MEMORIES PROJECT MEMBERS

 Agnes MATOGA, Post-doc researcher, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), Germany, Former Young Academics Network Coordination Team Member

Agnes Matoga is a geographer and urban researcher with expertise in social transformation and demographic change. She graduated from TU Vienna, Spatial Planning, and University of Vienna, Spatial Research. Her current research focuses on governance changes and adaptation in times of crises, experimental approaches and transformative research as well as incorporating theories and methods from critical geography, ethnography and urban studies. During her Master studies Agnes was involved in the AESOP Young Academics Coordination Team, and became Chair later on. During this period she co-designed the idea of the Memories project, acquired funding for Universities in East and South East Europe to organize AESOP Young Academics Conferences in order to achieve a more equal representation within YA conference hosts. In her PhD (TU Kaiserslatuern, Marie-Curie ITN) she investigated shrinking cities through the lens of experimental Governance, assessing facilitators and barriers to municipal capacity building as well as citizen involvement. As a post-doc researcher today (KIT, Germany) she is co-leader of the Horizon Europe PREFIGURE project that aims to upscale policy, market, technical and social bottom-up innovations for energy transitions to secure affordable, accessible and energy efficient housing for all.

 Pinar DÖRDER, Former Young Academics Network Coordination Team Member 

 Lizzy PRIVITERA, Postdoc researcher, Former Young Academics Network Coordination Team Member 

Lizzy is a postdoc researcher at the Urban Just Transitions cluster of the University of Toronto Scarborough (Canada). She is part of the leadership team of the Listening Project which, by embracing a participatory-action research approach, aims to understand how climate action is connected with people’s everyday in some priority neighborhoods of Toronto. She considers herself a pretty transdisciplinary (undisciplined) scholar who works at the intersection between community-based urban planning, environmental humanities, and environmental justice studies. Lizzy got her Ph.D. in Urban and Environmental Planning and Design (University of Catania, Italy). Her Ph.D. research boosts the development of the concept of small data and toxic autobiographies and their potential in the planning of risk landscapes. During her Ph.D. she spent one semester as a C.M. Lerici foundation fellow at the Environmental Humanities Lab of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm and one year as a Fulbright visiting fellow collaborating with the Global Environmental Justice Project at the University of California Santa Barbara. Lizzy has been a member of the coordination team of the AESOP Young Academics Network (2020-22) and since 2021 has been one of the coordinators of the AESOP Memories project. Currently, she is on the editorial board of PlaNext- Next Generation Planning. She is originally from Sicily where she has been a member since 2016 of the LabPEAT-an action-research lab at the University of Catania and one of the co-founders of the social community cooperative Trame di Quartiere.

 Sila Ceren Varis HUSAR, Postdoctoral Researcher, Young Academics Network Coordination Team Member  

She has a background in urban planning- bachelor’s, master’s and PhD, from Turkey, Middle East Technical University located in the capital city of Turkey, Ankara. Her dissertation focused on regional innovation and its relation to space, people, and institutions. Most currently, she works as a postdoctoral researcher and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the Spatial Planning Department in Slovak University of Technology. Her research project is on regional innovation capacity and human capital in CEE countries with a special focus on Slovakia. She is the current chair of the AESOP Young Academics Network Coordination Team and has been coordinating Memories project. Her first ever international event was 26th of AESOP Congress on the organization side, in Ankara. As a 3rd year undergrad student, she was a part of organizing team, mostly doing the technical works and helping the participants. But this event widened her view on the international planning community and the extensive possibilities. After she stayed a year in Vienna as a master’s Erasmus+ exchange student at TU Wien, this experience strengthened her passion to pursue academic career. Events by AESOP made her realize the ideas communication and networking opportunities. She had a chance to observe and involve in the discussions on the most updated topics and challenges in planning. She has been active in Young Academics Network and it has been great for her to be in close contact with fellow young planning scholars and practitioners, also through Memories project.

