Prof. Dr. Carolin Schurr
Unit Leader Social and Cultural Geography
Social and Cultural Geography
- Phone
- +41 31 631 89 12
- carolin.schurr@giub.unibe.ch
- Office
- 314
- Postal Address
- University of Bern
Institute of Geography
Social and Cultural Geography
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern - Consultation Hour
- Agreement via email
Home
I am a feminist geographer interested to understand how processes of globalization affect the most intimate spheres of our lives. Departing from Pratt and Rosener’s notion of the global intimate, I currently study transcultural arrangements of surrogacy. In my research, I look at the way the value of bodies, life and intimacy is renegotiated across national, cultural, social and racialized borders in an increasingly global bioeconomy. I develop what I call global geographies of the intimate by combining approaches from feminist geographies with theories of affect, feminist and postcolonial Science and Technology Studies, and new materialist conceptualizations of the body.
After studying geography, sociology and Latin American Studies at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt and Quito, Ecuador, I came to Bern in 2008 for my PhD. During my postdoc, I spent time at the University of British Colombia in Vancouver, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hil, the University of Bonn, the University of Zürich and the King’s College in London. In 2013, I received The Branco Weiss Fellowship from the Society in Science for my postdoctoral project “Making transnational baby markets”. In 2015, I was appointed as assistant professor of transcultural studies at the University of St Gallen. As associate professor, I head the research group Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Bern since August 2018.
CV
Theories
I explore the connections between the intimate and the global through theories of performativity and intersectionality, affect and emotion, feminist and postcolonial Science and Technology Studies, and new materialist approaches to the body.
Issues
My empirical work focuses on two different topics:
- The global bioeconomy (assisted reproductive technologies, surrogacy and oocyte donation)
- Processes of political change (with a focus on the political participation of women and minorities)
The two research interests are linked through my interest in bodies, the intimate and affect.
Regions
While my empirical research used to focus on Latin America in general and Ecuador and Mexico in particular, my recent work expands the regional scope by taking into account the global connections between Mexico’s bioeconomy with markets for reproduction in East Europe and South Asia.
Methods
In my PhD, I have combined feminist and postcolonial methodologies with visual ethnography, while my recent research works on spelling out what a mobile and multi-sited ethnography can methodologically look like.
Education
| 2015 | Postdoc King’s College London |
| 2013-2015 | Postdoc Department of Geography, University of Zürich |
| 2012 | Visiting Fellow at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and the University of British Colombia, Vancouver |
| 2008-2012 | PhD at the Department of Geography and the Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Studies (IZFG) at the University of Bern |
| 2002-2007 | BA- and MA studies in geography, sociology and Latin American Studies at the University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt |
| 2004 | DAAD exchange program at the Pontifica Universidad Católica del Ecuador in Quito |
Professional career
| Since 2018 | Associate Professor for Social and Cultural Geographies at the University of Bern (4 month maternity leave in 2018) |
| 2015-2018 | Assistant Professor for Transcultural Studies at the University of St. Gallen (4 month maternity leave in 2015) |
| 2013-2015 | Lecturer at the Department of Geography at the University of Zürich |
| 2013 | Lecturer at the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn |
| 2008-2012 | Lecturer at the Department of Geography at the University of Bern |
Awards
