CV: Dr Sage Brice                                                                                         orcid.org/0000-0001-6384-150X

Sage Brice combines research in cultural geography with a lively contemporary art practice. Her work incorporates drawing, sculpture, and socially-engaged, participatory art practices. She has exhibited widely, including at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol; B-Side Festival, Portland; and Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York. Sage is an Assistant professor at Durham Geography (from Jan 2021), and a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research interrogates the politics of nature, particularly in relation to queer and trans ecologies of identity. She has an affinity for watery and fluid landscapes, and her doctoral research explored problems of identity and ecology in the Huleh wetlands, in northern Israel-Palestine. Her BA Postdoctoral Fellowship examines everyday practices of gender under the pandemic conditions of Covid-19 and how they reflect bigger social questions about the nature of identity and subjectivity. It uses creative and collaborative methods, working with a small group of trans and nonbinary people to develop a graphic narrative output. This research builds on substantial artist-practitioner experience in socially and politically engaged art practice, and informs extensive pedagogical experience delivering original materials for both undergraduate and postgraduate students

Twitter: @Sage_Brice

Education

PhD Human geography                                                                                                        09/2015 – 07/2020

University of Bristol

• Thesis title: Practicing vulnerability: drawing a transindividual politics of ecology and identity
• Thesis supervisors: Dr Merle Patchett (Bristol), Dr Joe Gerlach (Bristol), Prof Owain Jones (Bath Spa)
• Conducted 6 month international residency at the Hula Valley Research Centre in Israel-Palestine, 2016-17 and 6-week preliminary visit, 2016
• Completed 6 week language training in vernacular Palestinian Arabic at Mt Carmel Arabic Immersion, 2016
• Research interests:
• Politics of nature, conservation and ecology; waterscapes
• Gender and sexual identities; ontologies of difference
• Post-structural philosophy; affect and non-representational theories
• Drawing as research method; practice-based research
• Student Teaching Award (runner-up)

MSc Human Geography (Society and Space) – Distinction                                                      09/2014 – 09/2015

University of Bristol

• Outstanding Academic Performance Prize

BA(hons) Environmental Art – Distinction in Historical and Critical Studies                              09/2003 – 06/2006

Glasgow School of Art

• W O Hutcheson Drawing Prize

Awards and scholarships

2021                 British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship – 3 yr independent research project, £317,633.50

                        LKAS Leadership Fellow Fund (declined) – fellowship extension package (competitive), £100,000

2017                 AHRC Student Development Fund – 6 mth international placement, £14,350

                        Cabot Institute Innovation Fund – artist residency, £1,000

                        University of Bristol Alumni Association – travel award, £500

2015-2020        AHRC Student Development Fund – immersive language study and miscellaneous grants, £8,388

                        AHRC Doctoral Studentship award – University of Bristol SWW DTP, £56,224

2015                 School of Geographical Sciences Bursary – MSc Society and Space, University of Bristol, £1,000

2014-2015        Somerset Community Foundation – public art funding grant, £2,000

2008                 Capmark Europe / Society of Wildlife Artists – professional development bursary, £500

Publications (scholarly research outputs)

Brice, S. (accepted for publication) ‘Resistance without subjects: non-representational geographies and the problem of trans-individual identity’ in Sarah Hughes (ed) Critical Geographies of Resistance. Edward Elgar. Due 2023.

• A critical intervention in which I articulate a reading of resistance as friction, suggesting that this offers a more nuanced and complete account of everyday resistant practice than does the binary opposition of passive and active resistance.

Brice, S. (2022) ‘Suspended Animation’, You Are Here: The Journal of Creative Geography, vol. 23, pp. 24–29.

• A concise, practice-based reflection on the material qualities of drawing with peat as a method for studying dissolution and displacement in the conflicted landscape of the Huleh Valley, Israel-Palestine.

Berlin, S. and Brice, S. (2022) ‘The Ontopolitics of Gender as Transindividual Relation’, in Cremin, C. (ed), Deleuze, Guattari, and the Schizoanalysis of Trans Studies, London, Bloomsbury, pp. 9–34.

• A collaborative article in which we argue that within a Deleuzo-Guattarian ontology of bodies, difference does not appear as the fixed property of a body but exists instead within and through a body’s relations. This is important because cis-normative logics of sex and gender demand fixity as a condition of recognition and personhood.

