Pedagogies for Racial and Spatial Justice: Revisiting the ‘Race’ and Space Curriculum

City-making is a by-product of racial capitalism. Yet the spatial implications of racialisation processes remain at the margins of the mainstream of the built environment professional’s education. In the context of exacerbated settler colonial violence, the race riots in the UK and the rise of fascist regimes across the globe, we need to question and retool educational practices to understand, question and dismantle the systems that are deepening spatial violence and racism in multiple forms.

Join UCL Urban Lab for a roundtable that brings together five of the co-authors of The Bartlett’s cross-faculty ‘Race’ and Space curriculum. The groundbreaking curriculum was first published in January 2020, and subsequently shortlisted for the SAHGB Colvin Prize 2021. The discussion aims to:

• Bring together colleagues interested in the pedagogical prospects for the interplay between 'racial’ and spatial justice.
• Revisit and update some of the ideas in the and its educational offer.
• Discuss the practices and projects that are taking place across UCL and explore the possibilities for cross-faculty and school collaboration.

Speakers

Dr Kamna Patel is an Associate Professor in The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, UCL. She was the inaugural Vice Dean for Equality Diversity and Inclusion in The Bartlett (2018–21) and designed and led numerous initiatives for racial equity in the faculty and across UCL. These include the Race and Spatial Justice Recruitment Initiative which championed positive action for academic hires, promotion surgeries for minoritised staff, led the design of 100% equity-based student scholarships, invested in the first ever Black History Month series of events at The Bartlett, set up a staff and student forum for people of colour, secured the faculty's Silver Athena SWAN award which was grounded in an intersectional analysis of race and gender inequality, and led the production of and co-curated the ‘Race’ and Space curriculum. Her research and practice focus on the relationships between race and international development, and she has published widely on this.  

Dr Tania Sengupta is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the PhD programme in Architectural and Urban History and Theory at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her research looks at historical landscapes, continuing legacies and (in)equities rooted in colonialism and imperialism in South Asia and global postcolonial contexts like Britain, and alternative knowledges and practices in relation to these. Tania is Co-Chief Editor of the Architecture Beyond Europe journal, co-curator of the ‘Race’ and Space curriculum and recipient of the RIBA President’s Medal for Research 2019. She has contributed a chapter on race and built environment in Britain (1948-2020) to the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture (due early 2025); her co-edited book Reclaiming Colonial Architecture has just been published; and her co-authored book Mapping Ephemerality – on the bottom-up mobilisation of temporary pavilions and urban space for a city-wide annual festival in Calcutta, India – is due in 2025. 

Prof Yasminah Beebeejaun is Professor of Urban Politics and Planning at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL.  Her work is concerned with feminist, anti-racist and decolonial approaches to planning theory and practice.  Her articles have been published in many journals including Environment and Planning C, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Planning Theory, Planning Theory and Practice, and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. She is editor of The Participatory City (Berlin: JOVIS, 2016) and is one of the founding editors of The Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City. 

Dr Adam Walls is a lecturer in architectural and urban history and theory at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. He previously worked in architectural practice before completing his PhD at The Bartlett, ‘Twilight Spaces’ which explores the transformation of London’s nocturnal and racial atmospheres during the era of high imperialism. His work is interdisciplinary and brings together literary, visual and material culture with environmental, decolonial, queer and critical whiteness approaches to the built environment. His current research is working towards a queer light ecology or theory of ‘photosexuality’.  

Chair 

Dr Catalina Ortiz is Professor of Critical Urban Pedagogy and Director of UCL Urban Laboratory. She is an urbanist who is passionate about spatial justice, her research uses decolonial and critical urban theory through knowledge co-production methodologies mainly in Latin American cities. Her work revolves around urban pedagogies, planning for equality, and southern urbanisms.  Her articles have been published in many journals including the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Planning Theory, Environment and Urbanization, Urban Studies and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. She is one the editors of Urban Studies and trustee of the charity, Latin Elephant. She also co-curated The Bartlett ‘Race and Space’ curriculum. 

More Information 

• 'Race' and Space Curriculum

Image: Collage by Catalina Ortiz