Staff profile

Biography and Research

I am a social and cultural geographer interested in encounterable life and the geographies of difference with a particular focus on contested forms of coexistence.

My current research focuses on the social, cultural and political dimensions of more-than-human cities and the ethical questions and challenges that are posed by species on the move. These questions are explored in depth through my work on urban kittiwakes in the UK and Norway, which examines the growth of seabird colonies in urban areas, the implications for urban planning and community, and how the presence of oceanic species are changing the way that we think about cities, threatened species, and coastal geographies. As part of this work, I am involved in collaborations with marine ecologists and anthropologists.

My interest in the contested politics of coexistence builds on my wider research around the geographies of encounter, the politics of tolerance, and manifestations of conflict that fold in questions of race, culture and species. It asks how people learn to live with difference in diverse contexts.

My recent book Robin offers a social and cultural history of the robin, cutting across varied geographies, folklore, art, literature and the ambivalent histories of the colour red. It is part of Reaktion’s Animal Series.

Prior to joining the department in 2017, I held lectureships and teaching positions at the University of Hull and Durham University and was a senior lecturer at the University of Manchester. I completed a BA, MA, and PhD (2011) at Durham University.

Keywords: encounterable life; difference; cities; affect and emotion; cultural theory; animal studies; environmental humanities; urban theory.

• Geographies of Life

• Seabirds in the City

• 2021: Solidarity in Diversity(£216594.28 from Interreg (ERDF) Europe)
• 2019: ESRC IAA Festival of Social Science Event, The Urban Kittiwake Project, ESRC, £1000.00, 2019-04-01 - 2019-03-31
• 2018: RI150026: IAA Multispecies Entanglements, ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research, £1000.00, 2018-06-01 - 2019-01-31

• 0000: Editor: Social & Cultural Geography

Available for media contact about:

• Environmental change: Kittiwakes
• Environmental change: Urban wildlife

Authored book

• Wilson, Helen F. (2022). Robin. Reaktion.

Book review

• Featherstone, David., Wilson, Helen F., Crossan, John & Sanyal, Romola (2017). Book review symposium: Metropolitan Preoccupations: The Spatial Politics of Squatting in Berlin. Urban Studies 54(1): 292.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2012). Book Review: A Women’s Berlin: Building the Modern City. Urban Studies 49(1): 225.

Chapter in book

• Farías, Mónica & Wilson, Helen F. (2020). Voluntary Spaces. In Research Ethics for Human Geography. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Sage, London.
• Darling, Jonathan & Wilson, Helen F. (2020). Geography and Ethics. In Research Ethics for Human Geography. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Sage.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2020). Data Management. In Research Ethics for Human Geography. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Sage, London.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2020). Anonymity. In Research Ethics for Human Geography. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Sage, London.
• Lobo, Michele, Kelly, David & Wilson, Helen F. (2020). Participatory Approaches. In Research Ethics for Human Geography. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Sage, London.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2019). Animal Encounters: a genre of contact. In Animal Encounters: Contact, Interaction and Relationality. Bohm, A. & Ullrich, J. J.B.Metzler.
• Wilson, Helen F, Burman, E, Miles, S & Warren, S (2019). Other(ed) childhoods: supplementary schools and the politics of learning. In Intersectionality and Difference in Childhood and Youth: Global Perspectives. Von Benzon, N. & Wilkinson, C. Routledge.
• Wilson, Helen F (2018). On the paradox of 'organised' encounter. In Cultural Encounters as Intervention Practices. Christiansen, Lene Bull, Galal, Lise Paulsen & Hvenegard-Lassen,Kirsten Routledge.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2017). Building Coalitions: Solidarities, friendships, and tackling inequality. In Place, Diversity and Solidarity. Oosterlynck, S., Schuermans, N. & Loopmans, M. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 51-70.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2016). Encounters. In Urban Theory: New Critical Perspectives. Jayne, M. & Ward, K. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 109-121.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2016). Encountering Havana: texts, aesthetics, and documentary encounters. In Encountering the City: Urban Encounters from Accra to New York. Darling, J. & Wilson, H.F Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 203-220.
• Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan (2016). The possibilities of encounter. In Encountering the City: Urban Encounters from Accra to New York. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 1-24.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2016). Sonic geographies, sound walks and more-than-representational methods. In The Auditory Culture Reader. Bull, M. & Back, L. Bloomsbury. 163-172.

Edited book

• Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan (2020). Research Ethics for Human Geography. Sage.
• Darling, Jonathan & Wilson, Helen F. (2016). Encountering the City: Urban Encounters from Accra to New York. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

Journal Article

• Wilson, Helen F. (2023). Coming to terms with affective infrastructure. Dialogues in Human Geography 13(1): 81–85.
• Wilson, Helen F (2022). Arrival cities and the mobility of concepts. Urban Studies 59(16): 3459-3468.
• Wilson, H.F. (2022). Seabirds in the city: urban futures and fraught coexistence. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 47(4): 1137-1151.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2020). Discomfort: Transformative encounters and social change. Emotion, Space and Society 37: 100681.
• Antonsich, M, Skey, M., Sumartojo, S., Merriman, P., Stephens, A.C., Tolia-Kelly, D., Wilson, H.F. & Anderson, B. (2020). The spaces and politics of affective nationalism. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 38(4): 579.
• Wilson, Helen F. & Anderson, Ben (2020). Detachment, disaffection, and other ambivalent affects. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space 38(4): 591.
• Anderson, B, Wilson, H.F., Foreman, P, Heslop, J, Ormerod, E & Maestri, G (2020). Brexit: Modes of Uncertainty and Futures in an Impasse. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 45(2): 256-269.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2019). Contact zones: Multispecies scholarship through 'Imperial Eyes'. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 2(4): 712-731.
• Anderson, B. & Wilson, H.F. (2018). Everyday Brexits. Area 50(2): 291-295.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2017). On the Paradox of ‘Organised’ Encounter. Journal of Intercultural Studies 38(6): 606-620.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2017). On geography and encounter. Progress in Human Geography 41(4): 451-471.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2015). An urban laboratory for the multicultural nation? Ethnicities 15(4): 586-604.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2014). The Possibilities of Tolerance: Intercultural Dialogue in a Multicultural Europe. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 32(5): 852-868.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2014). Multicultural learning: parent encounters with difference in a Birmingham primary school. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 39(1): 102-114.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2013). Post-socialist Cities and Urban Studies: Transformation and Continuity in Eurasia. Urban Studies 50(16): 3463-3471.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2013). Collective life: parents, playground encounters and the multicultural city. Social & Cultural Geography 14(6): 625-648.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2013). Learning to think differently: Diversity training and the ‘good encounter’. Geoforum 45: 73-82.
• Wilson, H. F. (2012). Living with difference and the conditions for dialogue. Dialogues in Human Geography 2(2): 225-227.
• Wilson, H.F. (2011). Passing Propinquities in the Multicultural City: the everyday encounters of bus passengering. Environment and Planning A 43(3): 634-649.

Other (Print)

• Wilson, Helen F. (2017). The Geography of Brexit.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2017). The rise of intolerance? Brexit and the problem with stasis. 25-27.
• Wilson, Helen F. (2016). BREXIT: ON THE RISE OF ‘(IN)TOLERANCE’. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space (open site)