Anna Jackman

Anna is a feminist political geographer interested in technological visibilities, volumes, relations and futures. Anna's current work approaches these issues through the lens of the drone, engaging with feminist, digital and robotic geographies to consider drones as they touch down in everyday, urban and military life. Anna is also part of the Royal Geographical Society and Antipode-funded project 'States of Precarity', which brings together researchers across several UK universities to explore academic precarity in Higher Education Geography. 

Anna lead an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) New Investigator Award (December 2021 – July 2023). ‘Diversifying drone stories’ explores the ways in which the drone is (re)shaping UK airspace, with a focus on aerial (in)securities and harms. You can find out more about Anna’s research project on her webpage Drone Geographies and about her publications here.

In terms of her publications, Anna’s recent work has explored drone sensing, has sought to complicate existing understandings of volume by bringing the analytic and sensibility of gentleness to bear, and has brought into dialogue feminist geopolitics and drone scholarship to develop the idea of 'everyday droning' as a honing and homing of military technology and drone capitalism.’        Elsewhere, Anna has reflected on the ways in which both small military drones are normalised and naturalised at the tradeshow, and the (potential) implications of the advent of commercial drones on urban skylines and lives. More widely, Anna is interested in feminist understandings of territory and the methodological challenges raised by the 'volumetric' turn in and beyond human geography.

Anna is on the editorial board for the journal Digital War and on the editorial advisory board for the journal Defense & Security Analysis.

Anna was appointed as the Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee 2019 Inquiry into 'Commercial and recreational drone use in the UK' and acted as an expert witness for the Defence Committee's Inquiry into the 'Domestic threat of drones'. Anna has shared her research in presentations in Westminster (on rogue drones) and to the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (on drones and counter-drone technology).

Alongside building her academic publication profile, Anna continues to write accessible online pieces, including reflections on emergency service drone use, the public perception of drones, conservation drones, evolving drone threats, domestic drone futures, the Gatwick drone incident, and stopping rogue drones.

You can connect with Anna on Twitter at @ahjackman.