Jonathan Darling

• Professor in Human Geography, Durham University

Jonathan Darling is Professor in Human Geography at Durham University. His research focuses on the spatial politics of asylum, sanctuary and solidarity movements, and the urban dynamics of forced migration.

Prior to working at Durham, he worked in the geography departments at the University of Manchester and the University of St Andrews. His work has been funded by the AHRC, British Academy, ESRC, Leverhulme Trust, and the European Commission and he has a keen interest in public engagement and communicating research widely to public and policy audiences.

He is co-editor of three books, Encountering the City (Routledge, 2016, with Helen F Wilson), Sanctuary Cities and Urban Struggles (University of Manchester Press, 2019, with Harald Bauder), and Research Ethics for Human Geography (Sage, 2020, with Helen F Wilson). His book Systems of Suffering: Dispersal and the Denial of Asylum (Pluto Press, 2022) explores the UK's system of housing and support for asylum seekers and refugees.

His research has been cited in Parliamentary debates on asylum accommodation and he has provided written and oral evidence to the Home Affairs Committee and the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration on asylum accommodation and support services. He has provided two expert reports for a High Court Case surrounding the Home Office's use of former military sites for the accommodation of asylum seekers.

His most recent work has included an examination of the international use of hotels as forms of contingent and carceral accommodation alongside colleagues in Australia and Switzerland, and a study of the forms of intimate solidarity and hospitality practiced in refugee hosting programmes across the UK.

• –present Professor in the Department of Geography, Durham University

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