Judith A. Nicholson, PhD

Judith Nicholson does research in critical mobilities studies. A current project maps and examines the history of The Green Book Travel Guide in Canada. A second research project interprets settler colonial automobilities in Canada, or how the nation was and is shaped through settler ideology and infrastructure for automobility. A third project interprets how a certain politics of automobility drives contemporary vehicular violence.

Judith Nicholson is co-Chair of the Black Faculty and Staff Caucus at Laurier. She is also co-founder and Advisory Board member of Black Researchers of Southwestern Ontario.

2026 SSHRC Explore Grant / Wilfrid Laurier University. Carland: Automobility in Canada. PI: J. Nicholson

2026 The Lillian Robinson Visiting Scholar, Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University. See YouTube link for Feb. 2026 public talk on The Green Book Travel Guide in Canada https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFXTYxwEUdk

2023 SSHRC Connection Grant, Blacademia: Black Researchers in Southwestern Ontario. PI: S. Brown, Co-investigator: M. Harris, Collaborator: J. Nicholson

2017 SSHRC Connection Grant, Mobilities Pedagogies: A Symposium on Practices, Theories and Networks. PI: J. Nicholson, Collaborators: C. Duncan, J. Hennebry

2016 SSHRC Insight Grant, Opening the Door on Digital Privacy: Practices, Politics and Pedagogies. PI: M. Lipton, Collaborators: J. Nicholson, L. Shade, K. Werbin.

Nicholson, J. Forthcoming 2027. Critical pedagogies for mobilities studies (updated). In Engaging Mobilities: Critical Interventions in Pedagogy and Practice. Eds. Lynne Pearce, Sarah Gibson, Cotten Seiler. Berghahn Books.

Nicholson, J. 2024. Critical pedagogies for mobilities studies. Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, 13(1-2): 13-31.

Nicholson, J. 2023. Automobilities in Walter Mosley's detective fiction on film. Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture, 8(3): https://www.mediapolisjournal.com/2023/09/automobilities-walter-mosley/

Nicholson, J. 2016. "Don't shoot": Black mobilities in American gunscapes. Mobilities, 11(4): 553-563.

Nicholson, J. 2008. Calling Dick Tracy! Cellphone use, perverse nostalgia and a shadow history. Canadian Journal of Communication, 33(3): 370-404.

Edited Journal Issue

Nicholson, J. & Sheller, M. 2016. Introduction: Race and the politics of mobility. Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, 6(1): 4-11.

Select courses

CS240: Intro to Mobility Studies

CS340: Lifestyle Mobilities

CS416: Global Automobilities

CS602: Mobilities