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Urban and cultural geography
Associate Professor in the Department of Geography
Office: Burnside Hall 413
Tel.: (514) 266-9908
Fax.: (514) 398-7437
sarah.moser [at] mcgill.ca (E-mail)
Academic background
- PhD Geography, National University of Singapore
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Urban and Global Studies, Trinity College
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Research interests
My research examines how national, religious, and ethnic identities shape cities in Southeast Asia and the Muslim world more broadly. I am fascinated by the transnational circulation of identity, architecture and urban policy and how cities across Asia are looking elsewhere in the global south rather than to 鈥榯he west鈥� for inspiration.听 My current work investigates the global emergence of supra-national religious and ethnic identities and how they are manifested in urban form and used to serve secular nation-building purposes. In particular, I examine emerging pan-Islamic identity, the 鈥楢rabization鈥� of Muslim identity and the effect these broad trends are having on urban areas. Another strand of this work examines emerging 鈥榩an-Chinese鈥� identities currently circulating in Asia and how they are being manifested in cities.
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Current projects
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Cultural politics, ideology, and nation-building in new cities
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The interplay between interpretations of Islam and the built environment (Southeast Asia, Middle East)
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model cities, utopian planning
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Publications
Moser, Sarah and C么t茅-Roy, Laurence. (in press) Reflections on researching new master-planned cities underway in the Global South. Journal of Urban Affairs.
Avery, Emma and Moser, Sarah. (2022) Urban speculation for survival: Adaptations and negotiations in Forest City, Malaysia. . 1-19.
Avni, Nufar; Moser, Sarah; and Gorgy, Gabrielle. (2022) Gendering gray space: Everyday challenges, strategies, and initiatives of women community leaders in East Jerusalem. Social and Cultural Geography.
C么t茅-Roy, Laurence and Moser, Sarah. (2022) 'A kingdom of new cities: Morocco鈥檚 national Villes Nouvelles strategy'. 131: 27-38.
Sato, Mayumi and Moser, Sarah. (2022) '#FromFerguson2Gaza: A transnational movement of Black-Palestinian solidarity'. 21 (1): 1-19.
Moser, Sarah; C么t茅-Roy, Laurence; and Korah, Prosper Issahaku. (2021) The uncharted foreign actors, investments, and urban models in African new city building. 56 (12): 2391鈥�2397.
Moser, Sarah and Avery, Emma. (2021) 'The multi-scalar politics of urban greening in Forest City, Malaysia'. 60 (May): 1-5.
Moser, Sarah and C么t茅-Roy, Laurence. (2021) 'New cities: Power, prestige, and profit'. 15 (1): 1-15.
Rebentisch, Hannah; Thompson, Caroline; C么t茅-Roy, Laurence; Moser, Sarah. (2020) 'Unicorn planning: Lessons from the rise and fall of an American 鈥榮mart鈥� mega-development'. . 101: 1-6.
Forest, Benjamin and Moser, Sarah. (2020) 'Building nations/building states/building cities: Concrete symbols of identity'. In Sami Moisio, Natalie Koch, Andy Jonas, Juho Luukkonen, Chris Lizotte (Eds.). Changing Geographies of the State: New Spaces of Geopolitics. Edward Elgar.
Jordan, Joanna and Moser, Sarah. (2020) 'Researching migrants in informal transit camps along the Balkan Route: Reflections on volunteer activism, access, and reciprocity'. 52 (3): 566-574.
Moser, Sarah. (2020) 'New cities: Engineering social exclusions'. . 2 (2): 125-127.
Shebell, Elizabeth and Moser, Sarah. (2019) 'Planning for the Buen Vivir: Socialism, decentralization, and urbanization in rural Ecuador'. 41 (4): 473-494.
Moser, Sarah. (2019) 'Rejecting and reproducing colonial urbanism in contemporary Malaysian city design'. In H. Hazel Hahn. (Ed.). . Singapore: National University of Singapore Press. (187-214)
Chitti, Marco and Moser, Sarah. (2019) 'Emerging trends in urbanizing Palestine: Neglected city-builders beyond the occupation'. 40 (7): 1010-1017.