| 2019 | Ashby prize for the most innovative paper in the journal „Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space“ in the year 2018 |
| 2013-2018 | The Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science |
| 2013 | Swiss Award for Latin American Studies |
| 2007 | Bickhoff Prize for the best final degree at the University of Eichstätt |
Affiliations and memberships
- Editorial Board "Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography"
- Editorial Board: Geographica Helvetica
- DFG-Netzwerk "Feministische Geographien des New Materialism" (2015-2019)
- Arbeitskreis „Feministische Geographie“ (Sprecherin von 2011-2017)
- Arbeitskreis Politische Geographie
- ASG
- AAG
- VGDH
- FemWiss
google scholar: https://scholar.google.ch/citations?hl=de&user=sKb8iqgAAAAJ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolinSchurr
Publications
2019
Schurr, Carolin; Militz, Elisabeth (2019). Winners of the Ashby Prizes 2019. Environment & planning. A, Economy and space, 51(7), pp. 1409-1414. Sage 10.1177/0308518X19864251
Bauriedl, Sybille; Marquardt, Nadine; Schurr, Carolin; Vogelpohl, Anne (2019). Celebrating 30 years of feminist geographies in the German-speaking countries Germany, Switzerland* and Austria. Gender, Place and Culture, 26(7-9), pp. 1049-1063. Routledge 10.1080/0966369X.2018.1563524
Truong, Jasmine; Schurr, Carolin (2019). Global geographies of the intimate: new research group at the University of Bern. GeoAgenda(1), pp. 8-10. Verband Geographie Schweiz (ASG)
Perler, Laura; Schurr, Carolin (2019). Kinderwunschklinik. In: Hasse, Jürgen; Schreiber, Verena (eds.) Räume der Kindheit. Ein Glossar (pp. 173-178). Bielefeld: transcript
Militz, Elisabeth; Faria, Caroline; Schurr, Carolin (2019). Affectual intensities: writing with resonance as feminist methodology. Area Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/area.12584
2018
Schurr, Carolin (October 2018). Carolin Schurr, Bern. 30 Jahre AK - autobiographische Notizen. Feministisches Geo-RundMail(77), pp. 14-16.
Schurr, Carolin (2018). Multiple mobilities in Mexico’s fertility industry. Mobilities, 14(1), pp. 103-119. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 10.1080/17450101.2019.1522881
Schurr, Carolin; Militz, Elisabeth (2018). The affective economy of transnational surrogacy. Environment and planning. A, Economy and space, 50(8), pp. 1626-1645. Sage 10.1177/0308518X18769652
Schurr, Carolin (2018). The baby business booms: Economic geographies of assisted reproduction. Geography compass, 12(8), pp. 1-15. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/gec3.12395
2017
Schurr, Carolin; Verne, Julia (2017). Science and Technology Studies meets development geographies. Geographische Zeitschrift, 105(2), pp. 125-144. Franz Steiner Verlag
Schurr, Carolin (2017). From biopolitics to bioeconomies: The ART of (re-)producing white futures in Mexico's surrogacy market. Environment and planning. D, Society and space, 35(2), pp. 241-262. Sage 10.1177/0263775816638851
2016
Schurr, Carolin; Strüver, Anke (2016). "The Rest": Geographien des Alltäglichen zwischen Affekt, Emotion und Repräsentation. Geographica Helvetica, 71(2), pp. 87-97. Copernicus Publications 10.5194/gh-71-87-2016
Schurr, Carolin; Abdo, Katharina (2016). Rethinking the place of emotions in the field through social laboratories. Gender, Place and Culture, 23(1), pp. 120-133. Routledge 10.1080/0966369X.2014.970138
Schurr, Carolin (2016). ¡¿Otras geografías son posibles?! Geografías feministas en Suiza, Austria y Alemania. In: Ibarra García, María Verónica; Escamilla-Herrera, Irma (eds.) Geografías feministas de diversas latitudes (pp. 153-188). México: UNAM
Müller, Martin; Schurr, Carolin (2016). Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory: conjunctions, disjunctions, cross-fertilisations. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41(3), pp. 217-229. Wiley 10.1111/tran.12117
Militz, Elisabeth; Schurr, Carolin (2016). Affective nationalism: Banalities of belonging in Azerbaijan. Political geography, 54, pp. 54-63. Elsevier 10.1016/j.polgeo.2015.11.002
