Dr Paul Griffin

Assistant Professor

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

Paul is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography and has worked at Northumbria University since 2016. His research interests primarily connect with the sub-field of labour geography and related concepts such as agency, resistance and solidarity.

In practice, his work has engaged with historical geographies of labour activism and work related experiences. His research has engaged closely with ideas of spatial politics through the histories of 'Red Clydeside'. He has also worked on a project to consider collective responses to UK unemployment since the late 1970s. This involved working closely with Unemployed Workers' Centres to document their pasts and to revist demonstrations like the 1981 People's March for Jobs. This work was funded by the British Academy and Economic History Society, with articles relating to these works to be found below under publications.

Most recently, he has began to develop research connections with credit unions to think through their role as alternative economic providers, and links with ideas of solidarity economies. From October 2025, he will begin a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to consider these histories through a combination of oral history, archival and community-led research.

Through these engagements and wider conversations, Paul has also developed a wider interest in the role of archives in maintaining and providing access to 'usable pasts'.

In terms of his teaching, Paul teaches widely across the BA Geography programme, including as module tutor on Introduction to Human Geography (first year) and Historical Geographies (final year). He was also BA Geography programme leader between 2021-2024. More broadly, he has recently published an article with colleages around reflexive journal writing and the importance of discomfort in shaping student learning.

Paul was also the Historical Geography Section Editor for Geography Compass between 2019-2024.

Email Paul

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

My research and teaching interests can be found across political and economic geography and more specifically labour geography. I am interested in the ways in which economic geography is experienced from below and how workers, and non-workers, can shape and reshape their material conditions. I am keen to develop this research interest in both historical and contemporary settings. My doctoral research was largely archival and as a result of this I have developed a further research interest in historical geography, particularly debates regarding the archive and the production of usable pasts.

Summary of current research interests:

Labour geography
Histories of labour activism and internationalism
Unemployment - linking with ideas of community, support and resistance
Credit unions and alternative economies

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Trade unions and labour market inactivity: a continuing sense of solidarity and belonging, Griffin, P., Holgate, J. 1 Nov 2025, In: Transfer
Solidarity on the Move: Imaginaries and Infrastructures within The People’s March for Jobs (1981), Griffin, P. 1 Sep 2024, In: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
Unemployed Workers’ Centres (1978–): Spatial Politics,“Non-Movement”, and the Making of Centres, Griffin, P. Mar 2023, In: Antipode
Racialised Violence: Riots, Space and Temporality, Griffin, P., Clayton, J., Adamson, E. 8 Jun 2025, In: The Geographical Journal
The 1919 ‘race riots’ – within and beyond exceptional moments in South Shields and Glasgow, Griffin, P., Martin, H. 1 Jun 2021, In: Political Geography
Expanding labour geographies: resourcefulness and organising amongst ‘unemployed workers’, Griffin, P. 1 Jan 2021, In: Geoforum

Current and Recent Projects

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Debt, self-activity and solidarity: collective responses to financial insecurity, Griffin, P. (Principal Investigator), The Leverhulme Trust, 01/09/25 - 31/08/26, £65,206.00
Pump-Priming Impact - Community Organising Histories, Griffin, P. (Principal Investigator), RIS Internal Funding, 01/01/23 - 31/07/23, £3,917.00
Co-Producing usable pasts: hidden histories of unemployment, Griffin, P. (Principal Investigator), British Academy, 31/08/20 - 26/08/22, 0.00
More-than a 'reserve army of labour' - historicising UK unemployment (1978), Griffin, P. (Principal Investigator), The Economic History Society, 01/03/20 - 28/02/21, 0.00

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Oral presentation: Care, support and activism: historical geographies of Unemployed Workers’ Centres 2019
Oral presentation: Politicising unemployment:volunteering, support and activism in UK Unemployed Workers’ Centres 2019
Oral presentation: New forms of community unionism and the spatial politics of labour organising 2018
Oral presentation: Labour, carcerality and punishment: ‘less than human’ labour landscapes 2017
Oral presentation: ‘Clydeside’s Working-Class Presence: Political Identities and International Connections’ 2017
Editorial work: Geography Compass (Journal) 2017
Oral presentation: Space, Place and Solidarity: Towards a Conversation Between Labour Geography and Labour History 2016

PGR Supervision

Olivia Robinson Haunting, Heritage, and Justice: Archiving Industrial Trauma for the Future Start Date: 01/10/2023
Edith Adamson Diasporic Memories: Multigenerational Multiculture Within and Through South Shields Start Date: 01/10/2024
Olivia Robinson Haunting, Heritage, and Justice: Archiving Industrial Trauma for the Future Start Date: 01/10/2023 End Date: 17/10/2025
Edith Adamson Diasporic Memories: Multigenerational Multiculture Within and Through South Shields Start Date: 01/10/2024 End Date: 17/10/2025