Professor Melissa Butcher
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Melissa is a social and cultural geographer using ethnographic, visual and participatory methodologies to examine questions of identity and belonging within contexts of cultural change and contested urban space. She has been Principle and Co-Investigator on several UKRI, European and ARC funded projects in London, Delhi, Singapore and Sydney, including 'Learning from Small Cities: Governing Imagined Futures and the Dynamics of Change in India's Smart Urban Age' (2018-2020, ESRC-ICSSR), 'SINGLE: Entanglements of Urban Space, Cultural Encounters and Gendered Identities in Delhi and Shanghai' (www.hera-single.de, 2013-16,HERA), and 'Creating Hackney as Home' (www.hackneyashome.co.uk, 2013-2015, ESRC). Melissa has taught in universities in the UK, Ireland and Australia, as well as working in the corporate and development sectors, practicing as an intercultural consultant, trainer and facilitator in industry, community and government sectors. Melissa presents and writes regularly on issues relating to cultural diversity, mobility, gentrification, urban and youth cultures, social cohesion, globalisation, and global human resources management.
Qualifications
- PhD, Macquarie University, Sydney, 2000
- MPhil, Trinity College, Dublin, 1994
- BA (Journalism), Charles Sturt University, Australia, 1988
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- Assistant Dean, Geography
Professional memberships
Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
ORCID
0000-0001-5010-9133 -
Research
Research
Research interests
- Globalisation and cultural change
- Cultural diversity and social cohesion
- Identity, difference and belonging
- Urban transformation and gentrification
- Youth and urban cultures
- Intercultural training and skills
Research overview
Melissa’s current research focuses on exploring the dynamics of cultural change in globalising cities: analysing urban space as a contested site of meaning and power reflected in intercultural encounters; understanding how these encounters are patterned by the built environment and affective responses to cultural change; and documenting how skills such as reflexivity and empathy are deployed to navigate diverse urban spaces, to manage positions of difference and possibility, and to resist patterns of exclusion. She is currently a Co-investigator on the ESRC-ICSSR funded project Learning from Small Cities: governing imagined futures and the dynamics of change in India's smart urban age (2018-2020). Melissa was UK principal investigator on the EU HERA funded SINGLE project (2013-2016). Working with partners at the Universities of Heidelberg and Amsterdam, this project analysed intersections of class, gender and cultural encounter in Delhi and Shanghai, examining how mobility and cultural encounter impacted on women’s experience of the city. Melissa was also principal investigator of the ESRC funded Hackney as Home project exploring young people’s experience of urban transformation and gentrification in the east London borough of Hackney (2013-2015). This project aimed to understand the experience of space and space use in the formation of home and belonging, the impact of affective responses to change and difference in that process, as well as evaluate the effectiveness of visual media in capturing the sensory experience of the city. Melissa continues to work in the borough with youth and arts organisations.
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I am interested in supervising in the following areas:
- Cultural impact of globalisation
- Cultural diversity, encounter, identity and belonging
- Urban cultures, redevelopment and gentrification
- Mobility and cultural change
Current doctoral researchers
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IRNA NURLINA BINTE MASRON
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IRNA NURLINA BINTE MASRON
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MEIYUN MENG
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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JASWINDER BLACKWELL-PAL
Teaching
I currently teach on the following modules:
- Cities in the Global South
- Critical Social Geographies
- Contesting Culture
- Research Applications in Human Geography: Delhi field trip
- Understanding the City
Teaching modules
- Literature Review (GGPH067S6)
- Introduction to Human Geography (GGPH070S4)
- Research Applications in Human Geography, Delhi Field Trip Level 6 (SSGE085S6)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Butcher, Melissa (2022) Being single, being ‘wrong’: pain and the remaking of gendered subjectivity in Delhi. Gender, Place & Culture ISSN 0966-369X.
- Butcher, Melissa (2022) Qualitative research methods I: emotionally engaged approaches to working with vulnerable participants. Progress in Human Geography 46 (3), pp. 907-914. ISSN 0309-1325.
- Butcher, Melissa (2019) Becoming ‘ghosts’: recalling the impact of urban change on the lived experience of multi-culture. Ethnic and Racial Studies 42 (3), pp. 387-394. ISSN 0141-9870.
- Butcher, Melissa (2019) ‘Sir, it was my right of way!’ Examining cultural change and the contested entitlements of automobility. Mobilities 14 (6), pp. 795-808. ISSN 1745-0101.
- Butcher, Melissa and Maclean, Kate (2018) Gendering the City: the lived experience of transforming cities, urban cultures and spaces of belonging. Gender, Place & Culture 25 (5), pp. 686-694. ISSN 0966-369X.
- Butcher, Melissa (2017) Defying Delhi’s enclosures: strategies for managing a difficult city. Gender, Place & Culture 25 (5), pp. 727-742. ISSN 0966-369X.
- Butcher, Melissa (2017) Re-working encounter: the role of reflexivity in managing difference. Social & Cultural Geography 20 (9), pp. 1198-1217. ISSN 1464-9365.
- Dickens, L. and Butcher, Melissa (2016) Going public? Re-thinking visibility, ethics and recognition through participatory research praxis. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 41 (4), pp. 528-540. ISSN 0020-2754.
- Butcher, Melissa and Dickens, L. (2016) Spatial dislocation and affective displacement: youth perspectives on gentrification in London. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 40 (4), pp. 800-816. ISSN 1468-2427.
- Butcher, Melissa (2004) Universal processes of cultural change: reflections on the identity strategies of Indian and Australian youth. Journal of Intercultural Studies 25 (3), pp. 215-231. ISSN 0725-6868.
- Butcher, Melissa (2003) Revisioning Sydney. Space and Culture 6 (2), pp. 187-194. ISSN 1206-3312.
Book
- Butcher, Melissa and Thomas, M., eds. (2003) Ingenious: emerging youth cultures in urban Australia. Melbourne, Australia: Pluto Press. ISBN 9781864032246.
- Butcher, Melissa (2003) Transnational television, cultural identity and change: when STAR came to India. London, UK: Sage. ISBN 9780761997665.
Book Review
- Butcher, Melissa (2020) Feminist city: claiming space in a man-made world.
- Butcher, Melissa (2018) Book Review: Chanda, I. 2017. Selfing the City: Single Women Migrants and Their Lives in Kolkata. New Delhi: Sage..
Book Section
- Butcher, Melissa (2016) Re-imagining home: visualising the multiple meanings of place. In: Nairn, K. and Kraftl, P. and Skelton, T. (eds.) Space, Place and Environment. Geographies of Children and Young People. Singapore: Springer Singapore. pp. 1-18. ISBN 9789814585903.