The Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning is offering a fully funded 4-year PhD position in the Geographies of Inclusive Cities.
Despite decades of queer geographical scholarship that questions the hetero-cis-normative assumptions embedded in the design and management of cities, LGBTQ+-supportive social inclusion has yet to be ‘mainstreamed’ and evenly integrated through plans and policies into the everyday work of urban governance. Urban planning and policy are conventional tools of social inclusion used in conjunction with human rights protections and institutional allyship to translate social logics into actions of recognition, redistribution, and encounter for marginalized social groups. Yet, how they play out in specific places, through what kinds of governance coalitions, and across intersections of difference in the lives of individuals varies enormously around the world.
We are looking for an ambitious and highly motivated PhD candidate with a background in Human Geography or a related discipline. In your PhD project you will compare non-Anglo-American northern and/or southern cities through theoretical reflection and methodological innovation. You will empirically investigate how these cities learn from one another about the meaningful inclusion of sexual and gender non-normative citizens, through what kinds of partnerships, and with what local outcomes. Critical engagement is invited with plans, policies, and organizational networks that variously address LGBTQ+ needs for social reproduction and infrastructure provision, public transit, social services and community facilities access, housing and economic development, community-event financing, public safety, social inclusion and/or civic participation.
Ideas for a 4-year research project to start in September 2023 or January 2024 are welcomed under and/or across the following two broad thematic areas and related sub-topics.
1. Queering plans and policies:
- The place of LGBTQ+ knowledge, networks, and lived experiences in social inclusion policies and community plans shaped by municipal agendas for creative, liveable, healthy, child-friendly, digital, and sustainable cities.
- The extent to which queer and transgender competencies inform municipal urban planning and policymaking.
- The conflicts, impediments, and contradictions found in municipal urban planning and policymaking responses to LGBTQ+ social inclusion.
2. Queering governance coalitions and activisms
- The role of LGBTQ+ activists in reworking and resisting municipal logics to build local community resilience.
- Instances when LGBTQ+-inclusivity exceeds social planning to engage with an (in)visibility politics that may impact upon the form and function of infrastructure.
- The tensions, disconnects, and misrecognitions generated through the integration of LGBTQ+ and Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (QTBIPOC) activism into urban governance processes and discourses.
More information about the position and how to apply can be found at: https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/working-at-utrecht-university/jobs/phd-position-in-the-geographies-of-inclusive-cities-10-fte
Potential applicants are welcome to email me directly if they have additional questions at a.l.bain@uu.nl.