Josepha (Joshka) Wessels is an Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies at the School of Arts and Communication (K3), Faculty of Culture and Society. She has a background in Human geography and ethnographic film. She has been carrying out FORMAS and Swedish Research Council-funded research projects on Climate Change Resilience in Urban Sudan, Imagining Climate Futures with environmentalists and graffiti artist and Revolutionary Graffiti and public art in Khartoum and a multi-sited urban visual ethnography with Syrian Refugees in secondary cities in Jordan, Turkey and Sweden. She has co-edited an edited volume published by Bloomsbury UK on Art Against Authoritarianism in the South West Asian and North African region in which she contributed with a chapter on revolutionary public art in Khartoum. She applies the co-creative use of participatory methods, storymapping and immersive technologies, such as 360video, to her ethnographic studies and is keen on developing this further for urban research on public art, climate resilience and sustainable development.
Publications
Research Themes
Green and Just Cities is a new theme within the IUR which aims to highlight and contribute to a deeper understanding of the physical geographical and ecological dimensions of urban justice. The theme provides a bridge between urban studies and environmental studies by examining the multiple ways the natural and built environments are co-constitutive, and…
Global Urbanism aims to explore the heterogeneity/diversity of urban conditions, practices and experiences in different geographical locations. It aims to highlight how contemporary urban theorization reflects (or fails to reflect) this diversity. The theme challenges assumed urban hierarchies and highlights urban practices outside the mainstream state-led and market-led frameworks, particularly activities carried out by people…
Urban Humanities is an emerging theme within the Institute for Urban Research (IUR). Through urban humanities, the IUR develops expertise in interpreting and engaging with urban space by fostering collaboration among the humanities, environmental design, and urban communities. This approach promotes a form of scholarship that is inherently pedagogical, generating urban knowledge and culture by…