Dr Adam Bobbette

  • Lecturer in Political Geology (School of Geographical & Earth Sciences)

Biography

I grew up in rural Ontario and have since lived in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Australia, and the UK. I studied the history of philosophy and cultural studies at Trent University and McGill, followed by architecture and landscape at the University of Toronto. I undertook my PhD in Geography at Cambridge, followed by post-doctoral work at UNSW in the New Earth Histories research program.

Prior to geography, I taught the history and theory of architecture and landscape at the University of Toronto and the University of Hong Kong. I have contributed research, installations, or art works to exhibitions across the world, including the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Asia Art Archive, Para Site, Storefront for Art and Architecture, Victoria & Albert Museum, Eyebeam Art + Technology Centre, and Transmediale.

I have written for a variety of platforms in addition to my scholarly work. I am interested in exploring new (and old) narrative forms for geographical thought including magazines, broadsheets, photocopied leaflets, exhibition catalogues, edited collections, literary journals, and film. I have written for the The London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Cabinet, and N+1. In 2010, I co-founded the journal Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy.

In 2019, I co-created Kebun Lithos (Lithic Garden), a research platform on the slope of Mount Merapi, an active volcano in central Java.

Research interests

I am particularly interested in the intersections of politics and the earth and environmental sciences. My research spans historical geography, cultural geography, geopolitics, and the history and geography of science. 

My current monograph The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java is a political history of volcano science in Indonesia since the late nineteenth century. The project examines the role of Javanese Islam in shaping the modern understanding of the earth, including the theory of plate tectonics. The book decentres well-known narratives about the significance of the west in the formation of the geological sciences to follow volcano scientists as they engaged with and were transformed by Javanese spiritual traditions, geographies, and cosmologies.

I am working on a new project about the history and geography of fossil fuel prospecting in the twentieth century that seeks to understand how prospectors remade concepts of soul and self. The project grapples with how thoroughly a fossil fuel-based culture transformed what it meant to be a person. The project traces these ideas through profiles of prospectors in the British and Dutch empires in Southeast Asia from the origins of Shell oil in Sumatra, to the role of Theosophists and occultists, the remaking of the Hajj, and Indonesian spiritual movements influence on post-war British theories of personal and planetary energy.

I have collaborated with priests in the Solomon Islands to create environment observatories in churches. This work is based on thinking about churches as infrastructural networks for grass roots monitoring of climate change. The purpose is to operate in areas in need of observatory infrastructures but without access to large scale, state scientific infrastructures from the wealthy north. We are re-thinking of churches as scientific infrastructures and re-imagining the intersections of climate science and theology.

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013
Number of items: 44.

2023

Bobbette, A. (2023) The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java. Duke University Press: Durham, NC. ISBN 9781478020073 (In Press)

2022

Bobbette, A. (2022) Priests in the observatory: rethinking climate science and religion in a warming world. Scottish Geographical Journal, (doi: 10.1080/14702541.2022.2157866) (Early Online Publication)

Bobbette, A. (2022) The sound of magma: geographies of infrasound, vibrating bodies, and representing the Earth. DMJournal–Architecture and Representation, 1,

Bobbette, A. (2022) In Sorowako. London Review of Books, 44(16),

Bobbette, A. (2022) Mining is Magical. [Website]

Bobbette, A. (2022) A Javanese Anthropocene? [Website]

Bobbette, A. (2022) Processions: how the spiritual geographies of Central Java shaped modern volcano science. Indonesia, 113, pp. 49-64.

Bobbette, A. (2022) Re-imagining our ancestors: dispossession, resilience, and volatile nature. In: Yang, Y. and Taufen, A. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim. Routledge. ISBN 9780367471149

Bobbette, A. (2022) The Spirituality of Coal. [Website]

Bashford, A., Kern, E. and Bobbette, A. (Eds.) (2022) New Earth Histories. University of Chicago Press. (Accepted for Publication)

Bobbette, A. (2022) Merapi. In: Lehnerer, A., Seidel, B. and Ursprung, P. (eds.) 17 Volcanoes: Holes in the Future City. Lars Müller Publishers. (Accepted for Publication)

