My teaching focuses largely on the critical analysis of urbanisation processes with emphasis on the urbanising world of the Global South, discussing socio-political relations and spatial manifestation of uneven development.
PhD SUPERVISION (* denotes main supervision; ** denotes co-supervision)
For areas of possible PhD supervision, please visit my research page.
Liqiao LUO* (2024 – Present), “The temporality of crisis: how crises are altering Chinese urbanism”
Alia SALLEH** (2024 – Present) (LSE-funded), “Changing Citizenship under Increasing Privatised Space in Kuala Lumpur”
Hanh-An TRING** (2023 – Present) (LSE-funded), “Everyday Anticipation, Aspiration, and Speculation: Investigating the Discourse, Disparity, and (Dis)continuity of Urban Future Imaginaries”
Ka Chi Yip* (2022 – Present) (LSE-funded), “Property Hegemony across Generations in Hong Kong: Contesting Embodied Temporalities of ‘Property Minded’ Hong Kongers during Urban Change, A Post-War Story (1945 – 2025)”
Martina Vittoria Sottini** (2019 – 2024), “Life’s Work and the Gendered Processes of Migrant Precarity: The Case of Mongolian Migrant Women in Seoul, South Korea”, PhD awarded (December 2024). Current employment: Home Affairs and Social Policy (HASP) Research Group, RAND Europe
Yoonai Han* (2018 – 2023) (LSE-funded), “Moving in Stuckness: Ethnography on the Time-spac of Short-term Workers in Seoul”, PhD awarded (January 2024). Current employment: University Lecturer (Assistant Professor), Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
Kyoung-Ae (aka Didi) HAN* (2016-2021) (LSE-funded), “Practicing Urban Commons between Autonomy and Togetherness: A Genealogical Analysis of the Urban Precariat Movements in Tokyo and Seoul”, PhD awarded (December 2021). Current employment: Research Professor, Asis Center, Seoul National University
Carwyn MORRIS** (2015-2020) (ESRC-funded), “Life under Chai: Spatial Governmentality and Contestation in the Physical and Digital Geography of China”, PhD awarded (pass with no correction). Previously Research Associate, Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester. Current employment: University Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Digital China, Institute for Area Studies, Universiteit Leiden
Laura ANTONA** (2015-2020) (ESRC-funded), “Anatomies and Apparatuses of Violence: the Everyday Encounters of Migrant Domestic Workers in Singapore”, PhD awarded (pass with no correction). Previously ESRC Research Fellow, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. Current employment: Assistant Professor (Education), Department of Geography and Environment, LSE
Ulises MORENO-TABAREZ* (2012-2018) (LSE-funded), “Spectral Latinidad: the \work of Lantinx Migrants and Small Charities in London”, PhD awarded (June 2019). Current employment: Docente adjunto en el Centro para la Gestión del Desarrollo Sostenible de la Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Acapulco
Yi JIN* (2014-2018) (LSE-funded), “Entrepreneurial Managerialism: Mobilisation of Redistributive Mechanisms for Entrepreneurial Redevelopment of Penghuqu in a Chinese Third-Front City”, PhD awarded (pass with no correction). Current employment: Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Nanjing University
Do Young OH* (2013-2017), “From a Colonial Institution to a Neoliberal Real Estate Developer: Comparative Analysis of Universities in the Urban Process in East Asia”, PhD awarded (pass with no correction). Current employment: Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Environmental Studies and College of Liberal Studies, Seoul National University
Mara NOGUEIRA-TEIXEIRA* (2013-2017) (Brazil Government-funded), “Who has the Right to Remain in Place? Informality, Citizenship and Belonging in Belo Horizonte, Brazil”, PhD thesis submitted. PhD awarded (pass with no correction). Current employment: Senior Lecturer in Urban Geography, Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London
Yimin ZHAO* (2012-2017), “The Hegemony of Urbanisation: Questioning the Production of Space by the State in Beijing’s Green Belts”, PhD awarded (pass with no correction). Current employment: Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Durham University
PhD REVIEW SUPERVISION
Tucker LANDESMAN (2011 – 2017), “Remaking Rio de Janeiro through ‘Favela Integration’: the Politics of Mobility and State Space”, PhD awarded. Current employment: Researcher, International Institute for Environment and Development
