Dr Sara Fregonese BA, MA, PhD

BA Oriental Languages and Cultures (Ca' Foscari University of Venice)
MA Cross-Mediterranean Cooperation (Ca' Foscari University of Venice)
PhD Geography (Newcastle)
Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (University of Birmingham) 

The main empirical focus of Dr Fregonese research is Lebanon, where she has twenty years of research and fieldwork experience. However, she have also conducted fieldwork in several other European locations, using a variety of qualitative research methods. She is the author of  War and The City. Urban Geopolitics in Lebanon (Bloomsbury 2019) and of The Radicals’ City. Urban environment, polarisation, cohesion (Routledge 2016, with Ralf Brand). She is currently the Principal Investigator of the ESRC/ANR/DFG-funded research project Atmospheres of (counter-)terrorism in European cities (2021-2023), a mixed-methods study which explores the felt dimensions of contemporary terror threats and counterterrorism measures in the ordinary experience of cities in Europe. 

I am a member of the Higher Education Academy and my teaching practice aims to foster understanding of the spatial and urban implications of armed conflict and terrorism. My teaching draws heavily on my research and produces an interdisciplinary and case-oriented learning and teaching experience for students. I lead and/or contribute to the following modules in the School:

Year 1

03 36619 LC Tutorials and Study Skills for Geographers

03 36261 LC Fieldwork Project Design and GIS

 

Year 2

03 36298 LI Social and Political Geography

03 36279 LI Statistical methods and tutorials

03 34330 LI Research Labs and Fieldwork: Theory and Practice

 

Year 3

03 30810 LH Cities and Conflict (module Lead)

03 36270 LH Geopolitics and global challenges (module lead)

03 31220 LH Geography and Planning Research (dissertation)

Dr Ian Slesinger (ESRC) – completed 2019

Ms Shannon Oates (GCRF) – 2018 (ongoing, theology & Religion)  

Ms Maya Breau (Baxter Ricard Scholarship) – 2021 (starting)

My research has been supported with funding by: Newcastle University, the British Academy (Post-Doctoral Fellowship; Small Grant), Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), AHRC and ESRC (Open Research Area).  

My research develops in the following areas:

Urban geographies of armed conflict and post-conflict

This substantial strand of my research focuses on the urban manifestations of conflict and post-conflict. It advances intellectual debates on the role of the built environment in conflict, on practices of sovereignty, and on the lived experience of contested cities. This research, originally developed via a doctoral scholarship at Newcastle University, has been subsequently funded by a British Academy post-doctoral fellowship (PDF/2009/428), and resulted in an award-winning monograph (War and the City – Bloomsbury 2019), several sole- and co-authored journal articles, and numerous invited talks.

Urban geographies of counter-terrorism and radicalization in cities

In 2013, I published a co-authored monograph (The Radicals’ City – Routledge) on the role of planning and the urban built environment in political and religious radicalisation, based on ESRC-funded research (ESRC RES-181-25-0028). Recently, I have worked on issues of resilience and the humanities’ role in it as Co-I of an AHRC networking grant (AH/R004331/1), and on the cognate area of counter-terrorism measures and their everyday and felt experience in urban Europe. I am Principal Investigator (PI) of the project “Atmospheres of (counter)terrorism in European cities” (2021- 2023) funded by an Open Research Area (ORA)grant (ES/V01353X/1) funded by ESRC (UK),ANR (France) and DFG (Germany). 

• 2016 -  Chair of the Political Geography Research Group, Royal Geographical Society
• 2016 -   Member, Editorial Board, Fennia
• 2015 -   Foreign member of the board of studies, Doctoral Programme in Geopolitics and Geoeconomics, Niccolò Cusano University, Rome, Italy 
• 2014 -   Editorial board, Geopolitics journal
• 2014 -   Editorial board, “Geopolitics, bodies, materials” book series, Rowman and Littlefield International 
• 2012 -   Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers. 

Referee for:

• Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
• Italy's National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) 

Peer review for:

Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Geographical Journal, Cultural Geographies, Journal of Urban Technology, Security Dialogue, Urban Geography, Geography Compass, Geopolitics, Progress in Planning, Political Geography.