Bobbette, A. (2022) The spiritual geographies of plate tectonics: Javanese Islam, volcanology, and earth’s new history. In: Bashford, A., Kern, E. and Bobbette, A. (eds.) New Earth Histories. University of Chicago Press. (Accepted for Publication)

2021

Bobbette, A. (2021) The political geology of two thousand square metres. In: Cincik, B. and Torres-Campos, T. (eds.) Postcards from the Anthropocene: Unsettling the Geopolitics of Representation. DPR: Barcelona, pp. 266-269. ISBN 9788494938870

Bobbette, A. (2021) Political geology. In: Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0222)

Bobbette, A. , Gamble, R., Lee, C.-T. and Wilson, C. (2021) Decolonizing geology: a discussion. GeoHumanities, 7(2), pp. 647-655. (doi: 10.1080/2373566x.2021.1896373)

Szlam, M. and Bobbette, A. (2021) Merapi [Film]. [Audio]

2019

Bobbette, A. (2019) Making a home on a volcano. In: Lenhard, J. and Samanani, F. (eds.) Home: Ethnographic Encounters. Series: Encounters: experience and anthropological knowledge. Routledge: London, pp. 145-148. ISBN 9781350115941 (doi: 10.4324/9781003085577-10)

Bobbette, A. (2019) Priests on the shore: climate change and the Anglican Church of Melanesia. GeoHumanities, 5(2), pp. 554-569. (doi: 10.1080/2373566x.2019.1644962)

Bobbette, A. (2019) How plants move: Stories of collecting and drawing botanical specimens. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Bobbette, A. (2019) Forecasting Earth futures. [Website]

Bobbette, A. (2019) Joseph Banks' Florilegium: botanical treasures from Cook's first voyage. Times Literary Supplement, 6048, p. 26. [Book Review]

2018

Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (Eds.) (2018) Political Geology: Active Stratigraphies and the Making of Life. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham. ISBN 9783319981888

Bobbette, A. (2018) Cosmological reason on a volcano. In: Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (eds.) Political Geology. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 169-199. ISBN 9783319981888 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98189-5_6)

Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (2018) Encountering the Earth: political geological futures? In: Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (eds.) Political Geology. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 347-371. ISBN 9783319981888 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98189-5_12)

Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (2018) Political geology: an introduction. In: Bobette, A. and Donovan, A. (eds.) Political Geology: Active Stratigraphies and the Making of Life. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 1-34. ISBN 9783319981888 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98189-5_1)

Bobbette, A. (2018) Too abundant grass: A place of geopolitics and pleasure. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Bobbette, A. (2018) Fire in Jakarta: City politics and the rise of conservative Islam. n+1, 31, pp. 22-33.

Bobbette, A. (2018) The Masters. In: Ludic Garden, exhibition catalogue. Mehraneh Atashi: Amsterdam, pp. 57-65. ISBN 9789082922400

Bobbette, A. (2018) Singing disappearance: Javanese songbird competitions and the ventriloquizing of extinction. Cabinet, 66,

2017

Bobbette, A. (2017) A temperate empire. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Bobbette, A. (2017) Fuck your Culture: Nudes in four landscapes. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 334-341. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) Getting to know a few hundred degrees: Or, volcano aesthetics. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 329-334. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) Granite and sandstone. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 325-329. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) The inbetweeners. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 347-350. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) Ten entrances to an event. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 184-189. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) We all live in the wrong place: Thinking beyond resilience in volatile environments. In: Hutton, J. (ed.) Material Culture Assembling and Disassembling Landscapes. Series: Landscript, 5. Jovis: Berlin, pp. 223-236. ISBN 9783868592146

Bobbette, A. (2017) Where does the water touch the bank? In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 341-347. ISBN 9789491435478

2016

Bobbette, A. (2016) The aeronauticists. Forty-Five, 2, 170.

