Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Associate Professor
- The Bartlett School of Planning
- Faculty of the Built Environment
I am an interdisciplinary scholar by training (architecture, social policy, political science) and interest (sustainability). I hold a PhD in Social Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE) and degrees in housing (MSc, LSE), urban planning (MA, UAUIM) and architecture (BArch and DipArch, UAUIM). I have worked in architecture and planning consultancy for 10 years before joining academia.
ORCiD: 0000-0003-2663-2586
My work contributes to the understanding and measurement of local sustainability in urban areas. Theoretically, my research adds the institutional dimension to the traditional three-pillar (economic, social, environmental) understanding of sustainability. Empirically, my research examines sustainable urban transformations at the local level by integrating social, institutional and physical aspects of the built environment. My core research contributions are summarised below under three inter-related themes.
1. The role of institutions in shaping local sustainability. My work employs institutional lens to examine local sustainability processes. It examines formal institutions and governance frameworks that shape these processes, as well as informal institutions such as social responsibility and institutional trust.
2. The social context of local sustainability. My research contributes to an agency and intersectional understanding of sustainability which is bottom-up and place-based. The social production and re-production of sustainability knowledge at the local level is a recurring sub-theme here and has been extensively developed in relation to sustainability indicators.
3. Urban narratives of local sustainability. In this body of work I look at how sustainable cities imaginaries (such as low-carbon, healthy, circular city) are applied in spatial planning and the built environment at the local level, and in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 11 ('Sustainable Cities and Communities').
Current research projects:
Currently, I teach and convene the following modules at the postgraduate level:
- Sustainable Urban Development Key Themes (BPLN0058)
- Sustainable Urban Development Project (BPLN0106)
- Major Research Projects (BPLN0052)
I have also taught on the following topics at UCL, LSE and UAUIM:
- Governing urban sustainability (UCL, pgt)
- Green futures (UCL, ug)
- Making cities: the production of the built environment (UCL, ug)
- Urban poverty, spatial and social exclusion (LSE, ug)
- International housing and social change (LSE, ug)
- Public administration and urban management (UAUIM, ug)
- Materials and building specification (UAUIM, ug)
01-MAY-2021 | Visiting Professorship | Division of Political Science | Linkoping University (Sweden), United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2020 | Academic Director UCL City Partnership Programme Stockholm | Research, Innovation and Glovbal Engagement | UCL, United Kingdom |
15-OCT-2018 | Visiting Professorship | School of Urbanism | Wroclaw Science and Technology University (Poland), United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2017 | Senior Lecturer | Bartlett School of Planning | Universitry College London, United Kingdom |
01-JAN-2016 – 01-JAN-2019 | Academic External Examiner, MSc Sustainable Planning | School of Life and Medical Sciences | University of Hertforshire, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2015 – 01-SEP-2019 | Academic External Examiner, BSc and MSc Urban Studies | Department of Urbanism | University of Architecture and Urbanism Bucharest, Romania |
01-SEP-2013 – 30-SEP-2017 | Research Evaluator | Urban and Rural Development | FORMAS (Swedish Research Council), Sweden |
01-OCT-2012 – 30-SEP-2017 | Lecturer | Bartlett School of Planning | University College London, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2012 | Programme Director, MSc Sustainable Urbanism | Bartlett School of Planning | University College London, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-2007 – 01-SEP-2010 | Part-time Teaching Fellow | Social Policy | London School of Economics, United Kingdom |
01-SEP-1998 – 01-SEP-2000 | Lecturer | Technical and Building Studies | University of Architecture Bucharest (UAUIM), Romania |
2014 | Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education | University College London | |
2010 | Doctor of Philosophy | London School of Economics and Political Science | |
2001 | Master of Science | London School of Economics and Political Science | |
1999 | Master | Universitatea din Bucuresti | |
1996 | Diploma of Architecture | Universitatea din Bucuresti | |
1993 | Bachelor of Architecture | Universitatea din Bucuresti |