Marr, N., Lantto, M., Larsen, M., Judith, K., Brice, S., Phoenix, J., Oliver, C., Mason, O. and Thomas, S. (2022) ‘Sharing the Field: Reflections of More-Than-Human Field/work Encounters’. GeoHumanities. DOI.org/10.1080/2373566X.2021.2016467.

• A compendium article reflecting on the troubling and promising ways in which human and non-human bodies become unsettled and rearranged through field encounters. My contribution to this piece outlines how moments of failure in observational drawing can alert the observer to the composite nature of human and nonhuman figures.

Brice, S. (2021) ‘Trans Subjectifications: Drawing an (Im)personal Politics of Gender, Fashion, and Style’. GeoHumanities. 7(1): 301–327. DOI.org/10.1080/2373566X.2020.1852881.

• A ‘practices and curations’ contribution drawing out the complexity and nuance in trans experiences of gender expression to suggest a novel theoretical approach to everyday practices of subjectification.

Brice, S. (2020) ‘Geographies of vulnerability: mapping trans-individual geometries of identity and resistance’. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. 45(3): 664-677. Doi.org/10.1111tran.12358

• A provocative article on the political ontology of vulnerability through the lens of gender identity, pushing for a generative realignment of non-representational theories with queer and feminist geographies.

Howkins, A., Dudley, M., Coates, P., Badcoe, T., Brice, S., Haines, D., Merchant, P., Publicover, L., Stone, R., Would, A. (2019) ‘An excursion in the Environmental Humanities: Some thoughts on fieldwork, collaboration and disciplinary identity following a day trip to the island of Lundy’. Green Letters. 23: 39-53. DOI.org/10.1080/14688417.2019.1593211

• A collective article asking how inter-disiciplinary practice might complicate habitual understandings of identity and belonging and unsettle responses to a new place in environmental humanities fieldwork.

Brice, Sage. (2018) ‘Situating skill: contemporary observational drawing as a spatial method in geographical research’. Cultural Geographies. 25(1): 135-158. DOI: 10.1177/1474474017702513

• A methodological paper on the use of observational drawing to cultivate posthumanist sensibilities for research in multi-species landscapes. Ranked in the 25 most cited papers in Cultural Geographies in 2019.

Brice, Sage and Fernandez Arconada, Seila. (2018) ‘Riding the Tide: Socially-engaged art and resilience in an uncertain future’. Governing for Resilience in Vulnerable Places. Taylor and Francis: 224-243

• A collaborative chapter drawing employing critical sensibilities developed in the field of socially-engaged art to complicate and enhance ‘resilience’ thinking in the social sciences.

McEwen, L., Reeves, D., Brice, S [listed as J]., Meadley, FK., Lewis, K., Macdonald, N. (2013) ‘Archiving memories of changing flood risk: Interdisciplinary explorations around knowledge for resilience’. Journal of Arts and Communities, 4(1&2): 46-74

• A collaborative article exploring the critical role of fiction in researching archival memories of wetland landscapes.

In prep

Brice, S. ‘Observational Drawing in Geography: towards a methodology for ‘vulnerable’ research’ – disciplinary intervention article intended for Progress in Human Geography (internal peer review stage)

Practice-based publications (exhibition catalogues and book chapters)

2016     The Crucible, OSR Projects and B-Side Festival, Portland

            Arts of Hospitality, The Hospitality Project, University of Bristol, UK

2014     “Succession” in Dark Mountain collection, vol. 6

            The Power of the Sea, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK

2006     Ruth Barker and Niall Macdonald, Interview: in Placed Upon the Horizon – A Permanent Public Artwork, South Lanarkshire Council, East Kilbride

International conference presentations and invited workshops (selected)

2022     Animating contested landscapes: violent identity-formation and the materiality of the image in duration – invited presentation at Literary and Visual Landscapes Seminar Series, University of Bristol

            Drawing in the Fluid Tense – public workshop at Ad Minoliti’s Feminist School of Painting, BALTIC Gateshead

            Queer River – invited presentation and panel at Queer River / Wet Lands, University of Glasgow