 Albeniz Tuğçe EZME GÜRLEK, PhD Student, Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, Turkey 

She received her bachelor’s degree from urban and regional planning at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul (Turkey) in 2009, and master’s from community planning programme in DAAP at University of Cincinnati (USA) in 2014. Since 2014, she has been working as a research assistant on urbanization and environmental issues in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Kırşehir Ahi Evran University (Turkey). Also, she has continued her PhD in urbanization at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University since January 2018. In her academic journey, she had several academic grants including YLSY Scholarship given by Turkish Government to finance her master's education in the US, International Grant given by University of Cincinnati to visit Rio Technical University in summer 2013 and DAAD teaching grant to give a lecture at OTH Regensburg in Spring 2022. Working at the Department of Political Science, she gained experience in teaching and researching for several research projects and interdisciplinary academic works on urban policies, local economic development, urban sociology, and urban renewal projects in developing countries. In her PhD thesis, she aims to reveal the problems arising from the lack of the public participation mechanism in process of the urban renewal project carried out in the settlement area of Abdals, a minority ethnic group in her living city, Kırşehir. Her first touch with the AESOP community was Tartu (Estonia) congress in 2022 and second she was including to the AESOP Memories Project team as a researcher in the same year. For her, AESOP is a home encouraging people from planning discipline to come together.

 Anjeza LLUBANI, PhD Student, Graz University of Technology, Austria 

Graduated from the IUAV University of Venice in 2013. From then on, she has been a lecturer and a visiting fellow at different universities, including the Polytechnic University of Tirana and the Polytechnic University of Bari. In 2022, she started her Ph.D. program at the Graz University of Technology exploring the relationships between densification and sprawl with a focus on urban fragmentation in Tirana. She has presented her work at conferences and symposia across Europe, including IPAU 2022, AACCP 2022, and Where City and Territory Meet 2021, and her writings have been published in Stadt und Grün, the Lit Verlag Book Series of Studies on South East Europe, and other venues. She has been part of professional labs and trainings organised by the University of Antwerp, the University of Genoa and other universities. On her professional practise, she has worked for a variety of international projects and competitions on architectural design and urban development of the city of Abruzzo, city of Cortines, and city of Dubrovnik. Currently, she works with communities and activists to advocate on accessibility issues and promote a more inclusive city. She joined the AESOP Young Academics Network (2023), highly motivated to share ideas with young scholars, but also learning from interviewing and meeting with international senior planners. She lives in Graz

 Dina MOAWAD, PhD student, Naples University, Italy 

Dina Moawad is a guest research assistant in the Migration and Sustainable Development Research Group of the IIASA Population and Just Societies Program. Originally from Egypt, she is currently based in Italy where she is a third-year PhD student and academic tutor at Naples University. Her current work focuses on shocks and migration, and entails measuring the economic, social, and political effects on people's movements of some external shocks such as natural disasters, climate change, and health shocks like COVID-19. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked as an intern on the statistical team at the FAO of the UN in Rome. Her responsibilities included supporting the management of a new country information database, reviewing available datasets, and completing two summary notes describing data sources. She was a research assistant at the Denominator Company of Data in New York, where she worked remotely on a part-time basis as a storyteller, converting the data and technical jargon into simpler narratives for public consumption. She also worked with the Oxford Research International Center on the preparation, organization, execution, analysis, and quality control of a MBN study in some countries, and conducted surveys, interviews, and in depth-discussions to gather data and convert the resulting findings into easily understandable narratives. She has an Advanced Master's degree in Agriculture Political Economy and a MA in Development Economics from Florence University, and a BA in Economics and Political Science from Egypt. For her being part of AESOP was a target because it’s a great opportunity to meet the experienced professors, and interview and learn from them as much as possible.

