rare_earth
is a collection of interdisciplinary work 
by Kate Dawson.

Straddling writing and visual art, my research engages with
[other-]earthly, [non-]human landscapes,
and is influenced by the interwoven threads of cultural history,
postcolonial feminism, social and environmental justice,
and global political-economy.

I am currently based at the University of Huddersfield,
as a postdoctoral fellow, on the British Academy funded project,
"Mining for Meaning: the Geoethics of Extractive Industries."

I hold a PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies
and an MSc in Human Geography Research,
from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE),
through which I was able to spend five years engaging with
socio-natural issues surrounding urbanisation
in and beyond West Africa.

This work has centred sand
- an overused, under-recognised material
at the heart of our cities and economies.

Between 2020-2021, I spent a year in an
ESRC funded postdoctoral position at LSE, 
where I extended my work on the socio-natural politics
of sand and urbanisation.

I have taken photographs to support my own doctoral research,
for charities and events, and have exhibited my work
'Shifting Sands: Anxious Landscapes in Urban Worlds'
at a solo show in 2019.
 
I am also co-founder of Gold Host [goldhost.world]
with Emma Hanson,
a creative production company for freedom and justice.