My research lies at the intersection of labor migration, agriculture, care, and environmental 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 in Morocco.
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.

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

 

Peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals

• Komposch, Nora; Eriksen, Christine; Fischer, Mauro (2026); Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Geoviolence: Toward Relational Conceptual Integration. GEO: Geography and Environment 13 (1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.70089Digital Object Identifier (DOI
• Müller, Martin; Schurr, Carolin; Etter, Nina; Komposch, Nora (2025): A Guide for Preparing and Reporting Qualitative Research. The Professional Geographer 0(0) 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2025.2542817
• Komposch, Nora (2025) Geoviolence: Climate injustice, labour migration, and intimacy. Antipode, 57(5) 1914-1932. 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 49(4) 397-417. 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

 

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/

 

Book contributions

• Komposch, Nora (in press): Beerenernte: Marokkanische Mütter als Saisonarbeiterinnen in Spanien. In: Schurr, Carolin; Perler, Laura und Winkel, Mirko (eds.), Atlas der Reproduktion. Seismo. 
• 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
• Komposch, Nora (2025): Labor. In: Calkin, Sydney and Freeman, Cordelia (Eds.), Handbook of Feminist Political Geography. deGruyter https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111289274-022
• 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/

 

Book reviews

• 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; 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

 

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 (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 (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.

Current teaching at UZH

• Fall semester: Geographies of Difference: Migration and Agriculture (GEO232) - BSc seminar
• Spring semester: Global Economic Geographies of Agriculture and Food Systems (GEO433) - MSc seminar together with Christian Berndt
• BSc and MSc thesis supervision 

Past teaching

University of Bern:

• 2024-2025: 'Recht auf Stadt' in Bern - Excursion for Geography BSc and for University for Seniors 
• 2022: Vorlesung Humangeographie: Sozial - und Kulturgoegraphie - BSc lecture 
• 2020-2024: Übungen Humangeographie: Sozial- und Kulturgeographie - BSc course, partially together with Jeannine Wintzer or Carolin Schurr 
• 2015: Raum schaffen – Kritische Geographie machen - BSc and MSc tutorial course together with Fabian Stalder - University of Bern

University of Teacher Education Bern (PH Bern): 

• Since 2023: Guest-lecturer once a semester in the BA- and MA-course Globale Herausforderungen & lokale Brennpunkte 

• Vice president of the Swiss Geography Association - ASG (since 2023)
• Representative of the Swiss Geography Association - ASG in the Association of Geographical Societies in German-speaking Countries - GeoGes (since 2025)

 

Research-art exhibitions

• Elusive Exposure, Collaboration on a public research-art exhibition about pesticide exposure in the strawberry industry, by providing data from my PhD research in Huelva, Spain, and assisting in curating the art exhibition. Co-organized together with Lucy Sabin and Adrien Mestrot, Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, May 2023. URL: https://mlab.unibe.ch/elusive-exposures-event-series/
• Atlas der Reproduktion: Babys, Grenzen, Geopolitik, Collaboration on a public research-art exhibition about reproductive geopolitics, organized by Carolin Schurr, Laura Perler and Mirko Winkel, Bern, September to October 2026. URL: https://www.museen-bern.ch/fr/expositions/event-details/atlas-der-reproduktion-babys-grenzen-geopolitik
  

 

Documentary Movie

The Invisible (2023), Collaboration on a documentary film by Filmerei GmbH and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation by providing content advice and support on site. The documentary portrays parts of my ethnographic fieldwork of my PhD in Huelva, Spain. URL: https://dieunsichtbaren.ch/ 

 

Media interventions (selected)

• “Naturschutzgebiet vor Kollaps - Erdbeeren aus Spanien – kaufen oder nicht?”  Interview in the Swiss television program Kassensturz (SRF), April 30, 2024. 
• “Erdbeeren isst sie jetzt nicht”, Interview in the newspaper Hauptstadt, March 12, 2024. 
• “Lidl setzt sich stärker für Pflückerinnen ein als Coop und Migros”, Interview in the newspaper Sonntagszeitung, February 25, 2024
• “Solidarität im Zeichen der Erdbeere”, Interview in the newspaper WOZ (Die Wochenzeitung), May 18, 2023
• “Erdbeeren aus Spanien”, Interview in the Austrian television ORF 2, May 4 2022.

 

 

• 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