2021     Transindividual ecologies: towards a trans methodology for multi-species geographies – invited presentation at Transgender Spaces, University of Leeds

            Drawing Transversal Ecologies: Field encounters with gender, species, and nation – presentation at On Transversality in Practice and Research conference, Techne DTP, London

2020     ‘Posthumanist methodologies: From theory to geographical practice’ – invited presentation and panel at Posthumanist Geographies seminar series, University of Bristol

2019     Crane-human encounters in field and studio: Drawing the dissolution of unitary identity – presentation at RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London

            Becoming-vulnerable: drawing the dissolution of unitary identity – presentation at ‘Persistence of Vision: Women Reframing Animation’ conference, Goldsmiths University, London

2018     Trans subjectivisations: drawing an (im)personal politics of gender, fashion and style – workshop at the inaugural Critically Queer international conference, University of Bristol

Animating Nonrepresentational Landscapes – presentation at RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2018, Cardiff

            Transindividuation and trans individuation: towards an (im)personal politics for relational landscape geographies – presentation at AAG Annual Meeting, New Orleans

2017     Thinking Ecologies: drawing cross-disciplinary encounters in contested wetland landscapes – presentation at RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London

2016     Watery lives: Drawing multi-species narratives from field and archive – presentation at RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London

2015     An Exercise in Deliberate Anthropomorphism – ‘Invisible Landscapes’ seminar, OSR Projects, Somerset

Uncertain Shores – ‘Landscaping Change: Water’ seminar, Arnolfini, Bristol

2014  Riding the Tide II – ‘Of the Earth’ international conference, Walk On, University of Plymouth

Modelling to meaning: Communicating uncertainty in flood risk science – Centre for Flooding, Communities and Resilience, University of the West of England

Drawing closer: skilled methodologies for more-than-human geography – RGS-IBG Annual Conference,

Crafting – Politics and Matter Research Group, University of Bristol

FutureMuseum – ‘Learning to Live: Floods and Futures’, AHRC Living Flood Histories network, Guildhall Arts Centre, Gloucester

Organisation of conference sessions

2023     (forthcoming) Drawing as Method in Human Geography – AAG Annual Meeting, Denver

            (forthcoming) Queer/Trans Ecologies – AAG Annual Meeting, Denver

2016     Beyond interdisciplinarity: Situating practice in the art-geography nexus – initiated and chaired a themed full day session co-coordinated with Prof Owain Jones, Dr J D Dewsbury and Dr Merle Patchett, at the internationally-attended Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference, London

Exhibitions and public engagement activities (selected)

2022    Think Global Act Bristol – Exhibition, MShed Museum, Bristol

2019    Somali Drylands – Installation, Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, UK

            Ginger Beer 002 – Exhibition, The Island, Bristol, UK

2017  Farmers’ Hour – Radio interview, Upper Galilee Radio, Israel-Palestine

            Crane cultures – Installation, Hula Valley Research Centre, Israel-Palestine

2016  Weather Station II – Exhibition, B-Side Festival, Portland, Dorset , UK

           Imagined Landscapes – Exhibition, RWA, Bristol, UK

2015  The Water Knows All My Secrets – Exhibition, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, US

           Weather Station – Exhibition, OSR Projects, West Coker, Somerset, UK

            Paper Makers – NERC-funded Art-Science collaboration, University of Glasgow, UK

2014    PaThOu – Dutch-English exchange, Wells Cathedral Museum, Somerset, UK

           Speculative Ground: Proposals on Paper – Exhibition, University of Edinburgh, UK

           The Power of the Sea – Exhibition, RWA, Bristol, UK

Employment

2021 >              Assistant Professor of Human Geography, Durham University

2021                 Lecturer in Human Geography, Durham University

2015-19            Various associate and assistant teaching roles, University of Bristol

2009 >              Independent Artist (self-employed)

Teaching Experience (undergraduate and postgraduate)

2022                Geography of Difference: difference and intersectionality                      Assistant professor

BA Human Geography, Durham University

• Contributed original lecture series and seminars on the theme ‘resistance beyond opposition?’ as part of elective 3^rd-yr module (voluntary teaching commitment during research secondment)

2021-22           Theory and Concepts in Contemporary Human Geography                                 Lecturer

