University of Sheffield, United Kingdom
Dr Melanie Lombard is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield. Her research agenda involves connecting the built environment (with a particular focus on housing-related issues) to social processes through exploring the everyday activities that construct cities, often neglected by formal theories and practices of planning and urbanism. She is particularly interested in urban informality, and urban land and conflict processes.
She has explored these themes in cities in Mexico, Colombia, and the UK, working with institutional partners including the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico, and the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia. She is involved in current research funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund comparing urbanisation and migration processes in Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria.
Before moving to the University of Sheffield in 2016, she taught at the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute/Global Urban Research Centre (2010-2016). Her previous professional experience includes working in the UK social housing sector.
She has published articles in journals including Urban Studies, Progress in Planning, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, and the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. She is a Trustee of CLASS (Community Led Action and Savings Support), a charity supporting the Manchester-based Community Savers network.