Dr Agatha Herman
Senior Lecturer
- hermana@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4728
- 1.81, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a human geographer with interests in the geographies of ethics and justice; in particular, my research explores and analyses questions and relations of power, social resilience and social practices through a focus on production spaces. I have investigated these through a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (2014-17), which focused on the Fairtrade wine industry, and currently through an RGS Environment and Sustainability funded project on tanzanite mining.
I am also interested in issues around personal transitions and liminal spaces and communities, which I have engaged with through a previous focus on military geographies (specifically on experiences of post-military life) and a current British Academy-Leverhulme Trust funded project on people living on canal boats.
Biography
Qualifications
- Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice, Plymouth University (2012)
- PhD in Human Geography, University of Exeter (with affiliation to the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa) (2010)
- MSc in Society and Space, University of Bristol (2006)
- BSc (Hons) Geography, University of Bristol (2005)
Honours and awards
2014 Ruralia Visiting Scholar, Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki (2014/15)
2014 British Council Researcher Links Travel Grant to University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
2013 Ruralia Visiting Scholar, Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki (2013/14)
Professional memberships
- Treasurer and founder member of the Food Geographies Working Group, RGS-IBG
- Treasurer of the Geographies of Justice Research Group, RGS-IBG
- Fellow of The Higher Education Academy
- Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers
Academic positions
2016 - present: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University
2013-2016: Lecturer in Human Geography & Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow, Department of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Reading
2011-2013: Lecturer in Human Geography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University
2011: Research Assistant, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of the West of England
2010: Postdoctoral Contract Researcher, Department of Planning, University of Groningen, The Netherlands
Speaking engagements
(Selected)
2020 Interviewed for The Geographical Association GeogPod podcast (Season 3, episode 16).
2019 ‘Developing In-Commonness in Fairtrade Wine GPNs?’. Presented at the Nordic Geographers Meeting 2019, Trondheim (16th-19th June)
2018 ‘Fairtrade and Developing Social Resilience’. Presented at the 6th Fair Trade International Symposium 2018, Portsmouth (26th-28th June).
2017 ‘Practising Fairtrade: assembling alternative economic relations?’. Presented at the RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2017, London (30th August – 1st September) in the session ‘Where Next for the Ethical Market? (1): production perspectives’.
2017 ‘Who and What is Fairtrade for? Critical Reflections on Producer Experiences’. Invited seminar for the Centre for Business in Society, Coventry University (4th July).
2017 ‘The Impact of Fairtrade: producer experiences in South Africa’. Presented at Fairtrade Label South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa (30th May).
2017 ‘The Impact of Fairtrade: producer experiences in South Africa’. Presented at Bosman Family Vineyards, Wellington, South Africa (29th May).
2017 ‘Who and What is Fairtrade for? Critical Reflections on Producer Experiences’. Invited seminar in the School of Agricultural Economics, University of Stellenbosch (26th May).
2016 ‘What about the Producers? Workers, Wine and Ethics in South Africa’. Invited speaker in ‘The New Food Politics: Critical Perspectives on Food Governance, Justice and Ethics’ 50th Anniversary Event, School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University (6th December).
2016 ‘The Power of Fairtrade: development and empowerment in South African wine producer communities’. Invited seminar for the Human Geography Research Group, University of Reading (17th March).
2016 ‘The Power of Fairtrade: development and empowerment in South African wine producer communities’. Invited seminar for the Cultural Production and Consumption Research Group, College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, University of Leicester (9th March).
Committees and reviewing
2018 - Founding editor of the Bristol University Press book series ‘Spaces and Practices of Justice’.
2018 - Member of the UKRI FLF Peer Review College
Ongoing:
- Grant reviewer: AHRC and ESRC
- Monograph and edited volume reviewer: Academic Press/Elsevier; Pearson Education; Rowman & Littlefield International; Springer.
- Journal reviewer: Agriculture and Human Values; Anthropology Southern Africa; Area; Gender, Place and Culture; Geoforum; Geography; Geography Compass; GeoHumanities; Human Geography; International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food; Journal of Cultural Economy; Journal of Historical Geography; Journal of Political Ecology; Journal of Rural Studies; Landscape and Urban Planning; Local Environment; Millennium; Social and Cultural Geography; Third World Quarterly.
