern (eds.) Voluntary Standards for Sustainable Food Systems: Challenges and Opportunities. A Workshop of the FAO/UNEP Programme on Sustainable Food Systems 11 – 13 June 2013, Rome. FAO/UNEP: Rome, pp 205-214.
• Nyman, M. (2011), The Fox in the City: exploring affective human-animal relations in London. [MSc Thesis] University College London

External activities

Other activities:

• (2017-2018) Co-convenor: Vital Geographies Research Group, Department of Geography
• (2016 – 2017) Co-convenor: Natures, Cultures and Knowledges Research Group, Department of Geography
• (2016 – 2018) Convenor, City Seminars, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge
• (2016 – ) Member American Association of Geographers
• (2011 – 2012) Assistant Manager/Researcher, Animal Estates London HQ, project by Fritz Haeg and in conjunction with Arup Foresight, Arup Phase 2, London.
• (2009) Contributor/Documentary Film Team, Students at Work: Learning to Labour in Higher Education, with The Reinvention Centre, University of Warwick.