Dr Joanne (Jo) Norcup is an interdisciplinary historical and cultural geographer whose research interests are in the comparative histories and cultural geographies of geographical education and knowledge-making.
She is currently an honorary research fellow in the School of Geography, University of Glasgow, and in the Yesu Persuad Centre for Caribbean Studies, Warwick University.
Professional Affiliations.
- Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG)
- Conference Officer of the Historical Geography Research Group, RGS-IBG (2018 – 2021)
- Member of the Royal Historical Society.
Research.
Jo’s research is informed by a range of feminist and intersectional ideas that enable diverse and dissenting ways of thinking, writing, representing, performing, and reconstructing the world.
Working across a range of historical and cultural materials to inform contemporary debates, current research includes the following:
- DIY education publications & archives.
- Decolonizing education.
- Public Library Geographies.
- Geographies of popular TV comedy and drama.
- Vernacular geographical knowledges.
Please look to the relevant section in this website for further details.
Public engagement and impact.
- Details concerning public engagement and impact pertaining to specific research areas can be found on the respective research pages on this website.
- Jo is the founder and director of Geography Workshop productions. Public engagement initiatives can be found on the Geography Workshop website. Please see the Geography Workshop section of this website for further details.
- Jo is also a columnist for the East Midlands independent periodical The Beestonian, and continues writing about the street trees of the local area in her column Trees of Beeston. Unedited versions of these columns can be found on the Geography Workshop website.
Achievements and awards.
In addition to academic awards (see CV, available on request), Jo’s most recent achievement was solving the inaugural P.D. James Murder mystery dinner held at St Hilda’s Crime festival, St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford in 2017. The weekend was hosted by Val McDermid and the mystery itself devised by Ann Cleeves. That Jo solved this in a room packed full of international crime fiction writers remains a highlight of her recent life, and she puts her success down to the curiosity inculcated by many years of geographical sleuthing cultivated by historical geography training, the love of boardgames and quaffing single-malt in honour of Colin Dexter.