My research lies at the intersection of labor migration, agriculture, care, and climate change. Drawing on multiscalar, intersectional, and embodied perspectives, I explore how planetary environmental processes and global economic flows are intertwined with intimate, everyday life experiences of agricultural communities.

In my doctoral thesis at the University of Bern, I examined the nexus between agricultural labor in Spain’s berry industry and the reproductive lives of female Moroccan workers. Building on this work, in my current research I examine the entangled dynamics of water scarcity, export-oriented agriculture, and rural migration.

Methodologically, I combine multisited ethnographic fieldwork with participatory and collaborative art–science approaches. These serve both as tools for data generation—such as body mapping workshops—and as modes of knowledge dissemination, including collaborations in documentary filmmaking and art–research exhibitions.

At the University of Zurich, I teach economic geography at both the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. I welcome students interested in migration, agriculture, care, climate change, and related areas within critical social and economic geography to reach out regarding thesis supervision.

Articles in scientific journals

Komposch Nora (2025) Geoviolence: Climate injustice, labour migration, and intimacy. Antipode, 0(0) https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.70044

Schurr, Carolin; Schultz, Susanne; Komposch, Nora; Etter, Nina; Perler, Laura; Pérez-Hérnandez Yolinlitzli (2025): Geographies of reproductive justice. Progress in Human Geography 0(0) https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325251338823

Komposch, Nora; Schurr, Carolin; Escriva, Angels (2024): Intimate liminality in Spain’s berry industry. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 49(4) 1-14. DOI: 10.1111/tran.12673

Perler, Laura; Schurr, Carolin; Komposch, Nora; Winkel, Mirko; Cervantez Rodríguez, Pedro Alejandro (2024): Reproductive geopolitics: Governing in/fertile bodies in Mexico’s past and present. Environment and Planning. C, Politics and space, 42(1), 102-124. DOI: 10.1177/23996544231182546

Sabin, Lucy; Komposch, Nora; Mestrot, Adrien (2023): Exhibiting toxicity: sprayed strawberries and geographies of hope. Cultural geographies, 31(1), 113-120. DOI: 10.1177/14744740231183202

Komposch, Nora (2022): Transforming Family Spaces through Worker Cooperatives. A Case Study on Self-organised Care Work in New York City. Annals of the Austrian Geographical Society, 1, 253-281. DOI: 10.1553/moegg164s253

Komposch, Nora (2020): Cleaning and care worker cooperatives in NYC: empowerment through collectivization of labor. Metropolitics. URL: https://metropolitics.org/Cleaning-and-Care-Worker-Cooperatives-in-NYC-Empowerment-Through.html

 

Doctoral thesis

Komposch, Nora (2025): Bodies, Borders, Berry fields: The Planetary-Intimate in Agricultural Labor Migration. Bern: University of Bern, Doctoral thesis: https://biblio.unibe.ch/download/eldiss/24komposch_nh.pdf

 

Book contributions

Komposch, Nora (in press): Labor. In: Calkin, Sydney and Freeman, Cordelia (Eds.), Handbook of Feminist Political Geography. deGruyter

Wintzer, Jeannine; Komposch, Nora (in press): Situiertes, verkörpertes und machtvolles Wissen reflektieren. Für eine Critical Science Agency in der geographischen Hochschullehre. In: Bading, Cornelia and Panenka, Petra (eds.), Universität – Macht – Wissen: Postkoloniale, feministische und partizipative Perspektiven im Kontext akademischer Lehre. Springer

