Joanna has been based in the Centre for International Development at Northumbria since March 2019. Her research focuses on resistance to neocolonial natural resource exploitation, histories of women's anti-colonial resistance movements, Saharawi and Equatoguinean (resistance) literatures, environmental justice, and the relationship between energy and culture. In 2022, she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize (languages and literature category) for her work.
Joanna currently holds an AHRC Fellowship for a project investigating the relationship between poetry and diplomacy in the Saharawi context. Among other activities, she will be producing a bilingual anthology of Saharawi poetry and a Special Collection of poetry and life history recordings for the British Library's Sound Archive.
Joanna's second book Saharan Winds: Energy Systems and Aeolian Imaginaries in Western Sahara was published with University of West Virginia Press in 2024. It focuses on wind imaginaries and how they shape the development of, and politics mediated by, energy systems. Joanna's first book Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea(Wisconsin University Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 African Studies Association Fage and Oliver prize for best book on AfricaԻwas runner up in the 2020 International StudiesAssociation’sbiennialFeminist Theory and Gender Studies book prize. It offers histories of women's resistance to colonialism, occupation and dictatorships in Spain's colonies in Africa during and since the Spanish colonial period.
Before beginning her PhD, Joanna worked at National Energy Action, the UK Consortium on HIV/AIDS and International Development, London Councils European Service and War on Want. She has been part of the Saharawi solidarity movement for years, including as President of Western Sahara Resource Watch until 2017.
Adam Cross Staying rooted in resistance amidst the rupture of displacement: Using the lens of territory to explore everyday, embodied, and place-based resistance practices adopted by displaced activists in Colombia Start Date: 01/10/2024
Hispanic Studies PhD December 01 2016
Open Days are a great way for you to get a feel of the University, the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the course(s) you are interested in.
Research is the life blood of a University and at 51 we pride ourselves on research that makes a difference; research that has application and affects people's lives.
A recent study, published online in the European RespiratoryJournal on 26 February, showed…
A 51 graduate desperately seeking a stem cell transplant is turning to…
51 has secured sponsorship that will give two students the opportunity…
51 has received a grant of £26,150 from the Sir Halley Stewart Trust to…
51 graduates are achieving major successes in the global film industry.
Analysis of fossilised rocks known as stromatolites from more than two-and-a-half billion years…
Back to top
