Skip navigation

Dr Joanna Allan

Associate Professor

Department: Geography and Environmental Sciences

Joanna has been based in the Centre for International Development at Northumbria since March 2019. Her research focuses on resistance to neocolonial natural resource exploitation, histories of women's anti-colonial resistance movements, Saharawi and Equatoguinean (resistance) literatures, environmental justice, and the relationship between energy and culture. In 2022, she was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize (languages and literature category) for her work. 

Joanna currently holds an AHRC Fellowship for a project investigating the relationship between poetry and diplomacy in the Saharawi context. Among other activities, she will be producing a bilingual anthology of Saharawi poetry and a Special Collection of poetry and life history recordings for the British Library's Sound Archive. 

Joanna's second book Saharan Winds is under contract with University of West Virginia Press. It focuses on wind imaginaries and how they shape the development of, and politics mediated by, energy systems in Western Sahara. Joanna's first book Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea (Wisconsin University Press, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 African Studies Association Fage and Oliver prize for best book on Africa and was runner up in the 2020 International Studies Association’s biennial Feminist Theory and Gender Studies book prize. It offers histories of women's resistance to colonialism, occupation and dictatorships in Spain's colonies in Africa during and since the Spanish colonial period.

Before beginning her PhD, Joanna worked at National Energy Action, the UK Consortium on HIV/AIDS and International Development, London Councils European Service and War on Want. She has been part of the Saharawi solidarity movement for years, including as President of Western Sahara Resource Watch until 2017. 

Joanna Allan

Campus Address

Lipman 201
City Campus
Newcastle
NE1 8ST

  • Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
  • Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea, Allan, J. 23 Apr 2019
  • Oppressive energopolitics in Africa’s last colony: energy, subjectivities and resistance, Allan, J., Lemaadel, M., Lakhal, H. 1 Jan 2022, In: Antipode
  • Decolonizing renewable energy: Aeolian aesthetics in the poetry of Fatma galia mohammed Salem and Limam boisha, Allan, J. 1 Apr 2020, In: Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
  • Light, energy, and gendered oil gluttony: Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel’s challenges to petrocapitalism, Allan, J. 18 Mar 2020, In: MFS: Modern Fiction Studies
  • انتقال غير عادل: الطاقة والامبريالية والنمط الايتخرجي في الصحراء الغربية المحتلة , Allan, J., Lakhal, H., Lemaadel, M. 26 Jan 2023, ابار قديمة واستعمار جديد. تحديات المناخ والانتقال العادل نحو طاقة مستدامة في شمال افريقية, Cairo, Sefsafa Publishing
  • Natural Resources and Intifada: Oil, Phosphates and Resistance to Colonialism in Western Sahara, Allan, J. 2016, In: Journal of North African Studies
  • Acting with Impunity: Morocco's Human Rights Violations in Western Sahara and the Silence of the International Community, Allan, J., Lakhal, H. 1 Apr 2015
  • Activist Ethics: The Need for a Nuanced Approach to Resistance Studies Field Research, Allan, J. 1 Dec 2017, In: Journal of Resistance Studies
  • Privilege, Marginalization, and Solidarity: Women's Voices Online in Western Sahara's Struggle for Independence, Allan, J. 2014, In: Feminist Media Studies
  • El colonialismo y el patriarcado en la literature afrohispana: los escritos de resistencia de Lehdia Dafa y María Nsue Angue, Allan, J. 17 Jul 2018, Trans-afrohispanismos, Leiden and Boston, Brill

Adam Cross An analysis of the experiences, solidarities and activist practices of women human rights and environmental defenders (WHREDs) who are internally displaced in Colombia by violent conflict, environmental degradation, and resource extraction, as well as targeted persecution due to their activism Start Date: 01/10/2024

Hispanic Studies PhD December 01 2016


a sign in front of a crowd
+

Northumbria Open Days

Open Days are a great way for you to get a feel of the University, the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the course(s) you are interested in.

Research at Northumbria
+

Research at Northumbria

Research is the life blood of a University and at Northumbria University we pride ourselves on research that makes a difference; research that has application and affects people's lives.

NU World
+

Explore NU World

Find out what life here is all about. From studying to socialising, term time to downtime, we’ve got it covered.


Latest News and Features

Becca French
Autumn 2024 News
Universities re-affirm strategic partnership for city
Spend to Save Britain
Hasan Hamid and Graham Baty outside of Burger Drop on Westgate road.
Volcano
More news
More events

Upcoming events

CHASE LECTURE - Darren McGarvey
Undergraduate & Postgraduate Open Day
What is to become of us?

Back to top