Banfield, Dr Janet

Academic background

Jan gained her BA (Hons) in geography at Oxford University in 1997, and an MSC in Environmental Science, Policy and Planning at the University of Bath in 1998. Following this, Jan pursued a career primarily in local government, working in areas including sustainable development, corporate planning and strategic policy at senior management level. Subsequently, Jan obtained a postgraduate diploma and Master of Research degree in psychology at Oxford Brookes. This led to increasing interest in ideas of embodied cognition and brought her back to Oxford for her DPhil in geography, which she completed in 2014. Her doctoral research drew on non-representational thinking in both geography and psychology to explore the emergence of spatiality and subjectivity through artist practice.

Research interests

Jan’s research focuses on the role of implicit or pre-reflective registers of experience in processes of material transformation that generate subjectivities (both human and nonhuman) and spatialities. She is also interested in innovation within qualitative methods, integrating concepts and practices from psychology and geography to inform arts-based and practice-based methodological development. Specifically, Jan’s research explores the three-fold employment of artistic and other cultural practices in: the articulation of implicit or pre-reflective registers of experience; the generation of spatial awareness and practice; and the interrogation of disciplinary concepts and concerns.

Recent Publications

Books and book chapters:

Banfield, J. (2023) Improficiency and the Professionalization of Undisciplined Practices. In: Glückler J, Winch C, Punstein, AM (eds) Professions and Proficiency (Knowledge and Space, Vol 18). Cham: Springer International

Banfield, J. (2022) Spaces of Puppets in Popular Culture: Grotesque Geographies of the Borderscape. Routledge: Milton Park

Banfield, J. (2020) Making as geographical method. In A de Dios and L Kong, Handbook on the Geographies of Creativity, Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA, 333-351

Banfield, J. (2020) Neighbourhood Planning: Place, Space and Politics. Routledge: Milton Park

Papers:

Smith, R. and Banfield, J. (2023) ‘Grab it and change it, it’s yours’: Affect, attitude and politics in 1970s Northern Irish punk music. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 41 (5) 941-957 (DOI: 10.1177/23996544231165460)

Banfield, J. (2022) From liminal spaces to the spatialities of liminality. Area 54 (4) 610-617 (DOI: 10.1111/area.12791)

Banfield, J. (2022) Walking with Amal: The Politics of the Stranger. Cultural Geographies, 29 (4) 603-609 (DOI: 10.1177/14744740221086266)

Banfield, J., Hampton, S. and Zurek, M. (2022) Towards a pedagogical policy turn in geography. Journal of Geography in Higher Education 46 (2) 161-166 (DOI: 10.1080/03098265.2022.2038101)

Banfield, J. (2021) Challenge in artistic flow experiences: An interdisciplinary intervention. Qualitative Research in Psychology 18 (1) 104-125 (DOI: 10.1080/14780887.2018.1475535)

Banfield, J. (2020) ‘That’s the way to do it!’: Establishing the peculiar geographies of puppetry. Cultural Geographies, 28 (1) 141-156 (DOI: 10.1177%2F1474474020956255)

Lovell, H. and Banfield, J. (2020) Implicit influence on body image: methodological innovation for research into embodied experience. Qualitative Research 22 (1) 40-55 (DOI:10.1177/1468794120974150)