Black Urbanisms

Using the influential work of Prof AbdouMaliq Simone on Blackness and the Urban as a starting point, a team from the UCL Urban Laboratory sourced different perspectives articulated by researchers from across Europe and Africa to discuss the urban in this podcast series.

These figures include Dr Lioba Hirsch (Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Prof Ola Uduku (Professor of Architecture at Manchester School of Architecture); Dr Hélène Neveu-Kringelbach (Associate Professor of African Anthropology); Victoria Okoye (PhD Candidate in Urban Studies & Planning at the University of Sheffield); Dr Evance Mwathunga (Urban Planner in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Malawi’s Chancellor College) and Prof Wilbard Kombé (Professor of Urban Land Management and Director of the Institute of Human Settlements Studies at Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania). 

Scripted and hosted by Dr Alana Osbourne (Université Libre de Bruxelles), the podcasts emerge from two sessions hosted by the Urban Lab and curated by Prof Jennifer Robinson (UCL) in 2019, as part of an international conference exploring emerging themes and critical methodologies at the frontiers of urban theory and practice.

The podcast series was co-ordinated by Dr Clare Melhuish (UCL Urban Laboratory), produced by Deborah Shorindé for Whistledown Productions, and supported by Dr Kamna Patel, former Bartlett Vice-Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The podcast artwork is by Jahnavi Inniss. With thanks to the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains at Université Libre de Bruxelles.