About Me

Dr. Mary Lawhon is an urban political ecologist based at the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at University of Oklahoma.  Empirically, her work has focused on waste, alcohol and housing. Conceptually, her works seeks to a) politicize theory and practice, including the politicization of sociotechnical transition theory, and b) provincialize theory and practice, including urban and urban political ecological theory. Her approach is informed by nearly ten years of experiences in South Africa since 2002, including work at the Universities of KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town, and Pretoria, as well as a lot of informal conversations, long walks, public transportation and volunteering with the NGO Earthlife Africa.

Teaching a Situated Environment and Society Class
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Teaching a Situated Environment and Society Class

What does it mean to teach a situated class? The easiest answer to this is to include ‘local’ examples. But for me, being deeply situated in my teaching has also meant starting from and responding to what the students know and helping them make sense of their own world. (In contrast to the typical academic […]

Beguiled by French theory: On the Relevance of Rancière to South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens
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Beguiled by French theory: On the Relevance of Rancière to South Africa’s Insurgent Citizens

Our academic culture continues to reward intellectuals who cite big-name, usually white, male, and European theories and theorists. French theorists, in particular, are given special attention. While sympathetic to the compulsion to harness the ideas of great men, one can no longer claim that this is the only way to succeed in the academic publishing […]

Mary Lawhon reflects on the retirement of Dianne Rocheleau
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Mary Lawhon reflects on the retirement of Dianne Rocheleau

Unable to attend the American Association of Geographers’ Annual meeting due to travel problems, Mary Lawhon reflects on the retirement of geographer and political ecologist Dianne Rocheleau in this commentary. Drawn from notes for a presentation that unfortunately did not happen due to flight delays, this commentary focuses on Dianne’s generosity as a scholar and her contributions […]

Notes from a Pretoria classroom: What is a city?
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Notes from a Pretoria classroom: What is a city?

The first time I realised there was something funny going on was when we were discussing shebeens- informal drinking spaces usually found in townships.  I asked my students “where do you find shebeens” and they answered “in the rural areas”. It threw me.  In the moment, I didn’t realise what they meant, but figured the students […]

New Antipode article on Situated Urban Political Ecologies
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New Antipode article on Situated Urban Political Ecologies

Rethinking urban ecologies of the global South We’ve have just published a new article in the geography journal Antipode on “Provincializing Urban Political Ecology: Towards a Situated UPE Through African Urbanism“. In this article we argue that the ecologies being shaped through the new and rapidly emergent forms of urbanization that we witness in the global South […]

Book review on Afropolis
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Book review on Afropolis

              Mary Lawhon has produced a book review for the geography journal Antipode for the forthcoming book Afropolis: City/Media/Art which has been formed as a catalogue for the travelling exhibition. The exhibition is described on its website (http://www.afropolis.net/) as… The curatorial approach highlights the interconnectedness of scientific and artistic concepts, not only exploring […]