Jonathon Turnbull
About
Jonny Turnbull is a more-than-human geographer with a broad interest in the geographies of nature. His research examines how environmental knowledges are produced and contested across diverse geographical contexts from the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine to the rumen of livestock cattle in Europe and India. He is interested in the relationship between hegemonic and vernacular forms of expertise, and in who gets to speak with authority regarding Nature.
Jonny’s current research — Nightlife in the More-than-human City — explores the urban nightscape; a distinct but understudied spacetime whose ecological importance is increasingly recognized at the same time as it is made vulnerable to anthropogenic pollution and climate change. He is collaborating with ecologists, citizen scientists, and urban rewilders to develop experimental multi-sensory, multi-species and participatory methods for studying the ‘everynight lives’ of three species: cats in London; raccoons in Berlin; and hedgehogs in Newcastle.
Jonny lives between Newcastle (UK) and Vinnytsia (Ukraine).
Awards
- Postdoctoral Fellow, British Academy, 2025
- Teaching Excellence Award, Social Sciences Division, University of Oxford, 2025
- Junior Research Fellow, Jesus College, University of Oxford, 2023
- JNL Baker Prize in Geography, Jesus College, University Oxford, 2015
Relevant Publications
- Turnbull, J. (2025). Making sense of nuclear natures: Ecologies, Expertise, Aesthetics. Progress in Environmental Geography, 4(4): 436-464. DOI: 10.1177/27539687251371726
- Turnbull, J., Fry, T. & Lorimer, J. (2025). (Re)wilding London: Fabric, politics, and aesthetics. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 50(3): e12748. DOI: 10.1111/tran.12748
- Turnbull, J., Searle, A., Hartman Davies, O., Dodsworth, J., Chasseray-Peraldi, P., Von Essen, E. & Anderson-Elliott, H. (2022). Digital ecologies: Materialities, encounters, governance. Progress in Environmental Geography. DOI: 10.1177/27539687221145698