Who we are

Director of the Urban Institute and a Professor of Urban Epistemics. Beth also leads the Urban Institute’s Co-producing Urbanisms theme.

Jon is a Professor at the Urban Institute and is undertaking comparative investigations on the urbanization process with a focus on infrastructure, uneven development and urban politics.

Vanesa’s research focuses on the governance of global environmental change in the urbanization age.

Linda is a Senior Research Fellow at the Urban Institute. My research revolves around environmental politics, with a focus on urban climate governance, transformations, and justice.

Vicky is a highly competent and qualified research manager with over 20 years’ experience managing interdisciplinary research centres and institutes in the HE sector.

Research Project Administrator

I am a feminist critical geographer focused on postcolonial contexts in the domains of mobilities, borders and citizenship; urban inequalities; and digitisation and governance.

I am Chair in Inclusive Societies. My work focuses on social inequalities and cities, urban violence and disorder, illicit finance in property, and hostile architecture.

Theo is an urban geographer working on housing, space, rent, speculation, and social reproduction.

A lecturer in sociology (Birmingham City University) and a visiting researcher at the Urban Institute (University of Sheffield).

Olivia is a social anthropologist engaged in interdisciplinary and collaborative research. Her research is concerned with society’s complex challenges such as racial inequalities, political and racial violence, and the (post)colonial city.

Everyday policing and punishment
Being and belonging in the city
The politics of crisis
Concepts of urban justice

My research intersects architecture, urbanism, and development studies, driven by a commitment to creating just and sustainable urban futures. I co-lead the non-profit Architecture Sans Frontières UK.

Aïcha Diallo is an urban cultural researcher, curator, editor, and educator. Her work explores the intersections of urban spaces, art and culture, and inequality, with a particular focus on African and diasporic spatial practices. Diallo critically examines how these practices engage with global social dynamics, emphasising curatorial projects, critical writing, and public engagement. She is deeply committed to collaborative methodologies and an ongoing interrogation of institutional frameworks.

Dr Richard Goulding joined the University of Sheffield as a research associate in December 2020. He holds a PhD from Sheffield, and an MA and BA from the University of Manchester.

My research interests include urban indigeneity; diversity and the right to the city; citizen-led and participatory planning with a focus on Latin American and African cities.

I am an urban geographer with a focus on common ownership, social movements, and urban governance.

I am Institute of Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) Research Theme Lead: Cities. My work engages the urbanisation of the world under contemporary globalised capitalism.

My work seeks to develop postcolonial approaches for climate and energy justice, conceptually drawing on the interfaces of knowledge, politics, postcolonial solidarity, development and culture.

Migration policies
‘Race’ & multicultural strategies
Immigration; community
Family
Transnational relationships
Work & leisure among migrants
Forced labour

PhD project title: Atlantic Forest as an urban project: territorialities from Rio de Janeiro

Cat's research seeks to understand children and parent’s experiences of food insecurity and the role that schools play in alleviating this, with a particular interest in affect and food citizenship.

Simon's expertise in constructing conceptual understanding and empirical evidence of the changing relations between socio-technical networks and urban and regional restructuring.

PhD Title: Urban frictions. Prosperity turns within Nairobi’s water tinkering practices.
(Supervisors: Vanesa Castán Broto and Liz Sharp)

Current Teaching: MA Social Research & BA Applied Social Sciences

Ghada Mohamad is an architect who worked in academia and the industry in the United States and the Middle East before starting her PhD studies.

My work incorporates architecture, urbanism and religious studies, rooted in the notion of radical inclusivity. I explore what resources religious bodies may hold for inclusive, collective life.

Madeleine researches and teaches in the areas of urban studies and planning, focused on the theory and practice of governance and collaboration at the local level.

My project is part of the University of Sheffield Centre for Doctoral Training in Emerging Urban Inequalities.

I am a researcher in Urban Planning exploring urban changes in small towns through the lens of land, inter- and intra-familial propertied relations, and land-related injustices.

I am an international affiliate of the Informal Urbanism Research Hub at University of Melbourne. I co-founded and co-directs Estudio Abierto/Open Studio, a think+do tank on architecture and urbanism.

I am researching the processes through which the public are engaged in making and implementing environmental (water) policy.

Urbanist working on spatial compositions and collective operations in urban regions of the Global South.

Sangita is a Research Associate for the JustGESI project at the Urban Institute

Bryony is Co-Pro Futures Inquiry Coordinator at the Urban Institute.

My research examines how cities and urban social life are being reimagined and redesigned in response to climate change and automation.

Yuting joined the Urban Institute in 2025 as a Research Associate, working with Dr Linda Westman on the ERC-funded project PLURALIZE.

Juan is an urbanist undertaking research surrounding urban innovation from the perspective of urban socio-technical transformation.

Dr Shizhi Zhang joined the Urban Institute in 2023 as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. His research interests are Chinese politics and history, and global politics from a non-Western perspective.

David will join the UI for as a visiting fellow for 12 months from 1 September 2024, supported by Vanesa Castán Broto, with whom he has worked with on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as Coordinating Lead Author.

Zhengli Huang is a Research Associate at the Urban Institute

Yannis Kallianos is an anthropologist employed on the project GlobalCORRIDOR, who works on issues of public space, urban infrastructure, and socio-political contestation.

Michele Lancione is Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, and Visiting Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Lalli Metsola is an Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki whose current project looks at social infrastructuring and everyday governance in South African cities.