Escrivà, Angels; Komposch, Nora; Ribas-Mateos, Natalia (2025): Making Health Services Work for Temporary Agriculture Workers in Huelva (Spain). In: Luca Follis, Karolina Follis and Nicky Burns (Eds.), Migrant and Refugee Access to Health Systems: Challenging (Im)mobilities in Healthcare Northampton. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Escrivà, Angels; Komposch, Nora (2025):  Feminist Activism and Migration. In: Oso, Laura, Moralli Melissa and Ribas-Mateos, Natalia (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of global migration: New Mobilities and Artivism. Northampton. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Winkel, Mirko; Schurr, Carolin; Perler, Laura; Komposch, Nora (2023): Multisensorik: Globale Intimität multisensorisch erforschen und ausstellen. In: Singer, Katrin; Schmidt, Katharina; Neuburger, Martina (eds.) Artographies – Kreativ-künstlerische Zugänge zu einer machtkritischen Raumforschung. Vol. 59 (215-228). Bielefeld: transcript. URL: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-6776-9/artographies-kreativ-kuenstlerische-zugaenge-zu-einer-machtkritischen-raumforschung/

 

Working papers

Komposch, Nora; Pohl, Nicholas; Riaño, Yvonne (2021): Worker Cooperatives’ Potential for Migrant Women’s Self-Empowerment. NCCR on the move working paper series 29. URL:  https://nccr-onthemove.ch/publications/worker-cooperatives-potential-for-migrant-womens-self-empowerment/

 

Other publications

Komposch, Nora; Schurr, Carolin; Escriva, Angels (12 June 2024). ‘In-between’ strawberries and reproductive justice. Geography Directions 10.55203/DCUL8266

Komposch, Nora (2023, guest editorial): Klimakrise. JETZT HANDELN! GeoAgenda 2023/4, 4-5. URL: https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/191966

Komposch, Nora; Julia, Steinberger (2023): ‘L’efficacité de la science se mesure par notre capacité à intervenir dans la trajectoire cataclysmique de nos sociétés’ (Interview avec Julia Steinberger). GeoAgenda 2023/4, 10-13. URL: https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/191966

Komposch, Nora; Perler, Laura (2022): Book Review: Mehr als Selbstbestimmung! Kämpfe für reproduktive Gerechtigkeit by Kitchen Politics. Widerspruch, 78. URL: https://widerspruch.ch/heft/78

Komposch, Nora (2022): In der Genossenschaft haben wir die Macht, Dinge zu verändern. GEOGRAPHIEaktuell - Informationen Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft 52(2). URL: https://oegg.univie.ac.at/fileadmin/user_upload/k_oegg/geographieaktuell/geo_aktuell_2022_II_52_online.pdf

Komposch, Nora; Schurr, Carolin (2020): Book Review: A portrait of assisted reproduction in Mexico: scientific, political, and cultural interactions by Sandra P. Gonzáles-Santos. New Genetics and Society 40(2), 240-241. DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2020.1775564

Komposch, Nora (2020): ‘Als Genossenschafterin fühle ich mich sicherer’ Wie sich New Yorker Care-Arbeiter*innen mit Kooperativen selbstermächtigen. Widerspruch, 75. URL: https://widerspruch.ch/artikel/als-genossenschafterin-fuehle-ich-mich-sicherer

Calore, Manon; Joss, Helen; Komposch, Nora; Maspoli, Anna (2018): Le hammam féminin comme espace de partage. GeoAgenda, 2018/5, 26-27.

Christen, Romeo; Komposch, Nora; Grossenbacher, Jonas (2014): Geographien der Macht. Gentrifizierung und Segregation in Bern. In: Wintzer, Jeannine (ed.), Qualitative Methoden in der Geographie. Anwendungsbeispiele. Forschungsberichte (17) 5-13. Bern: University of Bern Press.

 

Since 2021 Certificate of Advanced Studies in Higher Education (CAS HE Unibe), University of Bern

2021– 2024 PhD in social and cultural geography, Institute of Geography, University of Bern

• Graduate School Gender Studies, Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies, University of Bern
• 2022 Research stay as a visiting researcher, Institute of Sociology, Social Work and Public Health, University of Huelva

2017 – 2020 Master of Arts in social sciences (major: human geography), University of Neuchâtel

• 2019 – 2020 Exchange semester as a visiting student in master of gender studies, Complutense University of Madrid
• 2018 – 2019 Research stay in political science master’s program, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

2012 – 2017 Bachelor of Science in geography (major: geography, minors: history and philosophy), University of Bern