 Fatima Zehra AKMAN, Postgraduate Student, KU Leuven, Belgium 

She received her bachelor’s degree from urban and regional planning at Istanbul Technical University, (Turkey) in 2021. She also graduated from the "Mimarhane" career completion program, which allowed her to deepen her knowledge of architecture & urban studies through interdisciplinary studies and to learn from professionals in her field. In 2023, she started advanced master’s degree in Human Settlement at Leuven exploring in terms of the intertwinement of social sciences and design. During her senior year at college, she completed her 6-month internships working for both public institutions and organizations as well as architecture and city planning offices. She has always enjoyed being in positions of responsibility. In “Mimarhane” that gave her better insight in the world of architecture, she was highly committed to contributing to the blog and magazine works and was one of the founders of the first magazine venture. She has learned the importance of time management, decision making, and taking initiatives through these experiences. She is passionate about combining work on space and society, where her interests predominate. One of her goals is to build healthier and more resilient cities with an cohesive society. She would like to contribute to the production of more reconcilable and applicable alternative plans and policies in the development of urban areas where one of the sub-titles, human settlements and our cultural heritages, conflicts. Her first touch with the AESOP community was Tartu (Estonia) congress in 2022.

 Hanna SEYDEL, Research Assistant, TU Dortmund University, Germany 

Hanna studied spatial planning at TU Dortmund University and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Since 2018, she is working as a research assistant in the research group of Urban and Regional Sociology at TU Dortmund University in the Department of Spatial Planning. Her connection with the AESOP congress began during her undergraduate years, supported by the Equality Commission's encouragement of young women in academia. Since then, AESOP has become a reservoir of positive memories for Hanna, further enriched by her involvement in the AESOP Memories Project. Hanna's fascination with international collaboration led her to participate in the project, where she cherishes the opportunity to work alongside individuals from diverse backgrounds. Driven by her research interest in the perspective of narrative theory on urban planning and storytelling as a participatory method, Hanna is keen on exploring various approaches to narrative research. She was fortunate to further develop her research interests in 2021 through a research stay at UC Berkeley funded by Fulbright Germany. The AESOP Memories Project emerged as a valuable platform for Hanna to engage in conducting narrative interviews and oral history, expanding her skill set and understanding. Engaging with experienced senior scholars through the project has been a source of inspiration for Hanna. She firmly believes in the significance of learning from the wealth of experiences, stories, and advice that senior scholars can offer to young scholars like herself.

 Mariana REIS SANTOS, PhD student, École des Ponts ParisTech, France 

Mariana is a PhD student at École des Ponts ParisTech, France. She pursues her doctoral studies under the umbrella of the Innovative Training Network “Transit-oriented Development for Inclusive and Sustainable Rural-Urban Regions” (TOD-IS-RUR), a project funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. Her research focuses on understanding the drivers and environmental effects of regional planning in the long term. For that, she investigates the (dis-)connections between planning narratives and practices and the actual built environment of non-central locations within the metropolitan regions of Paris and Rome. The focus of her analysis is public transport infrastructures and the transformations necessary to accommodate their renewal and evolvement. That is to say, her work takes an interest in understanding the interactions between transit infrastructure development, urbanisation procedures and their socio-spatial consequences. She has been engaged in the AESOP Memories project since February 2022 as a member of the website team.

 Nadeesha Lakshani LANKADHIKARA, Junior Urban Planner (CITY -UP JICA), Sri Lanka 

I am a graduate student from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, specializing in "town and country planning," which is related to spatial planning. Presently, I work as a Junior Urban Planner for the "CITY-UP" JICA funded project in collaboration with the Urban Development Authority Sri Lanka and Oriental Consultants Global Pvt. Ltd. My role involves coordinating the Sri Lanka and Japan expert teams and providing support for "Capacity Development Trainings" for town planners at the Urban Development Authority Sri Lanka. Additionally, I participated in a "Disaster Management and Risk Reduction" project with the Institute of Town Planners Sri Lanka in collaboration with APP and ITPSL in 2021, where I worked as a Research Assistant. Through this project, I engaged with disaster management professionals and gained valuable experiences through interviews and discussions. While currently practicing as a town planner, I am passionate about research in urban planning and urban design. I aimed to explore how people's memories can be integrated into meaningful spaces within the city. So far, I have published two research articles, one on revitalized urban public spaces and another on the impact of the pandemic on people's virtual and social connectedness. Beyond my research work, I actively participate in international youth clubs such as Commonwealth Youth for Sustainable Urbanization, Young Global Thinkers, AIESEC Sri Lanka, and Young Planners Forum. Recently, I have joined the AESOP network, which provides me with more opportunities to share my knowledge and experiences with its members.