Laliberté, Nicole; Schurr, Carolin (2016). Introduction: the stickiness of emotions in the field – complicating feminist methodologies. Gender, Place and Culture, 23(1), pp. 72-78. Routledge 10.1080/0966369X.2014.992117
2015
Schurr, Carolin; Perler, Laura (17 December 2015). ‘Trafficked’ into a better future? Why Mexico needs to regulate its surrogacy industry (and not ban it). Open Democracy OpenDemocracy
Schurr, Carolin; Friedrich, Bettina (2015). Serving the transnational surrogacy market as a development strategy? In: Coles, Anne; Grey, Leslie; Momsen, Janet (eds.) The Routledge handbook of gender and development. Routledge handbooks (pp. 236-243). London u.a.: Routledge
Grünenfelder, Julia; Schurr, Carolin (2015). Intersectionality – A challenge for development research and practice? Development in practice, 25(6), pp. 771-784. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 10.1080/09614524.2015.1059800
2014
Schurr, Carolin (28 August 2014). Leihmutterschaft in Mexiko: Retortenbabys aus der Retortenstadt. Die Wochenzeitung
Schurr, Carolin (26 August 2014). Mütter zu verleihen. Erst Indien, dann Thailand – und jetzt auch Mexiko: Warum das globalisierte Baby-Business boomt. Süddeutsche Zeitung
Schurr, Carolin; Walmsley, Heather (May 2014). Reproductive tourism booms on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera. International Medical Travel Journal
Schurr, Carolin (2014). Emotions, affects and more-than-representational geographies. Geographische Zeitschrift, 102(3), pp. 148-161. Franz Steiner Verlag
Schurr, Carolin (2014). Performativity and Antagonism as Keystones for a Political Geography of Change. In: Glass, Michael; Rose-Redwood, Reuben (eds.) Performativity, Politics, and the Production of Social Space. Routledge
Bauriedl, Sybille; Schurr, Carolin (2014). Zusammenprall der Identitäten. Soziale und kulturelle Differenz in Städten aus Sicht der feministischen Forschung. In: Vogelpohl, Anne; Oßenbrügge, Jürgen (eds.) Theorien in der Raum- und Stadtforschung? Eine Einführung (pp. 136-155). Münster: Westfälisches Dampfboot
2013
Schurr, Carolin; Kaspar, Heidi (January 2013). Vorwort zu Feministisches Geo-RundMail Nr. 54. Feministisches Geo-RundMail(54), pp. 2-3.
Schurr, Carolin (2013). Towards an emotional electoral geography: The performativity of emotions in electoral campaigning in Ecuador. Geoforum, 49, pp. 114-126. Elsevier 10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.05.008
Schurr, Carolin (2013). Performing Politics, Making Space: a visual ethnography of political change in Ecuador. Erdkundliches Wissen. Schriftenreihe für Forschung und Praxis (EW): Vol. 152. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag
Bauriedl, Sybille; Schurr, Carolin; Kaspar, Heidi (2013). Vorwort zu Feministisches Geo-RundMail Nr. 55. Feministisches Geo-RundMail(55), p. 1.
2012
Schurr, Carolin; Wintzer, Jeannine (eds.) (2012). Geschlecht und Raum feministisch denken. Gender Wissen: Vol. 13. Wettingen: eFeF-Verlag
Schurr, Carolin (2012). Rensando emoções a partir de uma perspectiva interseccional: as geografias emocionais das campanhas eleitorais equatorianas. Revista Latino-Americana de Geografia e Gênero, 3(2), pp. 3-15. Ponta Grossa: Universidade Estadual de Ponta Grossa 10.5212/Rlagg.v.3.i2.003015
Schurr, Carolin (2012). Performing Politics, Making Space: Women in Ecuadorian Local Politics. Bern: Geographisches Institut der Universität Bern
Schurr, Carolin; Segebart, Dörte (2012). Engaging with feminist postcolonial concerns through participatory action research and intersectionality. Geographica Helvetica, 67(3), pp. 147-154. Copernicus Publications 10.5194/gh-67-147-2012
Schurr, Carolin (2012). Visual ethnography for performative geographies: how women politicians perform identities on Ecuadorian political stages. Geographica Helvetica, 67(4), pp. 195-202. Copernicus Publications 10.5194/gh-67-195-2012
2011
Amlinger, Fabienne; Schurr, Carolin (17 September 2011). "Feminism" - a contested term. The understanding of "feminism" by women politicians (Unpublished). In: Reframing gender, reframing critique. Universität Basel, Swiss Graduate Schools in Gender Studies. 17.09.2011.