Publications
2021
- Herman, A. 2021. Governing Fairtrade: ethics of care and justice in the Argentinean wine industry. Social and Cultural Geography 22(3), pp. 425-446. (10.1080/14649365.2019.1593493)
2020
- Samuel, A., Peattie, K. and Herman, A. 2020. Fairtrade towns: unpacking the dynamics of locally developed ethical retail geographies. Geoforum 117, pp. 114-123. (10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.09.012)
- Herman, A. 2020. Building a politics of connectivity: intercultural in-commonness in Fairtrade. Antipode 52(5), pp. 1310-1330. (10.1111/anti.12633)
2019
- Herman, A. 2019. Asymmetries and opportunities: power and inequality in Fairtrade wine global production networks.. Area 51(2), pp. 332-339. (10.1111/area.12467)
- Herman, A. 2019. Assembling Fairtrade: practices of progress and conventionalisation in the Chilean wine industry. Environment and Planning A 51(1), pp. 51-68. (10.1177/0308518X18805747)
2018
- Herman, A., Lahdesmaki, M. and Siltaoja, M. 2018. Placing resilience in context: Investigating the changing experiences of Finnish organic farmers. Journal of Rural Studies 58, pp. 112-122. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2017.12.029)
- Herman, A. and Goodman, M. K. 2018. New spaces of food justice [Editorial]. Local Environment 23(11), pp. 1041-1046.
- Herman, A., Goodman, M. K. and Sage, C. 2018. Six questions for food justice [Commentary]. Local Environment 23(11), pp. 1075-1089. (10.1080/13549839.2018.1532401)
2017
- Herman, A. 2017. Practising empowerment in post-apartheid South Africa: wine, ethics and development. Critical Food Studies. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. (10.4324/9781315601960)
2016
- Herman, A. 2016. 'More-than-human' resilience(s)? Enhancing community in Finnish forest farms. Geoforum 69, pp. 34-43. (10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.12.005)
2015
- Herman, A. 2015. Enchanting resilience: Relations of care and people-place connections in agriculture. Journal of Rural Studies 42, pp. 102-111. (10.1016/j.jrurstud.2015.10.003)
- Herman, A. and Yarwood, R. 2015. From warfare to welfare: veterans, military charities and the blurred spatiality of post-service welfare in the United Kingdom. Environment and Planning A 47(12), pp. 2628-2644. (10.1177/0308518X15614844)
- Goodman, M. K. and Herman, A. 2015. Connections in fair trade food networks. In: Raynolds, L. T. and Bennett, E. A. eds. Handbook of Research on Fair Trade. Elgar Original Reference Edward Elgar, pp. 139-156., (10.4337/9781783474622.00017)
2014
- Herman, A. 2014. Are we there yet? Exploring empowerment at the microscale in the South African wine industry. Environment and Planning A 46(8), pp. 1927-1945. (10.1068/a46293)
- Herman, A. and Yarwood, R. 2014. From services to civilian: The geographies of veterans' post-military lives. Geoforum 53, pp. 41-50. (10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.02.001)
2012
- Herman, A. 2012. Tactical ethics: How the discourses of Fairtrade and Black Economic Empowerment change and interact in wine networks from South Africa to the UK. Geoforum 43(6), pp. 1121-1130. (10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.07.006)
- Herman, A., Beaumont, J., Cloke, P. and Walliser, A. 2012. Spaces of Postsecular Engagement in Cities. In: Beaumont, J. and Cloke, P. eds. Faith-Based Organisations and Exclusion in European Cities. Bristol: The Policy Press, pp. 59-80.
2010
- Herman, A. 2010. Death has a touch of class: society and space in Brookwood Cemetery, 1853-1903. Historical Geography 36(3), pp. 305-314. (10.1016/j.jhg.2009.11.001)
- Herman, A. 2010. Connecting the complex lived worlds of Fairtrade. Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning 12(4), pp. 405-422. (10.1080/1523908X.2010.532939)
Teaching
My current teaching centres on socio-cultural, economic and political issues within international development as well as methods teaching. I have also developed and led a final year field study vist to South Africa (2020).
Previously, I have supported teaching on cultural geographies and a field study visit to Tanzania at undergraduate level, as well as being the programme director for the MSc in Food Politics and Sustainability, which ran until 2020. I have also taught research methods and food geographies at masters level.
2022-2023 - RGS-IBG Environment and Sustainability grant of £15000 with Dr Thomas A. Smith (Co-I, Cardiff University) for a project entitled ‘Pathways to Just and Sustainable Development Practices through Tanzanite Mining and Production’.
2019-2021 - BA/Leverhulme small grant of £9790 with Prof. Richard Yarwood (PI, Plymouth University) for a project entitled 'Canal boat living: mobile citizenship, moor regulation and social exclusion'.
2014-2017 - Early Career Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust (2014-2017) for a project entitled ‘The Power of Fairtrade: resilience, ethical development and wine networks’.
Supervision
I am currently the second supervisor to Barbora Adlerova and would be interested in supervising PhD students engaging with social and justice issues in - but not limited to:
- Food politics, ethics and justice
- Fairtrade/fair trade
- Agricultural production
- Power, empowerment and international development
- Social resilience
- Liminal communities
- South Africa, Latin America and Europe