Moser, Sarah. (2019) 鈥業slamic cities鈥�. In Orum, Anthony. (Ed.) . John Wiley & Sons. (983-992) [ISBN: 978-1-118-56845-3]
C么t茅-Roy, Laurence and Moser, Sarah. (2019) 鈥樷�淒oes Africa not deserve shiny new cities?": The power of seductive rhetoric around new cities in Africa鈥�. . 56(12): 2391鈥�2407.
Moser, Sarah; Fauveaud, Gabriel; and Cutts, Adam. (2019) 'Montr茅al: Towards a post-industrial reinvention'. . 86: 125-135.
Moser, Sarah. (2019) 鈥樷�淭wo days to shape the future鈥�: A Saudi Arabian node in the transnational circulation of new cities ideas鈥�, In Molotch, Harvey and Ponzini, Davide (Eds.) . New York: NYU Press. 213-232.
Blander, Akiva; Moser, Sarah; and Avni, Nufar. (2018) 'Religio-nationalism and "soft boundaries": Urban gating in West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv'. . 96: 227-235.
Moser, Sarah. (2018) 'Ethno- and Religio-Nationalism in Putrajaya, Taman Tamadun Islam, and Kota Iskandar: Malay(sian) national identity in contemporary urban mega-projects鈥�, In Hagen, Joshua and Diener, Alexander (Eds.) . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 235-252.
Moser, Sarah. (2018) 鈥楩orest City, Malaysia, and Chinese expansionism鈥�. . 39 (6): 935-943.
Moser, Sarah; Hendricks, Michael; and Vives, Luna. (2017) 鈥楢cademia鈥檚 moral entanglements in the face of a racist regime鈥�. . 16 (2): 1-10.
Moser, Sarah and Wilbur, Alyssa Shamsa. (2017) 鈥楥onstructing heritage through state architecture in Indonesia鈥檚 Riau Islands鈥�. . 11 (July): 1-25.
Araos, Malcolm; James Ford; Lea Berrang-Ford; Robbert Biesbroek; and Sarah Moser. (2017) 鈥楥limate change adaptation planning for Global South megacities: The case of Dhaka鈥�. . 19 (6): 682-696.
Moser, Sarah; Esther Clinton; and Jeremy Wallach. (2017) 鈥楲eisure activities in Southeast Asia, from pre-colonial times to the present鈥�, In Spracklen, Karl et al (Eds.) . Palgrave. 107-125.
Moser, Sarah. (2016) 鈥楨ducating the nation: Shaping student-citizens in Indonesian schools鈥� . 14 (3): 247-262.
Cutts, Adam, and Moser, Sarah. (2015) 'State-community collaborative strategies to enable the right to the city in Argentina'. . 49: 243-250.
Moser, Sarah; Swain, Marian; Alkhabbaz, Mohammed H. (2015) 'King Abdullah Economic City: Engineering Saudi Arabia's post-oil future', . 45: 71-80.
Moser, Sarah. (2014) 鈥楴ew cities: Old wine in new bottles?鈥� . 5 (1): 31-35.
Moser, Sarah. (2013) 鈥楴ew cities in the Muslim world: The cultural politics of planning an 鈥業slamic鈥� city鈥�. In . (Edited by Peter Hopkins, Lily Kong and Elizabeth Olson). New York: Springer. 39-55. [ISBN 978-94-007-4684-8]
Moser, Sarah. (2012) 鈥楥irculating visions of 鈥楬igh Islam鈥�: The adoption of fantasy Middle Eastern architecture in constructing Malaysian national identity鈥� . 49 (13) 2783-2805.
Moser, Sarah. (2012) 鈥楪lobalization and the construction of identity in two new Southeast Asian capitals: Putrajaya and Dompak鈥� in Rethinking Global Urbanism: Comparative Insights from Secondary Cities. Chen, Xiangming and Kanna, Ahmed. (Eds.) New York / London: Routledge. 169-189.
Moser, Sarah. (2010) 鈥楥reating citizens through play: The role of leisure in Indonesian nation-building鈥� Social and Cultural Geography. 11 (1): 53-73.
Moser, Sarah. (2010) 鈥楶utrajaya: Malaysia鈥檚 new federal administrative capital鈥� . 27 (3): 285-297.
Moser, Sarah. (2008) 鈥楶ersonality: a new positionality?鈥� . 40 (3) 383-392.