Research-led teaching: an undergraduate’s view

In our research magazine, Insight, fourth year MPlan Urban Studies and Planning student Samantha Hall discusses Professor Rowland Atkinson's research-led teaching about the city.

Samantha Hall with a Water Aid placard

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As a lecturer, Rowland Atkinson has helped me to understand the city in theoretical terms that underpin the complex processes at play in urban environments. 

His research has expanded my understanding of power dynamics within communities, particularly through the module Urban Theory. Rowland used his article on Urban Policy Control and Social Catharsis: the assault on urban fragility as therapy (2014) and his book Securing an urban renaissance: crime, community, and British urban policy (2007) to support his teaching in this module. 

Throughout the course, Rowland’s modules helped us as aspiring urbanists understand the fundamental theories within the field of urban studies, teaching us through his work on the right to the city. My interest has been captivated by urban power struggles, which is also Rowland’s area of expertise. I have always been interested in inequality, particularly in how this relates to neoliberalism, and Rowland’s work and advice in this module certainly influenced my own beliefs on who the city is for. 

I have a lot of respect for Rowland and his work, to the extent that I asked if he could be assigned as my dissertation supervisor because of our shared interest in power relations within the city. My dissertation subject is the evaluation of claims regarding the current rise in knife crime, and Rowland’s research in the field of urban criminology in his book Urban Criminology: The City, Disorder, Harm and Social Control (2018) has helped my interpretation of the essence of crime in the city. As a result of his research, he has been an active and supportive supervisor, more than able to direct me to other influential scholars in this field of study. 

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