People

Prof Karen Lucas is Director of MUI where she leads the ‘Transport and Mobilities’ research theme.

She is Professor of Human Geography and Director of Research in the Department of Geography in SEED.

Karen has 25+ years’ experience in delivering social research into practice in transport, employing a variety of mixed methods approaches to issues of mobility, accessibility, and social justice.

Karen is a world-leading expert on transport and social justice in the Global North and South and is currently devising a new integrated methodology for the social assessment of road projects for National Highways.

Anupam Nanda currently holds a full professorship (Professor of Urban Economics and Real Estate/Chair in Real Estate) at the University of Manchester. His current position includes the role of the Co-Deputy Director of the Manchester Urban Institute and REF Coordinator (joint) of the Department of Planning, Property & Environmental Management. He has established and led the Manchester Real Estate and Urban Economics research group. Anupam is also a member of the Board of the European Real Estate Society (ERES).

He has more than eighteen years of experience as a researcher, educator and consultant. Prior to joining the University of Manchester in 2019, he was at the University of Reading/Henley Business School (2010-19), where he was a Research Division Lead and Programme Director for the MSc in Real Estate Finance. Prior to joining the University of Reading, Anupam held non-academic roles at Deloitte and the National Association of Home Builders (US).

Anupam holds a PhD in Economics and fellowships of FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts), FRGS (Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society) and FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK).

Anupam's research themes/sub-themes are: economics of property markets; regional and urban studies; household sentiment & behaviours; cross-border investment; Environment, Social & Governance (ESG) and technology issues in urban and property markets.

Seth Schindler is an urban geographer focused on cities and urbanization in the Global South. His research focuses on the impact of geopolitical rivalry on cities and urbanization, and he co-founded the Second Cold War Observatory.

He is a Corresponding Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and he was awarded Best Paper in Regional  Studies (2022), Territory, Politics, Development (2015), and the 2021 Ashby Prize for an article in Environment and Planning A.

His research has appeared in leading academic journals such as Urban Studies, Urban Geography, Antipode, and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. Prior to joining the University of Manchester he coordinated the Global Studies Programme at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Emma is the point of contact for all enquiries to Manchester Urban Institute. Please contact her at mui@manchester.ac.uk. 

Debolina Majumder is an urban and labour geographer interested in questions of everyday urban political economy, infrastructural labour, and social reproduction. She is an ESRC research fellow at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester.

Her project, The Hidden Abodes of the Urban, considers the role of so-called 'surplus' populations and infrastructural labour in shaping processes of urban development in India. Her doctoral dissertation at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge takes a long-durée approach towards analysing the relationship between labour informalisation, trans-local working-class social reproduction, and urban change in the Delhi NCR.

Her forthcoming research seeks to reconceptualise the role of labour as a geopolitical actor and subject amid intensifying geopolitical rivalries, neocolonial warfare, and crises of multipolarity.

Felipe Magalhães is a professor of economic geography and planning at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Initially trained as an economist, he moved to geography for his graduate studies, during which he was a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia (UBC).

His work focuses on popular and solidarity economies, economic volatility, deindustrialization, and neo-extractivism in Brazil, both through research and extension projects (community outreach, collaborations with social movements, etc.). He has published articles and book chapters in both Brazilian and anglophone journals and edited volumes.

Before joining UFMG’s Department of Geography in 2015, Felipe worked at Belo Horizonte’s planning department and in urban planning consulting in Brazil.

Mehmet Melih Cin is a Research Assistant (PhD) in the Department of Architecture at İzmir Katip Çelebi University. He earned his PhD in Architecture from the Middle East Technical University (METU) with a dissertation titled 'A Critical Inquiry on the Mode of Production of Informal Fabric and Its Reflections on Built Environments: A Romani Community in İzmir’s Ege Neighbourhood.'

His graduate research focused on urban regeneration strategies, labour theory, and informality in relation to Roma communities.

His academic interests encompass urban sociology, urban political economy, and the right to the city, with a particular emphasis on disadvantaged and subaltern groups, labor dynamics, and the use of public space.

Ransford’s work focuses on the nexus between transport, mobility technologies, and land use, and their integrated planning in cities. Ransford aims to develop shared ambition and priorities across the RCA, and to explore ways of working closely together - both within the Challenge Area and across University research platforms and institutes.

Jeremy is a Senior Lecturer working within Planning, Property and Environmental Management department at the University of Manchester. His research interests centre on environmental planning and management, with a particular focus on urban climate change adaptation, green infrastructure and natural flood management.

Deljana’s work sits at the intersection of urban change and everyday co-existence, with a particular focus on infrastructures and their socio-eco-technical entanglements. Under her leadership, the RCA will be a place for researchers to connect grounded, city-facing scholarship with wider conversations about resilience, repair, and what it takes to build environments that support life in conditions of uncertainty.

Arpana is a Clinical Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology in the Division of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health. She has been part of MUI from its inception. Arpana and other RCA members meet monthly to convene seminars bringing researchers together, consider links with other parts of the research infrastructure and align priorities with wider University strategy.