Research Team
Ying Cheng
Peking University, Beijing, China
Ying Cheng is an assistant professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and Cultures, Peking University. Her research interests include youth and popular culture in Africa, African visual and performance arts, cultural interactions between China and Africa, and so on. Dr Ying Cheng has also been a research associate (Arts of Africa and the Souths) of Rhodes University, South Africa since 2017. In recent years, she has published articles in African Arts, Journal of African Culture Studies, Routeledge Handbook of African Literature, African Theatre, and so on.
Min Tang
Tongji University, Shanghai, China
Dr. Min Tang is a research professor at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. She holds a PhD in Architecture from the KU Leuven (Belgium) and a PhD in Geography from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France). Specialising in Global South urbanism, she conducts multi-sited activities across urban peripheries of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe with multi-linguistic working ability (EN, FR, JP, CN). Her research interest lies in the decolonial and situated knowledge production of the urban, through critical examinations of moving human bodies, planning ideas and city-making practices. The aim is to understand how these moves trigger localised institutional and grassroots practices that continuously territorialise urban peripheries. The primary tools of inquiry are intensive ethnographic studies, action research, critical cartography, and other qualitative and visual methods.
She was the founder of "Asian-African studies on the Move" young scholar network, and serves as editorial board of the journal CITY: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action.
Anuj Daga
School of Environment & Architecture, University of Mumbai, India
Anuj is an architect, writer and curator based in Mumbai. Trained as an architect from Mumbai (2008), he went on to pursue his interests in History & Theory of Architecture at Yale School of Architecture, Yale University (2014). His practice is informed by diverse engagements in fields of design, research and academia that have resulted into numerous roles as writer, critic, commentator, theorist or interlocutor in the cultural field. He has keen interest in studying the processes of visual culture and meaning-making in the contemporary built environment in South Asia. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at the School of Environment & Architecture, Mumbai.
Anuj has conducted several studies and studios around studying and reimagining the spatial conditions of transforming or marginalised neighbourhoods in Mumbai. Alongside, he has been a part of a 3-year long curatorial project ‘Young Subcontinent’ (2016-18) with artist-curator Riyas Komu bringing together young contemporary artists from across South Asia with a sharp political voice. He was the co-curator of the online festival of Video Art by Indian Contemporary Artists (VAICA) during 2021.
Supporting Organisations
Urban Studies Foundation, UK
The Urban Studies Foundation (USF) is a Scottish charitable organisation founded in 2008. Their aims and objectives include advancing academic research and education in the field of urban studies. These are primarily realised through the provision of grant funding for individuals and institutions engaged in groundbreaking urban research and knowledge mobilisation around the world.
https://www.urbanstudiesfoundation.org/
Lagos Studies Association, Lagos, Nigeria
Lagos Studies Association (LSA)
The Lagos Studies Association is an international, interdisciplinary organization of academic and non-academic practitioners whose interest focus on Lagos and its peoples. Our members include scholars, students, activists, artists, teachers, donors, policymakers, and development professionals. Through exchanges between academic and non-academic practitioners, we anticipate deepening the rigor of contemporary scholarship as well as encouraging the integration of critical and thought-provoking questions into non-academic projects on Lagos.
French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry, India
The French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP), UMIFRE 21 CNRS-MEAE, is a research institution under the joint supervision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). It is the largest of the 26 research centres under these umbrellas. It is also part of the Research Unit USR 3330 “Savoirs et Mondes Indiens” of the CNRS, along with the Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH) in New Delhi.
A tool of the French scientific diplomacy, the Institute is reinforcing the Indo-French partnership by its research and training missions. Through its research projects in South Asia, it contributes to making vibrant the cultural and natural heritage of India.
