J. Makhlouta (Jean)

My research is situated at the intersection of urban geography, sociology, and mobility studies. Drawing on mental mapping and ethnographic methods, I examine how urban space is produced, negotiated, and inhabited under conditions of inequality, crisis, and structural constraint.

Spanning both my PhD (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and my current postdoctoral position (Radboud University), my work is strongly grounded in empirical research in Beirut. My PhD focused on queer geographies and analyzed how everyday mobilities and spatial strategies are shaped by intersecting relations of gender, sexuality, class, nationality/race, and politico-religious belonging. In my postdoctoral research, I investigate the moral and emotional geographies of interpersonal debt, with particular attention to everyday cash practices and circulations, and their role in shaping urban space and processes of city-making.