Ian G. R. Shaw

M.A. Student, Geography & Regional Development

Research Assistant to John Paul Jones III

B.Sc. (Hons) First Class. Lancaster University (UK) 2006

E-mail: ishaw@email.arizona.edu

426 Harvill Building, Box #2
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA

Research

Why are you so unhappy?
Because 99.9 percent
Of everything you think you do
Is for yourself---
And there isn't one.

--Wei Wu Wei

I am interested in joining a conversation between Western/Dualistic narratives of space, and what I call 'Eastern ontologies of space.' These insights can be discovered in Mahayana and Zen Buddhism, as well as Taoism. I hope to challenge the sedimented meanings of space, place and time by critically engaging Eastern thought. It is hoped that these conversations will open new paths into current geographic inquiry, as well as invigorating intellectual and day-to-day thought.

In terms of research activities, I am working alongside Paul Robbins and John Paul Jones III in investigating the institutional production(s) and understanding(s) of mosquito governance in the Southwest. Specifically, my work involves attempting to trace the ways in which institutional ontologies and epistemologies of space affect the management of mosquitoes.

Project Involvement

• 2006. "Geographies of Insects and Institutions: Mosquito Governance in the US Southwest," with Andrew Comrie, Paul Robbins, John Paul Jones III, and Elizabeth Willott. National Science Foundation.
• 2006. (with Barney Warf) "Warped Dioramas: The Rhizomatic Spatialities of Videogames"
• 2007. (with Keith Woodward) Book Chapter in Anderson, B. and Harrison, P. (Eds) Taking Place: Non-representational Theories and Human Geography.
• 2007. (with Vinnie Del Casino and John Paul Jones III) 'Spacing Institutions'.