research

Research on poetic practice as situated knowledge production: writing conducted with and through a site, its inhabitants, its institutions and its more-than-human occupants, tested in workshops, walking performances and collective composition with architecture students and non-specialist publics across several countries. Current work extends this practice to river territories in transformation, asking how situated poetic practice can produce new relations between a territory’s inhabitants and the place itself, alongside the legal and institutional change that rights-of-nature initiatives seek.

ORCID · HAL · Cairn · full CV (PDF)

positions

2020– Lecturer; Coordinator for Disciplinary Teaching in English, École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Strasbourg (ENSAS)
2026– Member, Research Committee, ENSAS
2018– Member of the steering committee (re-elected 2024), AMUP — Architecture, Morphologie/Morphogenèse Urbaine et Projet (UR 7309)
2015–2020 Visiting Lecturer, ENSAS

education

2025 Doctor of Fine Arts (Creative Writing), School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow.
Thesis: Poetic Practices and Spatial Agency: Writing into New Situations. doi:10.5525/gla.thesis.85545 (full text embargoed until 2028)
Supervisors: Dr Colin Herd, Prof. Johnny Rodger. Examiners: Prof. Klaske Havik, Dr Nicholas Melville. Partially funded by the Scottish Funding Council Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme and the University of Glasgow College of Arts & Humanities.
2013 Bachelor of Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, Université de Strasbourg.
2010 Master of Fine Arts, Creative Writing, University of Alabama.
2002 Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, Kenyon College.

research interests

Poetic Practices and Spatial Agency
Critical Spatial Practice
Collective Poetics and the Poetics of Relation
Ecopoetics and More-than-Human Milieus
Figurative and Narrative Urbanisms
Practice-based and Arts-based Research

publications

edited volumes

2025 Havik, K., Sioli, A., Cellucci, V. and Hawkins, J. A. (eds), Poetics of Place, Writingplace book series on Architecture and Literature, nai010 Publishers / TU Delft OPEN Publishing. print · open access PDF

articles

2025 “New Encounters, Emerging Voices: Poetics and Language Learning in the Creative Writing Workshop,” reCHERches 34, 71–76. doi:10.4000/144gd
2023 “Inverted Address: Lyric Experience in the Urban Landscape,” Passage 3, 99–120. online
2023 Milián Bernal, D., Alatalo, E., Hawkins, J. A. and Lehtovuori, P., “Co-constructed Narratives of the Grassroots in the City: Narrating Hiedanranta,” Writingplace Journal 8–9, 172–198.
2023 Staničić, A., Tanis, F., Sioli, A., Havik, K., Dale, H., Vogel, W., de Wit, S., Mejía Hernández, J., Perez Guembe, E., Pllumbi, D. and Hawkins, J. A., “Views on Delft,” Writingplace Journal 8–9, 311–331.
2022 “From Narrative Objects to Poetic Practices: On Figurative Modes of Urbanism,” Urban Planning 7(3), 430–439. doi:10.17645/up.v7i3.5370
2022 “Formes in/connues : les pratiques poétiques à la lecture du site,” Radial 4, 35–51. issue

book chapters

2025 “Pour un renouvellement de la participation. Les pratiques poétiques situées comme méthode ? (Vosges du Nord, France ; massif des Carpates, Roumanie),” in Bertoni, A. and Zaza, O. (eds), Habiter la montagne aujourd'hui. Réseaux ferroviaires et dynamiques citoyennes en débat, Presses universitaires de Grenoble, coll. Montagnes en transition, 169–180. Cairn
2024 “Collaging Community Narratives,” in Machado e Moura, C., Milián Bernal, D., Restrepo Restrepo, E., Havik, K. and Niculae, L. (eds), Repository: 49 Methods and Assignments for Writing Urban Places, nai010 Publishers, 50–52.
2024 “Exhausting Urban Places… à la Georges Perec,” in Machado e Moura, C., Milián Bernal, D., Restrepo Restrepo, E., Havik, K. and Niculae, L. (eds), Repository: 49 Methods and Assignments for Writing Urban Places, nai010 Publishers, 78–80.
2017 “Poïesis sans fin : matière à projet,” in Mazzoni, C. et al. (eds), Shanghai, Kaleidoscopic City, La Commune. HAL

translation

2017 Scruton, R., “Le problème de l’architecture,” translated by J. A. Hawkins, in Labbé, M. (ed.), Philosophie de l’architecture : formes, fonctions et significations, Vrin.

