University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Visiting Fellow

Duration of stay: April-May 2022

Contact: jpnewell@umich.edu

Joshua Newell is an associate professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. He is a broadly trained human-environment geographer, whose research focuses on questions related to urban sustainability, resource consumption, and environmental and social justice. Newell’s current research can be divided into two primary areas of interest. The first, Urban Infrastructure and Form, focuses on structural features of the urban form (e.g. built environment, transport, energy, and water infrastructure). The second research area, Urban Consumption and Commodities, focuses on the interrelationships between the consumption of consumer products, our responsibilities as global 'green' urban citizens, and the role of governance mechanisms and frameworks (including local institutions) in regulating product consumption. His research approach is often multi-scalar and integrative and, in addition to theory and method found in geography and urban planning, he draws upon principles and tools of industrial ecology, and spatial analysis.  Joshua teaches Sustainability and Society, a large undergraduate course, and Urban Sustainability, which is designed for MS and PhD students. He also leads a year-long interdisciplinary PhD student workshop that grapples with theories and concepts of urbanism, sustainability, and resilience.

Joshua Newell will be part of the session “Meet the Partner: Ann Arbor” on Thursday 5 May, at 16:15. With three scholars from Ann Arbor currently in Regensburg, he and his colleagues will be happy to engage in discussion on how research and teaching works in Ann Arbor, what approaches there are to Area Studies and other fields, as well as offering advice to anyone who would like to visit the University of Michigan as a ScienceCampus fellow or through other formats. On 3 May 2022 he will give a talk titled "Tracking the Economic Geography of Commodities:  Avocados, beef, and wood". It takes place at CITAS - SG.214 at the University of Regensburg - and also online. More details can be found here.

Photo credit: Dave Brenner