Bobbette, A. (2016) Contortions of the unconsolidated: Hong Kong, landslides and the production of urban grounds. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 20(4), pp. 523-538. (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2016.1192417)

2015

Bobbette, A. and Denizen, S. (Eds.) (2015) Weather: Special Issue of Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781514372593

2014

Bobbette, A. (2014) On unconsolidated grounds. In: Mapping Asia. Asia Art Archive: Hong Kong, pp. 162-185. ISBN 9789881342706

2013

Bobbette, A. (2013) A forensics of the future: fire insurance underwriting, contingency, and early 20th century materials. Journal of Architectural Education, 67(2), pp. 285-287. (doi: 10.1080/10464883.2013.817177)

Bobbette, A. , Miller, M. and Turpin, E. (Eds.) (2013) Jakarta: Architecture and Adaptation/ Jakarta: Arsitektur + Adaptasi. Universitas Indonesia Press: Depok. ISBN 9789794565261

Bobbette, A. (2013) Episodes from a history of scalelessness: William Jerome Harrison and geological photography. In: Turpin, E. (ed.) Architecture in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Design, Deep Time, Science and Philosophy. Open Humanities Press: London. ISBN 9781607853107 (doi: 10.3998/ohp.12527215.0001.001)

This list was generated on Sat Mar 25 16:28:21 2023 GMT.
Number of items: 44.

Articles

Bobbette, A. (2022) Priests in the observatory: rethinking climate science and religion in a warming world. Scottish Geographical Journal, (doi: 10.1080/14702541.2022.2157866) (Early Online Publication)

Bobbette, A. (2022) The sound of magma: geographies of infrasound, vibrating bodies, and representing the Earth. DMJournal–Architecture and Representation, 1,

Bobbette, A. (2022) In Sorowako. London Review of Books, 44(16),

Bobbette, A. (2022) Processions: how the spiritual geographies of Central Java shaped modern volcano science. Indonesia, 113, pp. 49-64.

Bobbette, A. , Gamble, R., Lee, C.-T. and Wilson, C. (2021) Decolonizing geology: a discussion. GeoHumanities, 7(2), pp. 647-655. (doi: 10.1080/2373566x.2021.1896373)

Bobbette, A. (2019) Priests on the shore: climate change and the Anglican Church of Melanesia. GeoHumanities, 5(2), pp. 554-569. (doi: 10.1080/2373566x.2019.1644962)

Bobbette, A. (2018) Fire in Jakarta: City politics and the rise of conservative Islam. n+1, 31, pp. 22-33.

Bobbette, A. (2018) Singing disappearance: Javanese songbird competitions and the ventriloquizing of extinction. Cabinet, 66,

Bobbette, A. (2016) The aeronauticists. Forty-Five, 2, 170.

Bobbette, A. (2016) Contortions of the unconsolidated: Hong Kong, landslides and the production of urban grounds. City: Analysis of Urban Trends, Culture, Theory, Policy, Action, 20(4), pp. 523-538. (doi: 10.1080/13604813.2016.1192417)

Bobbette, A. (2013) A forensics of the future: fire insurance underwriting, contingency, and early 20th century materials. Journal of Architectural Education, 67(2), pp. 285-287. (doi: 10.1080/10464883.2013.817177)

Books

Bobbette, A. (2023) The Pulse of the Earth: Political Geology in Java. Duke University Press: Durham, NC. ISBN 9781478020073 (In Press)

Book Sections

Bobbette, A. (2022) Re-imagining our ancestors: dispossession, resilience, and volatile nature. In: Yang, Y. and Taufen, A. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim. Routledge. ISBN 9780367471149

Bobbette, A. (2022) Merapi. In: Lehnerer, A., Seidel, B. and Ursprung, P. (eds.) 17 Volcanoes: Holes in the Future City. Lars Müller Publishers. (Accepted for Publication)

Bobbette, A. (2022) The spiritual geographies of plate tectonics: Javanese Islam, volcanology, and earth’s new history. In: Bashford, A., Kern, E. and Bobbette, A. (eds.) New Earth Histories. University of Chicago Press. (Accepted for Publication)

Bobbette, A. (2021) The political geology of two thousand square metres. In: Cincik, B. and Torres-Campos, T. (eds.) Postcards from the Anthropocene: Unsettling the Geopolitics of Representation. DPR: Barcelona, pp. 266-269. ISBN 9788494938870

Bobbette, A. (2021) Political geology. In: Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford University Press. (doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0222)