conference papers

2021 “Lyric Spatial Agency: Poetic Practices and Situated Knowledge in the Design Process,” 2nd International Conference CANON and CODE: The Language of Arts in Today's World (IConA), Rome. HAL · PDF

communications

2026 “Walking with Desire: Poetics of Territorial Entanglement on the Heels of a Balance Bike,” Embodied Aesthetics: The Body and Embodiment in the Arts and Arts-Based Research, London Arts-Based Research Centre (LABRC), London (online).
2025 Hawkins, J. A., Jauréguiberry, A. and Grigorovschi, A., “Infrastructure Commons: Exploratory Design Methods in the Bruche Valley,” Transatlantic Mountain Cultures Conference: Engaging Rural Landscapes & Community (Re)Connections, Transilvania University of Brașov, Brașov.
2024 Hawkins, J. A. and Grigorovschi, A., “Post-Highway Imaginaries: Possible Futures for Infrastructures through Poetics Design,” Motorways Architecture and Landscapes: Retrospectives and Perspectives between Critique and Design, international conference, Italy.
2024 “Deambulating Poetics: Itinerant Performance, Affective Reconfigurations, and Placemaking,” invited talk, Centre for Culture, Sports and Events, United Kingdom.
2022 “Poetic Practices for Situated Knowledge Production,” Narrating Hiedanranta: Stories of Objects and Subjects, Finland.
2020 Grigorovschi, A., Fruiquière, M. and Hawkins, J., “SuMo-Rhine Scenarios: Mapping-Based Analysis of Local Governmental Visions in the Context of Upper Rhine Cross-Border and Sustainable Mobility Planning,” Belts and Roads: Governmental Visions for Transport and Mobility, Shanghai. HAL
2019 Grigorovschi, A., Moarcas, G. and Hawkins, J., “The Road from the View. The Transfăgărășan as Material and Conceptual Infrastructure,” Appalachian/Carpathian International Conference: Making Place — Transitional and Post-Industrial Development in Mountain Communities, Brașov. HAL

research projects

2026–2027 Alter–Rhin Tortu. Alter-atlas des formes d'habiter le Rhin Tortu dans une perspective « Une seule santé » — Research associate. Eurométropole de Strasbourg “One Health” call (URBACT One Health 4 Cities), with AMUP/ENSAS, IPHC-CNRS and HEAR.
2025–2026 Alter-Bruche. Infrastructures du vivant et du commun pour une habitabilité désirable de la Vallée de la Bruche — Research associate. ITI Switch project, led by ENSAS.
2018–2023 COST Action CA18126 — Writing Urban Places — Working group member (WG3, Methodological Framework); guest core group member
2018–2022 SuMo-Rhine — Fostering Sustainable Mobility in the Upper Rhine Region — Research associate. INTERREG programme, led by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT-DFIU).

memberships & affiliations

2024– “Mobilities, Territories, Projects” Chair, ENSAS — Research associate and inaugural member
2023– Writingplace book series on Architecture and Literature (nai010 / TU Delft OPEN) — Member, editorial committee
2024– Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, UK and Ireland (ASLE-UKI) — Full member
2022– Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA) — Full member
2016–2022 Chair of Innovative Metropolitan Mobilities — Research associate

design pedagogy & supervision

2019 First place, International Greendot Competition — Harbin Gallery District (214,000 m², Harbin, China). Co-supervised with Andreea Grigorovschi; student team Pierre-Alexis Réty and Claire Neff. The winning submission made narrative design a key component of the project and included a metropolitan poem produced through an in-situ poetic writing method.

fellowships & grants

2022 SFC Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme (SGSAH) — guest researcher, six-month residency, Chair of Methods of Analysis and Imagination, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft — project “Creative Writing and Spatial Design”
2023, 2026 Erasmus+ faculty mobility — LOCI, UCLouvain, Belgium
2010 Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project — Poetry Fellowship, University of Alabama
2008–2009 U.S. Fulbright Program — Grantee, US-Romanian Fulbright Commission (Transilvania University of Brașov)