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- Qualifications:PhD MSc M.Arch FHEA
- Position:Senior Lecturer in Critical Urban Practice
- Department:College of Arts, Technology and Environment School of Architecture and Environment
- Telephone:+441173281752
- Email:Elahe.Karimnia@uwe.ac.uk
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About me
I am an interdisciplinary urban scholar interested in Critical Urban Practices through which public and cultural life of cities are contested and reimagined. These practices are feminist and decolonial in their imaginations, collaborative in their processes, and creative in their approaches.
My research is at the intersection of spatial justice, urban design, and performativity. I am intrigued by implementation of concepts in urban planning and design, more in relation to the design process: politics of design, intentions, narratives, and materiality. In my doctoral research "Producing Publicness" (Karimnia, 2018) at KTH Stockholm, I developed a critique of the so-called intention-outcome gap of designing inclusive spaces through dialectics of unintended consequence. I explored (re)appropriation of public spaces, as spatial agencies that could creatively transform publicness of space but also design and planning decisions that have shaped them. The thesis articulates a metaphorical dialogue between architects, spatial planners and [invisible] users of public spaces.
Currently, through my project "Radical Encounters", I am developing embodied and sensorial methodologies for urban design and place-making, to construct shared understanding of complex urban issues among different actors. Through the lens of Brown Women Bodies, embodied encounters highlight how city design can foster or stifle spatial justice.
In other projects, I also explore the transformative potential of meanwhile practices, for interrupting the mainstream urban narratives, and providing alternative space for those at the margine. I collaborate in research on Sparks Bristol as a meanwhile project, to investigate new visions for social and cultural infrastructures and models of community spaces as creative ecologies.
Prior to joining UWE, I served as an Associate in 'Urban Research and Spatial Practice' at Theatrum Mundi, a pioneering non-profit research centre based in London and Paris which aims to expand the crafts of city-making through collaboration between artists, architects and urbanists. I was responsible for research and writings on 'Urban Backstages' project exploring spaces and infrastructures for cultural production in cities. I was also involved in 'Choreographing the City' and 'Movement Forum' projects which offer interdisciplinary methods between choreography and urban design for designing (im)mobility justice in cities.
I have collaborated with different universities and programmes in both design studios and seminar classes, such as the MA Cities at Central Saint Martins in London (Voices of the City), the MSc in Sustainable Urban Planning and Design (Urban Theory + Urban Design Studio) and MSc in Urbanism Studies (Placemaking Studio) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
At UWE, I am a Programme Leader on the Architecture and Planning degree. I supervise PhD theses, MSc and UG dissertations., and teaching across Urban Planning, and Architecture.
I am currently supervising four PhDs: a DPhil (researching Belonging in Place/ - making: tools to creatively cultivate belonging in processes of public placemaking); and three PhD students (researching: Interactive Documentary Inspiring Design; Gender-based inequalities in the city - the role and potentials of urban planning; Co-designing Green Spaces to Improve Mental Health of Young People).
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