 Neil TURNBULL, Lecturer, Cardiff University, United Kingdom 

Neil Turnbull, PhD, is a lecturer in Urban Design at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University (2022). Neil is an academic and architect having recently completed a PhD in Geography and Planning at Cardiff University (2017-2022). He has taught post- and under-graduate students at higher education institutes in both the UK and Chile. His research focuses on the intersection of community participation and social infrastructures within the built environment across three broad themes: 1), Practices of care, 2) Community ownership, and 3) Emancipatory potential of queer space. He recently won the LGBTQ+ Champion / Initiative of or Campaign of the Year at the Wales Online Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2022, for the ‘Homelessness and LGBTQ+ people in Gwent’ project (with Tai Pawb and Dr Edith England). He is currently working on projects related to neighborhood social infrastructures and a UK wide survey of housing and homelessness as experienced by the LGBTQ+ community. Neil is a member of the AESOP YAN, the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network, and an ordinary committee member of the Royal Geographical Society’s Participatory Geographies Research Group. He is a registered architect with the Architects Registration Board, UK, and Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK. He has worked as an English translator and language copy editor for several native Spanish academic outputs for peer reviewed journals and books. He is currently language editor for Revista INVI the journal of the Housing Institute of the University of Chile.

 Qing Yuan GUO, PhD student, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom 

Qingyuan Guo holds a Bachelor's degree in Urban Planning from the University of Liverpool and a Master's degree in Regional and Urban Planning from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Currently, he is in his first year of a PhD program at LSE, specializing in planning theory. Guo possesses a deep fascination with the aspirations, ethical commitments, and desires that drive professional planners, as well as the spontaneous actions that such driving forces can inspire. This interest, blended with his passion for the history of planning, propels him towards participation in AESOP. This is not just an opportunity for him to extend his network with planners and planning scholars from different countries, but also a chance for him to engage in various planning discourses. Prior to his PhD studies, Guo acquired experience in strategic regional planning at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People’s Republic of China. He has contributed to research projects across various institutions, focusing on areas including brownfield regeneration, rural development, agricultural policy, spatial justice, public health, housing, and heritage conservation. His involvement in these projects entailed both qualitative and quantitative analysis. He has also studied how psychoanalysis-derived theory can be integrated into planning studies.

 Thu PHAM, Doctoral candidate, Aalto University, Finland 

Thu is a doctoral researcher in the field of Spatial Planning and Transport Policy (SPT) at Aalto University. Her research focuses on the role of ideas in driving transformative policy change for a shift to sustainable mobility in Finland. Thu holds a Master of Public Administration degree in Development, Technology and Innovation Policy from University College London and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from Aalto University. Prior to joining Aalto SPT research group, Thu worked at Vriens & Partners as a senior policy analyst, focusing on taxes in the environment, food & beverage sectors, policies for renewable energy, education, and technology. She also has 3 years of work experience at the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Technology of Vietnam, where she involved in R&D policy research, facilitated scientific cooperation and assisted in international agreement negotiation. Thu is a member of the AESOP YAN. Her first experiences with AESOP is participating in the 17th AESOP Young Academics Network Conference in Antwerp and the 35th AESOP Congress in Lodz in 2023. Participating in AESOP Memories Project, Thu wishes to learn more about the planning field and the faces behind planning research. She also would like to take this opportunity to extend her network with planners and planning scholars within the AESOP community.