I will be joining the upcoming REF 2021 (Research Excellence Framework) exercise as sub-panel member in Geography UoA. I am deeply honoured to be nominated by the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG) as well as by REF2021 to accept this nomination. Look forward to reading the very best of British geography…Continue reading “News and events”
the city inside out
A blog on gender, citizenship and urban life
Ayona Datta
I am Professor in Urban Geography in University College London. I have cross cutting expertise in postcolonial urbanism, smart cities, urban futures, and gender citizenship. I was awarded the Busk Medal from the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in 2019 for my contributions to the understanding of smart cities through fieldwork.
New Publication: Apps, Maps and War Rooms
Our Urban Pulse review article (written with Arunima Ghoshal, Anwesha Aditi, Arya Thomas and Yogesh Mishra) for Urban Geography “Apps, maps…
New Publication: Self(ie) Governance
My commentary article for Dialogues in Human Geography “Self(ie)-governance: Technologies of intimate surveillance in India under COVID19” has been published. This…
Survival Infrastructures under COVID19 in India
This is a reposting of a Blog published in Geography Directions. I grew up hearing stories of Calcutta during the…
Films, videos and podcasts
Who and what makes the city?
I was invited by Futurium, Berlin to a panel discussion with the ex-Mayor of Bonn and Siemens on ‘Who and what makes the city’. Listen to our panel from 44mins into the recording.
Futurium: Who and what makes the city?
The fate of India’s small towns
Through the eyes of its residents, local activists and civil society members, City Forgotten tells the story of Malegaon, a small town near Nashik, Maharashtra, where its women and minorities continue to aspire for and claim their constitutional rights to education despite the lack of any real prospects for its future generations.
City Forgotten
Resilience decoded: Multiple dimensions of vulnerabilities in the smart city
UN ECOSOC, 2018 Integration Segment, 20th Plenary meeting. 1st May 2018, New York.
Please click here to listen to my talk.
United Nations ECOSOC Talk
Royal Geographical Society Podcast
Big data and digital technology are changing cities around the world – but are these new urban futures inclusive, or exclusionary? In this podcast we hear Dr Ayona Datta, Reader in Urban Futures at Kings College London discuss her research on India’s smart cities.
Click here to listen to the Podcast.
#AskTheGeographer: Can digital technology make cities safe and inclusive?
Fast Urbanism: Between speed, time and urban futures
Speed is fundamental to producing the modern city. Drawing upon recent research, the inaugural Professorial lecture examined what fast urbanism looks like from the margins of the Indian city. What happens when contrary to the promise of a fast and seamless urban life that delivers the gift of time, the urban poor are confronted with new struggles with mobility, new exclusions from digital and physical infrastructures, reorganisation of domestic life, as well as the dangers of sexual harassment and assault both online and offline.
Please Click Here to listen to my Inaugural on 21 January, 2020, UCL
