Ayona Datta

Biography

My broad research interests are in the critical geographies of smart urbanism, gender citizenships and urban futures in the global north and south. My earlier research examined the connections between transnational urbanism, migrant citizenship, and translocal geographies of belonging among East European construction workers in London. This research continues to develop theoretical and empirical work on slums and informal settlements in exploring how marginal social actors live through the violence of law and urban development in India. This is particularly related to the resultant transformations in gender relations and citizenship struggles that occupy social, political and environmental spaces of action.
My more recent research seeks to advance theoretical and empirical work on postcolonial urbanism through the examination of smart cities as experiments in urban innovation and digital citizenships. I am author of 'The Illegal City: Space, law and gender in a Delhi squatter settlement' (2012)and co-editor of 'Translocal geographies: Spaces, places, connections' (2011) with Ashgate. My co-edited book ‘Mega-urbanization in the global South: Fast cities and new urban utopias of the postcolonial state’ is in print with Routledge and another co-edited book ‘Ecological Citizenships in the global south’ is forthcoming with Zed Books.

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

I am journal editor of Dialogues in Human Geography and Urban Geography and on the editorial boards of Antipode, Gender, Place and Culture and Society and Space. I am also a publicly engaged scholar with a strong media presence, regular op-eds in the ConversationUK, Guardian and openDemocracy, and I maintain a personal blog titled ‘The city inside out’. I am regularly invited to international lectures and keynotes including a recent talk on smart cities at the UNCTAD annual meeting in Geneva.

Personal Interests

I joined King’s in August 2016, having worked previously in University of Leeds, London School of Economics and Queen’s University Belfast. I have a first degree in Architecture (Delhi), an MPhil in Environmental Design (Cantab.) and a PhD in Environmental Design and Planning (Arizona State University). Prior to entering academia, I practised as a chartered architect in Delhi and London.

Websites

• The City Inside out

Books