Schurr, Carolin; Fredrich, Bettina (May 2011). Editorial: ‚Are we there yet?‘ Feminist Political Geographies. Feministisches Geo-RundMail(48), p. 1.
Schurr, Carolin; Stolz, Miriam (2011). Geographien der Remigration - Vom Versuch ecuadorianischer Rückkehrerinnen ein neues Leben in der alten Heimat zu beginnen. In: Hillmann, Felicitas; Wastl-Walter, Doris (eds.) Geschlechtsspezifische Migration. Berichte zur deutschen Landeskunde: Vol. 85 (pp. 89-104). Leipzig: Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde
2010
Schurr, Carolin; Stolz, Miriam (2010). "Bienvenid@s a casa" - Return Schemes and the Remigration Process of Ecuadorian Female Migrants. Revista Iberoamericana - América Latina - España - Portugal, 10(39), pp. 55-76. Madrid: Iberoamericana/Ed.Vervuert
Segebart, Dörte; Schurr, Carolin (2010). Was kommt nach Gendermainstreaming? Neue Impulse für die Geographische Entwicklungsforschung aus der Geschlechterforschung. Geographische Rundschau, 62(10), pp. 58-63. Braunschweig: Westermann
Schurr, Carolin (2010). Intersektionalität. Feministisches Geo-RundMail(44)
2009
Schurr, Carolin (2009). Andean Rural Local Governments in-between Powerscapes. Die Lokalregierung der Provinz Cotopaxi, Equador. Mesa Redonda: Vol. 25. Eichstätt-Ingolstadt: Zentralinstitut für Lateinamerika-Studien
Projects
Making transnational baby markets |
|
| Duration | 2013-2019 |
| Fund | The Branco Weiss Fellowship – Society in Science |
| Description | The project asks how the innovation and spread of assisted reproductive technologies has created a transnational market of reproductive materials (ova, sperm, embryos) and reproductive services such as artificial insemination, in-vitro-fertilization and surrogacy. To understand how these markets are made, maintained and extended within the Global South, the project follows the transnational circulation and traveling of bodies, reproductive materials, technologies, knowledge, and socio-technical devices that constitute and transnationalize this market. On the conceptual side, the project integrates feminist and postcolonial Science and Technology Studies into geographies of marketization, making latter more attentive to the way bodies, gender and technology intersect in markets in the Global South. On the empirical side, it develops a better understanding how ART markets are made and expand in the Global South and how this spread affects the bodies of women and men in the Global South. The empirical results of the project inform (inter-)national debates on the regulations of these transnational markets. |
| Links | https://brancoweissfellowship.org/carolin-schurr.html |
| Output |
Schurr, Carolin (forthcoming). Multiple mobilities in Mexico’s fertility industry. Mobilities, online first. Schurr, Carolin (2018). The Baby Business Booms: Economic Geographies of Assisted Reproduction. Geography Compass, online first. Schurr, Carolin, and Militz, Elisabeth (2018). The affective economy of transnational surrogacy. Environment and Planning A, online first, 1-20. Müller M, Schurr C, 2016, "Assemblage thinking and actor-network theory: conjunctions, disjunctions, cross-fertilisations" Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 41(3) 217-229. (pdf) Schurr C, 2016, "From biopolitics to bioeconomics: The ART of (re-)producing white futures in Mexico's surrogacy market, Environment and Planning D. (pdf) Schurr C, Abdo K, 2016, "Rethinking the place of emotions in the field through social laboratories" Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 23 120-133. (pdf) Schurr C, Fredrich B, 2015, "Serving the transnational surrogacy market as a development strategy?", in Handbook of Gender and Development Eds A Coles, L Grey, J Momsen (Routledge, London) pp 236-243. Schurr C, Perler L, 2015, "'Trafficked' into a better future? Why Mexico needs to regulate its surrogacy industry (and not ban it)" Open Democracy, 17.12.2015. (pdf) Schurr C, Walmsley, H, 2014, "Reproductive tourism booms on Mexico's Mayan Riviera" International Medical Travel Journal, May 2014. (pdf) |
