Susan Parnell, ACC Emeritus Professor and Chair in Human Geography at University of Bristol (UoB) has started her six-months professorship at the African Centre for Cities, that will run until May 2025. This forms part of the collaboration between the University of Cape Town and UoB that was launched in March 2023 to advance Africa’s place in global knowledge production, and change the extractive, unequal way collaborative research is done between the Global North and the Global South, specifically with Africa.
Through the UCT-UoB progamme, each partner university awards a professorship to three researchers for a duration of 12 months over three years. Each researcher may spend up to six months a year at the partner university, working on one of the following three themes that were jointly identified by the two universities:
- hidden histories
- climate change impacts and opportunities for health
- environmental and social sustainability.
Sue will be working on a programme titled Mobilising sustainable global alternatives through African cities’, alongside ACC Director Edgar Pieterse and Professor Frank Eckardt, Head of the Department of Environmental & Geographical Science. Among other aspects of the programme, she will be working with ACC’s urban health cluster on the CLARITY Africa project dealing with urban air pollution – and for the World Health Organization on their urban strategy. “I am so stimulated by the range and vibrancy of the work going on in the ACC. The opportunity to have sustained research and writing time with colleagues here is very special,” she said.
The second strand of the collaboration is the fellowship programme, aimed at early- to mid-career researchers to build their international experience. Under this programme, James Duminy, Senior Lecturer at UoB’s School of Geographical Sciences will be working closely with Andrew Tucker, ACC Deputy Director, on the theme titled Life-course cities: planning for long-term human health and wellbeing in the Anthropocene.
Sue Parnell on The Century of Cities podcast
Susan Parnell, an author and Professor of Urban Geography at Bristol University and an Emeritus Professor at the African Centre for Cities at UCT, joins The Century of Cities to discuss the transformative landscape of African urbanization. Susan reflects on the dramatic urban shifts and profound implications of Africa’s ongoing urban evolution, from grappling with extreme poverty to harnessing its youthful energy and climate-conscious opportunities. She compares Africa’s urban trajectory to China’s rapid growth, highlighting unique challenges like informality, connectivity, and sustainable infrastructure. Susan envisions a future where African cities experience massive growth while addressing intergenerational poverty and climate resilience. Susan’s insights challenge conventional thinking and inspire a reimagination of cities as equitable, innovative, and globally influential hubs.
Listen to The Century of Cities here.
