Dr Manal Massalha
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Urban ethnography, social documentary photography, conviviality, displacement, social inclusion/exclusion, urban health.
I'm an urban ethnographer and social documentary photographer. I use research and my sociologically-informed photography and videography to understand and theorise the social world around me.
My practice is inter and intra-disciplinary. Its overall objective is to decolonise knowledge production, engage with urgent social, urban and political questions, and bridge the gap between theory, practice and art. People are at its centre. Providing the platform to tell their stories, and treating them with respect, dignity and humanity are my guiding principles. My style is immersive and engaging.
My work explores the everyday and the mundane. The human and the urban. The cultural and the social. The political and the economics. It celebrates urban conviviality and visualises gentrification, inequalities in health, housing, displacement and infrastructure and their intersection with class, race, gender and coloniality. It also deals with politics of representation and othering.
Academic qualifications
- PhD, Sociology, London School of Economics. Thesis supervised by Professor Paul Gilroy. 2015
- MSc, Human Rights, London School of Economics. 2006
Featured publications
'Ethnographies of Listening: settler-colonial violence, erasure and convivial possibilities,'
Book Chapter: Massalha, M. (Spring 2025), 'Ethnographies of Listening: settler-colonial violence, erasure and convivial possibilities,' Sonic Justice, Routledge Focal Press (Forthcoming)
Sonic Justice
Co-edited Book: Lewis, M. and Massalha. M. (eds), Spring 2025 Sonic Justice, Routledge Focal Press (forthcoming).
‘Your daily reality is rubbish’: Waste as a means of urban exclusion in the suspended spaces of East Jerusalem ,
Bauman, H. and Massalha, M., July 2021,‘Your daily reality is rubbish’: Waste as a means of urban exclusion in the suspended spaces of East Jerusalem , Special Issue: Infrastructural stigma and Urban
Geographies of Hope: A Visual Reflection on Parks, Places of Play and Schools in Hackney, East London
Massalha, M, August 2020, Geographies of Hope: A Visual Reflection on Parks, Places of Play and Schools in Hackney, East London. The Sociological Review.