Performing Politics, Making Space: A visual ethnography of political change in Ecuador |
|
| Duration | 2008-2012 |
| Fund | SNF |
| Description | Constructing more inclusive political spaces has been a central concern of social movements in postcolonial societies. This project engaged with Ecuador’s recent processes of political transformation by questioning to what extent these contribute to a decolonization of Ecuador’s democracy. Based on visual ethnographic research in Ecuadorian local politics, the research interrogated the effect of women’s and indigenous people’s political participation on building more inclusive, intercultural political spaces. It developed a poststructuralist electoral geography capturing the embodied, emotional, and intersectional performances that produce political spaces. In doing so, it breaks new empirical ground and expands the field of electoral geography, connecting it to current conceptual debates in human geography. This approach is supported by Mouffe’s antagonistic politics, Butler’s discussion about performativity of gender and Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality. |
| Output |
Schurr C, 2013 Performing politics, making space: a visual ethnography of political change in Ecuador (Franz-Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart). (link) Schurr C, 2012, "Visual ethnography for performative geographies: how women politicians perform identities on Ecuadorian political stages" Geographica Helvetica, 67, 195-202. (pdf) Schurr C, 2012, "Pensando emoções a partir de uma perspectiva interseccional: as geografias emocionais das campanhas eleitorais equatorianas. Revista Latino-Americana de Geografia e Gênero" Revista Latino-Americana de Geografia e Gênero, 3, 3-15. (pdf) Schurr C, Segebart D, 2012, "Tackling feminist postcolonial critique through participatory and intersectional approaches" Geographica Helvetica, 67, 147-154. Schurr C, 2013, "Towards an emotional electoral geography: the performativity of emotions in electoral campaigning in Ecuador" Geoforum, 49, 114–126. (pdf) Schurr C, 2014, "Performativity and antagonism as keystones for a political geography of change", in Performativity, politics and the production of social space Eds M Glass, R Rose-Redwood (Routledge, New York), pp 95-120. (pdf) |
Presentations
Invited Presentations
| 2019 | |
| September |
Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, Kiel | Deutschland |
| May |
Geographisches Kolloquium der Universität Wien | Österreich |
| 2018 | |
| May | Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Marseille | France The affective economy of surrogacy |
| February | Centre Norbert Elisa, Marseille | France Circumvention, experimentation and improvisation as response to legal changes in global surrogacy markets |
| January | Neue Kulturgeographie, Freiburg | Germany Ethics in geographic research practice |
| 2017 | |
| May | Gender Studies, University of Zürich | Switzerland Reproductive geographies and the reconfiguration of race, gender and sexuality |
| 2016 | |
| December | Institute of Biomedical Ethics, University of Zürich | Switzerland India, Thailand, Mexico – uneven geographies of assisted reproduction |
| November | School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of St. Gallen | Switzerland Transcultural bodies |
| November | Department of Geography, HU Berlin | Germany White Babies made in Mexico: Biopolitical geographies of reproduction |
| May | Department of Geography, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona | Spain Reproducing the nation? Biomedical geopolitics |
Regular Presentations
| 2018 | |
| April | Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans | USA ‘Complicating (Un-)Comfortable Alliances in the Brave New World of Reproduction’ (with Elisabeth Militz) |
| April | Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans | USA ‘Geographies of Beauty between Postcolonial Geographies and Critical Whiteness Studies’ |
| 2017 | |
| October | Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, Tübingen | Germany ‘Transcorporeal geographies’ (with Elisabeth Militz) |