Sin Yee KOH (2010 – 2014), “British Colonial Legacies, Citizenship Habitus, and a Culture of Migration: Mobile Malaysians in London, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur”, PhD awarded. Current employment: Senior Assistant Professor in Asian Migration, Mobility and Diaspora, Institute of Asian Studies, University Brunei Darussalam, Brunei
Antonios VRADIS (2008 – 20213), “Patterns of Contentious Politics Concentration as a ‘Spatial Contract’: A Spatio-temporal Study of Urban Riots and Violent Protest in the Neighbourhood of Exarcheia, Athens, Greece (1974-2011)”. PhD awarded. Current employment: Lecturer in Sustainable Development, School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews
PhD EXTERNAL COMMITTEE
Soo Yeon LIM, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning & Public Policy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA, “Valuing Land: The Politics of Greenbelt Land Development and Its Transformation”, 2023 – Present
Sinae WON, Department of Architecture and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, “Renting a House in Seoul: Predatory Homeownership as an Outcome of Neoliberal Housing Policies in Seoul. Could urban Housing Stocks be managed as “Commons”?”, 2023 – Present
David LUKENS, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, “Shifting Roles of the State and the Evolution of Neighborhood Change in Seoul”, 2016 – 2019. PhD awarded. Current employment: Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Yueming (aka Amy) ZHANG, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, “Places of Aesthetics and Capital: the Making and Consuming of Arts Districts in Chinese Cities”, 2014 – 2016. PhD awarded. Current employment: Lecturer in Urban Planning, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester
TAUGHT COURSES
GY438 Cities and Social Change in East Asia, 2009/10 – Present (Convener)
GY480 Remaking China: Geographical Aspects of Development and Disparity, 2012/13 – Present (Convener)
GY452 Urban Research Methods, 2015/16 – Present (Convener)
GY445 Urban Theory, policy and Practice in the Global South, 2008/09 – 2014/15
GY302 Urban Development: Politics, Policy and Planning, 2008/09 – 2012/13
GY2A0/240 Research Techniques (Spatial, Social and Environmental), 2008/09 – 2012/13
Seoul Case Study Programme (field trip), MSc Urbanisation and Development, 2018/19 AY
SUMMER SCHOOL & GUEST TEACHING
LSE-PKU GY201 The Political Economy of Urbanisation in China and Asia: Globalisation and Uneven Development, LSE-Peking University Summer School, Beijing, 2014 – 2019 (Convener)
LSS-IR203 An Urbanising World: Cities, Capitalism and the Environment, LSE Summer School, London, 2016 – 2019 (Lead Faculty)
Renmin University of China International Summer School, “Critical Urban Studies in and beyond Asia”, Beijing, 2022 (online), 2024 (in person)
GSSI PhD programme in Urban Studies, L’Aquila, Italy, 18-21 April 2016
University of Helsinki, Summer School, Helsinki, 8-9 August 2013
Guest Lecture, “Asian Cities in a Globalising South”, Department of Geography, UCL, London, 2011, 2012, 2013
MSc DISSERTATION SUPERVISION (from 2008/09 AY until 2022/23 AY)
46 dissertations in MSc programme in Urbanisation and 48 dissertations in MSc programme in Regional and Urban Planning Studies
UNDERGRADUATE DISSERTATION SUPERVISION (from 2008/09 AY until 2024/25 AY)
36 dissertations in BA Geography
Teaching Related Grants
2019 – 2020 Lead Applicant, “New Spaces, New Networks: “Forging Connections, Partnerships and Futures among Studies, Alumni and Employers”, GBP 20,818, EDEN Fund, London School of Economics and Political Science. Co-applicants include three student representatives from MSc Urbanisation and Development and MSc Human Geography and Urban Studies (Research)
2018 – 2019 Lead Applicant, “Urbanisation and Development Day: Conference with workshop sessions”, GBP 1,500, Student Experience Enhancement Fund, London School of Economics and Political Science. Co-applicants include two student representatives of the MSc Urbanisation and Development
2017 – 2018 Project Leader. “Enhancing Student Participation and Diversifying Assessments: Review of Urban Research Methods Course”, GBP 1,956.76. Teaching and Learning Development Fund, LSE Teaching and Learning Centre
2017 – 2018 Project Leader. “Students as Knowledge Co-Producers: Blogging as Alternative Assessments and Learning Experience”, GBP 1,051.16. Teaching and Learning Development Fund, LSE Teaching and Learning Centre
2009 – 2010 Principal Investigator. “Teaching Development Fund: Cities and Social Change in East Asia”, GBP 2,000. LSE Teaching and Learning Centre