UCL Department of Geography
26 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AP

Urban Laboratory
3rd Floor
132 Hampstead Road
London NW1 2BX

s.jasper@ucl.ac.uk
www.sandrajasper.net

UK +44 (0)7702233583
DE +49 (0)1784054403

Sandra Jasper

Research Topic

Cyborg Imaginations: nature, technology, and urban space in West Berlin

Commenced Oct 2008
Expected completion Dec 2014

Supervisors

Matthew Gandy, Department of Geography, UCL
Peg Rawes, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL

News

Disused Transport Infrastructure - UCL Symposium
Moving to Berlin - AAG, Los Angeles
The Sound of Berlin - Café Oto, London

Current Employment

Since July 2014, Research Associate on ‘Rethinking Urban Nature’, a five-year project funded by the European Research Council.

Dissertation and Research Interests

My PhD thesis investigates the the role of West Berlin as an experimental city through a number of interlinked spaces, cultural and scientific practices and intellectual discourses. It is structured around four "fields of experimentation" that illuminate distinct aspects of the cultural and material particularities of the island city. Case studies range from modernist experimentation in Hans Scharoun's Philharmonie to cultural appropriations of spaces that emerged as accidental by-products of the city's division; from experimentation in the arts to the city's role as "radical intellectual island".

Awards

2008-2009, 2010-2012 - PhD Studentship, UCL Urban Laboratory through the Grand Challenges of Sustainable Cities, University College London (3-years)
2009-2010 - Graduate Research Scholarship for Cross Disciplinary Training at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
2009 - Graduate School Research Projects Fund, University College London
2010 - University of London Central Research Fund

Publications

2014 ‘Acoustic ecology: Hans Scharoun and modernist experimentation in West Berlin’, in Gandy, M. & Nilsen, B. (eds) The Acoustic City (Berlin: Jovis), pp. 145-155

2013 ‘Architecture for Expanded Listening. Hans Scharoun’s Philharmonie in Berlin’, in Cascella D. & Inverni, P. (eds) What Matters Now (What Can’t You Hear?), Noch Publishing [ebook]

2011 ‘Phantom limbs: Encountering the hidden spaces of West Berlin’, in Gandy, M (ed) Urban Constellations (Berlin: Jovis), pp. 153-157

2008 ‘Sexualität und Raum’, in Feministisches Geo-RundMail, 37, (May 2008), 1-39 (transl.: ‘Sexuality and space’)

2005 ‘Die Folgen der rhetorischen Modernisierung für weibliche Berufs- und Lebensläufe’, in METAR – Manuskripte zur Empirischen, Theoretischen und Angewandten Regionalforschung, 45, (2005), 15-21 (transl.: ‘The rhetorics of modernization and consequences for womens’ careers’)

2005 ‘(T)Raumberuf freie/r AusstellungsmacherIn?’ in METAR – Manuskripte zur Empirischen, Theoretischen und Angewandten Regionalforschung, 45, (2005), 42-47 (transl.: ‘Curating - a job market for geographers?’)

2003 ‘Marginalsiedlungen in Bangkok’, in Thailand-Rundschau, 16 (Sept. 2003), 65-71 (transl.: ‘Squatter settlements in Bangkok’)

2003 ‘Entsorgungsproblematik und Scavenging in Bangkok’, in Thailand-Rundschau, 16 (Dec. 2003), 114-117 (transl.: ‘Waste management problems and scavenging in Bangkok’)

Papers/presentations

2014 ‘Akustische Ökologie: Experimentierfeld West Berlin’ paper presented at the ‘Wastelands’ symposium at the University of the Arts (UdK) Berlin, 13 June 2014

2013 ‘Engineering sound: modernist architecture and acoustic design in postwar Berlin’ paper presented at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in London, August 28 – 31, 2013

2013 ‘Acoustic ecology: Hans Scharoun and modernist experimentation in West Berlin’ paper presented at the Annual Association of American Geographers (AAG) conference in Los Angeles, April 9 – 13, 2013, as part of the 'Moving to Berlin' series