| October | Kritischer Kongress für Geographie, Tübingen | Germany ‘Affective methodologies’ (with Elisabeth Militz) |
| February | Transfigurationen: Medizin Macht Gesellschaft, Basel | Switzerland ‘Biopolitical transfigurations in Mexico’s bioeconomy’ (with Laura Perler) |
Conferences, Workshops and Sessions
Selection since 2017
| 2018 | |
| April | Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, New Orleans | USA 'Author-meets-readers: Reading Stacy Alaimo's "Exposed"' (with Elisabeth Militz) |
| 2017 | |
| October | Deutscher Kongress für Geographie, Tübingen | Germany 'Geographies of the new materialism' (with Nadine Marquardt) |
| March | Transcultural bodies: geographies of racialized embodiment, St. Gallen | Switzerland |
| January | Bios: Commodification of bodies, Frankfurt | Germany |
Teaching
Current Teaching
| 2019 Fall | BA Lecture 'Human Geography I' (University of Bern) |
Past Teaching
| 2019 Spring | BA Proseminar 'Digitale Geographien des global/intimate' (University of Bern) |
| 2019 Spring | BA Field Trip 'Soziale Ungleichheiten in der Stadt Bern' (University of Bern) |
| 2017 Fall | MA Seminar 'Making mobile markets' (University of St. Gallen) |
| 2017 Spring | MA Seminar 'Love/ hate: The transcultural politics of emotions' (University of St. Gallen) |
| 2017 Spring | BA Project-Seminar 'Bodies for sale? Global markets for babies, bodies, and organs' (University of St. Gallen) |
| 2016 Fall | MA Seminar 'Culture, mobility and space' (University of St. Gallen) |
| 2016 Fall | BA Project-Seminar 'Follow the market: Researching transcultural economies' (University of St. Gallen) |
| 2016 Spring | BA Project-Seminar 'Culture, migration and work' (University of St. Gallen) |
| 2015 Spring | BA Seminar 'The sharing economy' (University of Zürich) |
| 2014 Fall | MA Seminar 'Gender, space and work' (University of Zürich)'' |
| 2014 Fall | MA Field Trip 'Gender, space and work in Zürich' (University of Zürich) |
| 2014 Fall | BA/MA Workshop 'Feminist geographies' (Zürich, Frankfurt, Bayreuth, Hamburg) |
| 2014 Spring | BA Seminar 'Heterodox economic geographies' (University of Zürich) |
| 2013 Spring | MA Seminar 'Ethnography is not what it used to be' (University of Bonn) |
| 2013 Spring | MA Seminar 'Postcolonial studies' (University of Bern) |
| 2013 Spring | BA Field Trip 'Die exklusive Schweiz' (University of Bonn) |
| 2012 Fall | MA Lecture 'Postcolonial development geographies' (University of Bern) |
| 2012 Fall | BA Seminar 'Identity and space' (University of Innsbruck) |
| 2012 Spring | BA Field Trip 'Exclusion and inclusion in urban space' (University of Bern) |
| 2011 Fall | MA Guest Lecture 'Geographies of the alps and mountains: Mining from a postcolonial perspective' (University of Bern) |
| 2011 Spring | BA Field Trip 'Urban geographies of difference' (University of Bern) |
| 2011 Spring | BA Seminar 'Identity and space' (University of Innsbruck) |
| 2010 Fall | BA Guest Lecture 'Postcolonial development geographies' (University of Bern) |
| 2010 Fall | BA Seminar 'Identity and space' (University of Innsbruck) |
| 2010 Spring | BA Lecture 'Visual methods in qualitative research' (University of Bern) |
| 2010 Spring | BA Field Trip 'Migration and integration in the city of Bern' (University of Bern) |
| 2010 Spring | BA Seminar 'Identity and space' (University of Innsbruck) |
| 2009 Fall | BA Lecture 'Introduction to human geography' (University of Bern) |
| 2009 Fall | BA Guest Lecture 'Feminist geographies' (University of Neuchâtel) |
| 2009 Spring | BA Lecture 'Qualitative methods' (University of Bern) |
| 2009 Spring | BA Seminar 'Geographies of migration' (University of Bern) |
| 2009 Spring | BA Field Trip 'Geographies of migration' (University of Bern) |
| 2008 Fall | BA Lecture 'Globalisation of cultures' (University of Bern) |
| 2008 Fall | BA Seminar 'Globalisation of cultures' (University of Bern) |
| 2008 Spring | MA Project Seminar 'World heritage and tourism' (University of Eichstätt) |
| 2007 Fall | MA Seminar 'Geographies of (post-)development' (University of Eichstätt) |