Catalina Ortiz Awarded British Academy Grant to Support Early Career Urbanists in the Global South

Professor Catalina Ortiz, Director of the UCL Urban Laboratory, has been awarded £29,980 by the British Academy through the International Writing Workshops Awards 2024.

The project, titled 'Writing southern urbanism(s): Addressing publishing challenges for emergent voices in Urban studies in Brazil and South Africa', aims to establish a future research agenda around southern urbanism(s) and strengthen the research capacity of early career researchers in urban studies based in Africa and Latin America.

Through workshops and mentoring, the project will focus on framing concepts based on the ground reality of southern and southeastern cities and their contribution to scholarly debates and impacts on urban policy and practice.

The programme will provide a comprehensive support system, including mentorship, training and networking opportunities, to enhance early career researchers' writing skills for publishing research articles, book chapters, grants and policy briefs with experienced journal editors and policymakers.

Key activities include three online interactive sessions on research capacity development and a continuing mentorship scheme for two years, two 3-day writing workshops in Cape Town, South Africa and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and one conclusive hybrid session on shaping southern epistemic communities.

The workshop team includes Prof Catalina Ortiz, Prof Nancy Odendaal (University of Cape Town) and Prof Renato Emerson (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).