Bobbette, A. (2019) Making a home on a volcano. In: Lenhard, J. and Samanani, F. (eds.) Home: Ethnographic Encounters. Series: Encounters: experience and anthropological knowledge. Routledge: London, pp. 145-148. ISBN 9781350115941 (doi: 10.4324/9781003085577-10)

Bobbette, A. (2018) Cosmological reason on a volcano. In: Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (eds.) Political Geology. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 169-199. ISBN 9783319981888 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98189-5_6)

Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (2018) Encountering the Earth: political geological futures? In: Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (eds.) Political Geology. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 347-371. ISBN 9783319981888 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98189-5_12)

Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (2018) Political geology: an introduction. In: Bobette, A. and Donovan, A. (eds.) Political Geology: Active Stratigraphies and the Making of Life. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham, pp. 1-34. ISBN 9783319981888 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-98189-5_1)

Bobbette, A. (2018) The Masters. In: Ludic Garden, exhibition catalogue. Mehraneh Atashi: Amsterdam, pp. 57-65. ISBN 9789082922400

Bobbette, A. (2017) Fuck your Culture: Nudes in four landscapes. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 334-341. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) Getting to know a few hundred degrees: Or, volcano aesthetics. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 329-334. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) Granite and sandstone. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 325-329. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) The inbetweeners. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 347-350. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) Ten entrances to an event. In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 184-189. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2017) We all live in the wrong place: Thinking beyond resilience in volatile environments. In: Hutton, J. (ed.) Material Culture Assembling and Disassembling Landscapes. Series: Landscript, 5. Jovis: Berlin, pp. 223-236. ISBN 9783868592146

Bobbette, A. (2017) Where does the water touch the bank? In: WdeW Review: Arts, Culture, and Journalism in Revolt, vol.1 (2013-2016). Witte de With Centre for Contemporary Art: Rotterdam, pp. 341-347. ISBN 9789491435478

Bobbette, A. (2014) On unconsolidated grounds. In: Mapping Asia. Asia Art Archive: Hong Kong, pp. 162-185. ISBN 9789881342706

Bobbette, A. (2013) Episodes from a history of scalelessness: William Jerome Harrison and geological photography. In: Turpin, E. (ed.) Architecture in the Anthropocene: Encounters Among Design, Deep Time, Science and Philosophy. Open Humanities Press: London. ISBN 9781607853107 (doi: 10.3998/ohp.12527215.0001.001)

Book Reviews

Bobbette, A. (2019) How plants move: Stories of collecting and drawing botanical specimens. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Bobbette, A. (2019) Joseph Banks' Florilegium: botanical treasures from Cook's first voyage. Times Literary Supplement, 6048, p. 26. [Book Review]

Bobbette, A. (2018) Too abundant grass: A place of geopolitics and pleasure. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Bobbette, A. (2017) A temperate empire. Times Literary Supplement, [Book Review]

Edited Books

Bashford, A., Kern, E. and Bobbette, A. (Eds.) (2022) New Earth Histories. University of Chicago Press. (Accepted for Publication)

Bobbette, A. and Donovan, A. (Eds.) (2018) Political Geology: Active Stratigraphies and the Making of Life. Palgrave Macmillan: Cham. ISBN 9783319981888

Bobbette, A. and Denizen, S. (Eds.) (2015) Weather: Special Issue of Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781514372593

Bobbette, A. , Miller, M. and Turpin, E. (Eds.) (2013) Jakarta: Architecture and Adaptation/ Jakarta: Arsitektur + Adaptasi. Universitas Indonesia Press: Depok. ISBN 9789794565261

Audio

Szlam, M. and Bobbette, A. (2021) Merapi [Film]. [Audio]

Website

Bobbette, A. (2022) Mining is Magical. [Website]

Bobbette, A. (2022) A Javanese Anthropocene? [Website]

Bobbette, A. (2022) The Spirituality of Coal. [Website]

Bobbette, A. (2019) Forecasting Earth futures. [Website]

This list was generated on Sat Mar 25 16:28:21 2023 GMT.

Grants

My research has been funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The British Academy, Selwyn College, Melanesia Mission UK, University of New South Wales. My PhD was funded by a Cambridge International Trust scholarship and SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship.