Projects/residencies | Kiera Chapman S Writ

What am I up to?

ESRC bid 'Planning and Biodiversity Net Gain'

I am a Co-Investigator-Researcher on a University of Sheffield bid to win ESRC funding in order to study the way that the British planning system engages with the more-than-human world. We focus on the extent and drivers of biodiversity loss within the planning system, comparing and contrasting the policy regime before and after the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain. We are particularly interested in the impacts of new policy for social justice and community understandings of nature.

PROSPECT COTTAGE WRITING RESIDENCY

I am lucky enough to have secured a writing residency at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness (former home of Derek Jarman). I will use it to study the way that his writing and gardening create a practice of 'queer botany', viewing nature through a non-heteronormative lens.

Paulownia: a tormented history

I hope to write a book on the commodification of Paulownia, a species of tree native to China. The work studies the ways in which social, financial, legal and policy structures have shaped the relationship of this tree with different human societies, tracing the human and ecological stories associated with its planting, and its future in a world of climate change and biodiversity loss. I'm currently seeking opportunities to pursue this.

Untitled walking book

I am writing a book about walking.

But it's not like most walking books. It doesn't feature an individual striding and thinking their way across a landscape on a journey of self-discovery. It is about struggling to move because of physical illness, and facing restrictions because of gendered violence. It's about the implicit class bias in a lot of writing about walking, and the figures who remain excluded and vulnerable because they don't have protection and power. Through a deeper understanding of embodiment, I seek to unfold a radical and more inclusive way of opening up to nature.