BA Human Geography, Durham University

• Created 3 2hr seminars introducing critical concepts from feminist and queer geographies as part of a core 2^nd-yr module

Social Research in Geography

• Developed methods lecture and workshop series introducing 2^nd-yr students to discourse and textual analysis
• Convened and accompanied fieldwork week as part of core 2^nd-yr module, adapting the annual field trip for virtual delivery and supporting students to develop crucial skills in research design and fieldwork in an unfamiliar environment

Supervision

• Supervised 7 undergraduate dissertations to high level attainment of whom 3 achieved 1^st class and 3 were nominated for (and 1 awarded) departmental or national prizes
• Supervised 11 2^nd-yr students through initial phase of dissertation project development, to a high level of attainment
• Academic advisor to cohort of 9 1^st-year students, providing guidance and pastoral support

2017-19            Philosophy and Social Theory for Geographers                          Teaching assistant

BSc Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

• Created original and engaging fortnightly 2hr seminars to support undergraduate learning outcomes in a demanding and intellectually challenging 2^nd-year module
• Taught introduction to key philosophers (Marx, Foucault, Butler, Deleuze & Guattari, Spinoza, Bergson, Simondon, Haraway, Bennett)
• Facilitated non-judgemental and expansive space for students to engage with novel concepts and develop intellectual confidence
• Runner-up for university-wide Student Teaching Award 2018

2015-18            Experimental methods: Drawing                                               Senior associate lecturer

MSc Society and Space, University of Bristol

• Taught innovative artistic and hands-on research methods to postgraduate students, based on my own practice-led research
• Supported students to experiment and progress beyond established competencies
• Coordinated off-campus fieldwork sessions

Animal geographies: zoological gardens; fashioning feathers    Demonstrator

BSc Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

• Guided student groups in both off-campus fieldwork and classroom practicals

2018                 Qualitiative Research Methods: Creative Methods                     Senior associate lecturer

BSc Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

• Composed and delivered a theoretical and practical introduction to creative research methods for undergraduate students
• Expanded students’ concept of research beyond traditional methodologies
• Combined traditional lecture format with hands-on creative workshop

2015                 Drawing connections: public engagement and art in the social realm    Visiting lecturer

Science and Policy module, University of the West of England

• Developed a workshop for postgraduate taught students on a cross-disciplinary module, introducing principles of public art and engagement

Continuing Professional Development

2022    PGCert in Academic Practice (enrolled)

            Higher education teaching qualification delivered by Durham Centre for Academic Development

2019   Training for Social Action Trainers

Training for Change/Campaign Bootcamp, Birmingham

• Participated in advanced-level residential course on transformational pedagogy
• Acquired core skills in facilitation, pedagogy, and managing group dynamics
• Engaged in peer learning with expert international team of social justice campaigners

2015    Starting to Teach

Teacher training, University of Bristol

• Attained qualification to teach undergraduate and postgraduate students
• Gained understanding of key teaching responsibilities including preparedness to handle challenging classroom situations

External responsibilities, memberships and leadership roles

2022 >              Postdoctoral Fellow, American Association of Geographers

2022 >              Artist Advisory Group member, Seeding the Commons, funded by Arts Council England

2021                Artist Steering Group member, Private Weather Diaries, funded by Arts Council England

• Developed skills working with a small team and in an advisory capacity to support research, development, project management, and public engagement in a socially-engaged art project

2019 >              Ad-hoc reviewer, Annals of the AAG, Geography Journal, Area, Cultural Geographies, and Geohumanities

• Improved editorial skills and expertise for academic peer review, with a focus on enhancing coherence and theoretical rigour of submitted articles

2018 >              Founding member, Dandelion Collective

• Facilitating sensitive and trauma-informed transformative workshops to address underlying causes of resistance to trans recognition and inclusion in women’s and feminist spaces

2017-18            Equality and Diversity Representative, AHRC South West and Wales DTP

• Contributed to regular board meetings of the Doctoral Training Partnership, representing LGBT+ students
• Successfully implemented reform to create more inclusive enrolment systems
• Provided strategic guidance on measures to diversify student body

2015 >  Postgraduate Fellow, Royal Geographical Society

• Developed organisational and curatorial competencies, coordinating a full-day special session on creative research methodologies at the RGS-IBG