2012 ‘The Sound of Berlin’, presentation for TOUCH invites ... an evening of talks & performances curated by London-based audio-visual organisation TOUCH at music and performance venue Café Oto in London. Listen to a "mix" of the evening here Touch invites... Live at Café Oto 17.07.12

2011 ‘Phantom limbs: subterranean Berlin’, paper presented at the '9th Annual Conference of the International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility', Berlin, Germany, 06 October 2011

2011 ‘Cyborg landscapes: divided infrastructures and abandoned spaces in West Berlin’, project presentation at “Cities, Infrastructures, Networks”, workshop of the Italian Society of Science and Technology Studies, Alghero, Italy, 29 June 2011

2010 ‘Cyborg re/productions: encountering Das Argument in West Berlin’, paper presented at 'PhD Research Conversations', Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, 19 January 2010

2009 ‘Situated Research in an Urban Research Project’, workshop paper presented at 'Feminist Methodologies: Situated Knowledge Practices', University of Umeå, Sweden, 10 December 2009

2009 ‘Navigating 21st century feminist urban studies’, paper presented at the '7th European Feminist Research Conference', Utrecht, The Netherlands, 07 June 2009

Teaching and Tutoring

Lecture for MSc Urban Studies, 'Sexuality and the City' for the course 'Cities, Space and Power', convened by Dr Pushpa Arabindoo

Lecture for MSc Urban Studies, 'Cyborg – a materialist trope in feminist art and theory’ for the course 'Cyborg Urbanisation', convened by Professor Matthew Gandy

Postgraduate tutor MSc Urban Studies, 'Urban Practices' module, convened by Professor Matthew Gandy and Dr Andrew Harris

Undergraduate tutor BA Geography, 'Landscape and Power' and 'Methods in Human Geography' modules

‘The Art of Listening’, field recording workshop for students pursuing the MA in Transmedia – Arts, Media and Design held at the College of Art & Design, Sint-Lukas Brussels, Belgium, January 17-21 2011 & January 16-20 2012 & January 21-25 2013. Convened with Mike Harding and BJ Nilsen of London-based audio-visual organisation TOUCH

Postgraduate tutor NOISE European Summer School in Women’s studies: ‘Moving Boundaries in Feminist Theory: Postcoloniality and Posthumanity’, Utrecht, The Netherlands
convened by Rosemarie Buikema

Event Organization

Disused Transport Infrastructure in Research & Practice: Interdisciplinary & Pan-European Perspectives. A Forge Mini-Symposium to be hosted at the Department of Geography, University College London on the 13th of June 2013, co-organised with Sam Merrill [UCL] and Anna Plyushteva [UCL], in collaboration with and funded by the Forge

The Moving to Berlin Series - Multiple sessions at AAG (Association of American Geographers) Annual Conference 2013, Los Angeles, USA, 9th - 13th April 2013 co-organised with Sam Merrill [UCL] and Julia Binder [Humboldt University, Berlin]

Public Outreach/Interviews

Interview for BLOW-UP magazine by Leandro Pisano "Sandra Jasper, Phantom limbs- exploring infrastructures above and beneath the surface of the city" June 2013, pp.12-13

Research Networks

Chair of Stadtkolloquium
Stadtkolloquium is an interdisciplinary academic forum organised by the UCL Urban Laboratory. It aims to encourage the dissemination and discussion of PhD level urban research in a friendly and constructive atmosphere by providing open and informal outlets in which to air theoretical, practical and methodological questions and issues amongst peer PhD students across departments and universities.

Academic Background

Humboldt University Berlin and Free University Berlin, Germany
Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Geography and Gender Studies
(2004 - 2008, continued degree: Diplom)

DAAD study abroad scholarship to Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, CA
Bachelor of Arts in Geography (2002 - 2003)

University of Cologne, Germany
Bachelor of Arts in Geography and English Literature (1998 - 2003)