Post-Colonial Geographies of Resistance: Mapping Spatial Justice in the Middle East

This project explores the political performativity and imagination embedded in mapping the Middle East, interrogating how Western cartographic practices historically divided the region and continue to shape contemporary geopolitical and cultural landscapes. These maps have been produced through vertical, horizontal, and spherical spatial violence inflicted by political powers onto people and their geographies—ranging from traditional aerial bombardments to the modern-day pervasive use of digital technologies in conducting warfare.

Engaging with creative practitioners in diaspora, the project focuses on alternative, critical cartographies that reimagine the Middle East through memory, trauma, and resistance. Through collaborative and creative re-mapping of the region's troubled geographies, intersected with archived maps of the Middle East, the project seeks to develop new methods for mapping that reflect the lived experiences and displacement histories of Middle Eastern communities.

By combining historical analysis, critical cartography, and creative deep mapping, the research investigates how histories of human and geographical displacement are inscribed within creative spatial practices. It aims to provide new insights into how maps can serve as instruments of both oppression and liberation, emphasising the importance of spatial justice in post-colonial contexts.