All Things Urban

Have you always been fascinated by cities and city life? Are you interested in finding a job in the world of urban work and developing a career in shaping the city? Do you have a background in urban studies or another discipline that is relevant to understanding the urban? And do you want to become an urban professional and expert, be it in public administration, consultancy, social work, business, an international organization, the cultural sector or advocacy? Then this webinar series will be of interest to you by exploring the diversity of career paths out of academia and into the city. Cultivating connections and exploring intellectually stimulating career options outside the university is not always easy. Yet, listening and talking to people who have pursued a career away from research and education is a crucial catalyst for figuring out where your career path might take you next. The Urban Work webinar series will give the floor to urban experts and workers from across the world and from different fields in order to identify, appreciate and support access to meaningful urban work opportunities beyond academia for urban studies graduates. Each webinar will revolve around the careers of one or more speakers, allowing for an informal discussion on their own career choices and paths taken as well as a critical but concrete reflection on urban work opportunities and labour markets in different cities. For our second webinar in the Urban Work series, we have invited the following two speakers: Tricia Hackett is a Senior Urban Sustainability Expert with the new EU-funded International Urban and Regional Cooperation (IURC) programme in the North America and Latin America regions. Tricia has extensive global expertise in city-level knowledge transfer partnerships, EU-funded projects, public policy (i.e. sustainable mobility planning, social inclusion, effective governance and urban resilience), participatory methodologies, public sector innovation, evaluation and social impact, action research, action learning, management and organisational development. She has worked in/with 60+ cities across Europe, Latin American, North America and Asia. Until recently, she was the Sustainable Urban Development Advisor with the EU-funded International Urban Cooperation (IUC) Programme in the North America Region and an Urban Planning Expert with GIZ for the Global IUC programme. She has an MSc in Urban Development Planning from The Bartlett Development Planning Unit at UCL. James Rojas is a Latinx urban planner-artist. For the past 30 years James Rojas have been documenting the ways in which Latinos are transforming the US suburban environment to fit their needs. He has become one of the few US recognized experts on this topic and has written and lectured extensively on how culture and immigration are transforming the American landscape. He is the founder of the Latino Urban Forum, an advocacy group dedicated to increasing awareness of planning and design issues facing low-income Latinos. He has also developed Place It!, an hands-on community engagement practice that uses storytelling, objects, and play to help Latinos and others to reflect, collaborate, and find their core values based on their memory, sensory experiences, needs, and aspirations. Currently he and John Kamp are writing a book for Island Press on community engagement. The Urban Work webinar series is jointly organised by the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies and the Urban Knowledge Collective.

The Brussels Centre for Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary research centre at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) that brings together researchers from various disciplines. The Centre aims to increase the visibility of VUB urban research and develops and supports transdisciplinary research projects in the domain of urban studies. The Centre also stimulates networking between the various VUB research groups and of VUB researchers in international and local networks. The research orientation is global, but particular attention is paid to the urban dynamics of Brussels.