Staff profile

My research is focused on the relationship between space and place, violence, peace and justice. I am particularly interested in movement and use of space in divided cities and how structural violence and inequities can be challenged. My research is interdisciplinary and is informed by, and contributes to, the fields of sociology, human geography, and peace and conflict studies. 

Before joining the Sociology Department at Durham I held a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellowship at the University of York. For this research project I explored spaces of peace and conflict in Cape Town, with a focus on access to community spaces and experiences of the divided city. Prior to this, I held an Associate Lectureship at the University of York and lectured across human rights, peace, conflict and development. While at the University of York I received the departmental Athena Swan award for my work supporting students and staff through my engagement with, and work on, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. I completed my doctoral studies at The Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies at Liverpool Hope University. In this post, I held a Vice Chancellor Teaching Scholarship and served on the steering committee of the Centre.

Authored book

• Forde, S. (2018). Movement as Conflict Transformation: Rescripting Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92660-5

Chapter in book

• Forde, S. (2021). Socio-spatial agency and positive peace in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In G. Carabelli, A. Djurasovic, & R. Summa (Eds.), Challenging the Representation of Ethnically Divided Cities, Perspectives from Mostar. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003147671

Journal Article

• Forde, S. (2024). Spatial intersectionality and transformative justice as frameworks for equitable urban planning in divided and post-conflict cities. Cities, 147, Article 104796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2024.104796
• Forde, S. (2022). The violence of space and spaces of violence: Peace as violence in unequal and divided spaces. Political Geography, 93, Article 102529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102529
• Forde, S., Kappler, S., & Björkdahl, A. (2021). Peacebuilding, Structural Violence & Spatial Reparations in Post-Colonial South Africa. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 15(3), 327-346. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2021.1909297
• Forde, S. (2019). Socio-spatial agency and positive peace in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Space and Polity, 23(2), 154-167. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2019.1641402
• Forde, S. (2019). Cartographies of Transformation in Mostar and Cape Town: Mapping as a Methodology in Divided Cities. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 13(2), 139-157. https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2018.1528713
• Forde, S. (2016). The bridge on the Neretva: Stari Most as a stage of memory in post-conflict Mostar, Bosnia–Herzegovina. Cooperation and Conflict, 51(4), 467-483. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836716652430