Jennifer Fluri

Research Interests

I am a feminist political geographer concentrating on conflict, security, and aid/development in South and Southwest Asia. I am particularly interested in understanding the spatial organization and corporeal representations and experiences of individuals and groups working and living within conflict zones.

My doctoral research focused on the use of public and private space by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA), a clandestine feminist-nationalist organization. My interest in this organization was sparked through my interactions with their international supporters network in the United States. I compared how this organization operates and represents itself internationally through the use of the Internet and its geographic placement and operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. RAWA's feminist politics remains unconventional within an Afghan context, while their methods for disseminating their sociopolitical beliefs expanding their organization relies on conventional methods such as social reproduction and educational indoctrination.

My post-doctoral research project examined the spatial arrangements, interactions, and gender roles within the international "community" in Kabul, Afghanistan in comparison with the "local" Afghan population. The geopolitics and geo-economics associated with the placement of International workers and their interactions with Afghans were central to this project. I also became increasing interested in the differentiated methods used by Afghans and internationals to provide for their own security in spaces increasingly beset by political violence and a general state of insecurity.

Current Research 

My current research examines gender, security and development in Afghanistan with a focus on women’s leadership and influence at multiple scales. This project includes analyses of the geopolitical changes including the US withdrawal, Taliban resurgence, and the experiences and responses of people in Afghanistan. 

In addition to this research, I co-direct the CU-Boulder Affordable Housing Research Initiative. This is a community engaged research project that seeks to use research to better understand housing needs and to assist organizations and individuals working on, providing, living in and seeking affordable housing in Colorado. We are currently examining individual experiences of racism and racial discrimination at the scale of neighborhoods and communities in Boulder.

Recent Courses Taught

• Spring 2023  GEOG 1962  Geographies of Global Change
• Spring 2023  GEOG 5100  Special Topics Feminist Geography
• Spring 2023  GEOG 5100  Special Topics: Navigating Grad School
• Fall 2022  GEOG 3672  Who Runs the World? Sex, Power, and Gender in Geography
• Spring 2022  GEOG 5632  Development Geography
• Spring 2021  GEOG 3832  Geographies of South Asia
• Spring 2020  GEOG 5100  Special Topics: Feminist Geography
• Fall 2019  GEOG 5152  History and Theory of Geography
• Spring 2019  GEOG 4722/5722   Field Methods Human Geography

Recent Publications

Books 

• Fluri, Jennifer L. and Rachel Lehr. 2017. The Carpetbaggers of Kabul and Other American-Afghan Entanglements: Intimate Development, Geopolitics and the Currency of Gender and Grief. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. 
• Trauger, Amy and Jennifer L. Fluri.  2019. Engendering Development: Global Capitalism, Intersectionality and Inequality. New York and London: Routledge.  
• Oberhauser, Ann M., Jennifer L. Fluri, Risa Whiston, and Sharlene Mollett. 2018. Feminist Spaces: Gender and Geography in a Global Context. New York and London: Routledge. 
• Mitchell, Katharyne, Reece Jones, and Jennifer L. Fluri (Editors). 2019. Critical Geographies of Migration. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.  

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

• Fluri, Jennifer L. 2020. “Political Geography I: Extractions” Progress in Human Geography, 45 (4): 855-865. 
• Fluri, Jennifer L., Abby Hickcox, Shae Frydenlund, and Ridge Zackary. 2020. “Assessing racial privilege through property: Geographies of Racial Capitalism” Geoforum. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.06.013 
• Fluri, Jennifer L. and Rachel Lehr. 2019. “We are Farkhunda”: Geographies of Violence, Protest and Performance” Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 45 (1): 149-173. 
• Fluri, Jennifer L. and Jessie Hanna Clark. 2020. “Political Geographies of Humor and Adversity” Political Geography, 68: 122-124.  
• Fluri, Jennifer L. 2019. “What’s so funny in Afghanistan? Jocular Geopolitics and the everyday use of humor in protracted precarity” Political Geography, 68: 125-130.  
• Fertaly, Kaitlin and Jennifer L. Fluri. 2019. “Producing Knowledge in Fieldwork: Research Associates, Geopolitics, and Production Credits.” The Professional Geographer, 71(1): 75-82.  
• Fluri, Jennifer L. and Amy Piedalue. 2017. Co-editors of themed section, “Embodying Violence: Critical Geographies of Gender, Race, and Culture.” Gender, Place and Culture, 34(4): 534-54.  
• Bagheri, Nazgol and Jennifer L. Fluri. 2019. “Gendered Circular Migrations of Afghans: Fleeing conflict and seeking opportunity” In Mitchell, K., R. Jones, and J.L. Fluri (Editors) Handbook of Critical Geographies of Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing. (130-141). 
• Lehr, Rachel and  Jennifer L. Fluri. 2019. “Mother Tongue for Mothers Only?” in S. Brunn & Roland Kehrein (eds.) The Changing World Language Map. Springer Press. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-73400-2_57-1.

Updated August 2021