Moving on

I’ve just got back from a very productive research trip to Japan and it’s only a couple of days to go until I leave again, this time permanently, which means I should at last say something about my new job. It also means I won’t be posting here much over the next week.

From September 1st, I will be Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) Associate Professor of Surveillance Studies in the Department of Sociology at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. My new boss will be a longtime colleague and one of the people I admire most in the world of surveillance studies, David Lyon.

It’s a big move and probably, for both personal and professional reasons, the last big move I will make. I have been in various parts of Newcastle University in the UK since my Masters back in 1996-7. I originally moved to the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape (APL) to work with the brilliant Professor Steve Graham who was running the innovative Centre for Urban Technology (CUT). I didn’t realise then that CUT was already on the verge of disappearing and was soon merged into the new, larger Global Urban Research Unit (GURU), and that Steve would leave to take up a Chair in Human Geography at Durham. However, that did mean that, having finished my postdoc, I could take over his teaching, which eventually led to a permanent lectureship. I’d wanted to move to Canada for a while though, and having got married to Kayo (that’s where the ‘Murakami’ comes from…), who also wanted the same things, we started looking and waiting for the right opportunities. It’s a bit odd leaving just after I’ve got the promotion I’d wanted, but you have to take the opportunities when they arise. It’s no judgement on Newcastle as a university or as a city (there isn’t a better one in England), but a life decision. My time at Newcastle has been great and there’s a number of people from the University I would like to thank in person and in public here:

Phillip Lowe from the Centre for Rural Economy, and Neil Ward (now Dean of Social Sciences at UEA) for giving me a break right at the start;

Rachel Woodward, previously of CRE and now in Geography, who was the perfect PhD supervisor;

Ella Ritchie from Politics, who gave me a job when I needed one in what was then the Department of Politics;

Steve Graham for mentoring me through a difficult period;

Geoff Vigar for being a great friend and latterly also, a most supportive Director of GURU;

and all the friends and colleagues in GURU, APL, and beyond, with whom I’ve shared both good times and intellectual stimulation over the years, in particular Alex Aurigi (who’ll soon be the new Head of the School of Architecture and Design at Plymouth), Andrew Ballantyne, Carlos Calderon, Stuart Cameron, Jon Coaffee (just appointed Chair of Spatial Planning at Birmingham!), Nathaniel Coleman, Lorna Dargan (now in the Careers Service), Anne Fry, David Haney, Jean Hillier, Marian Kyte, Rose Gilroy, Sara Gonzalez (now at Leeds Geography), Zan Gunn, Claire Haggett (now at Edinburgh Geography), Patsy Healey, Peter Kellett, Andy Law, Kim McCartney (the best administrator it has ever been my pleasure to work with), Ali Madanipour, Abid Mehmood, Frank Moulaert (now in Leuven), John Pendlebury, Neil Powe, Maggie Roe, Tim Shaw (now retired), Mark Shucksmith (OBE!), both Suzanne and Lucy Speak, Bill Tavernor, Ian Thompson, Graham Tipple, Tim Townshend, Bernadette Williams and Ken Willis. There’s others who I never got to know as well as I would have liked to have got to know better but there just hasn’t been the time – in particular, both Paolas, Martyn, and Armelle and Daniel. And apologies if there’s anyone else I’ve missed.

Finally, and most importantly of all, I’d like to thank our best friends and future godparents to our baby boy who’s due in December: Andrew Donaldson and Jane Midgley. Andrew, in particular, has been the person with whom I have probably shared most since we shared an office during our PhDs, and is in no small part responsible for any intellectual and personal progress I’ve made since that time.

Author: David

I'm David Murakami Wood. I live on Wolfe Island, in Ontario, and am Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Surveillance Studies and an Associate Professor at Queen's University, Kingston. View all posts by David