Interdisciplinary Initiative on Cities: Urban H Index: Housing, Heat, Health

In this seminar, Professor Lees will discuss the value of properly interdisciplinary research and initiatives on cities to make them more liveable, just, and resilient. In so doing she will discuss Boston University’s Initiative on Cities’ “Urban H Index: Housing, Heat, Health”, three critical issues that cities are facing globally today. The interdisciplinary work on this Urban H seeks new evidence-based and practical solutions to the interplay of Housing, Heat, Health, separately and as a tripartite. Academic research linked to policy, practice, and community work in these three areas aspires to build urban, environmental, and social resilience in cities. She will open up discussion on how the Urban H Index might apply to Singapore and other Southeast Asian cities.

Speaker

Loretta Lees, Professor and Director Initiative on Cities, Boston University

Loretta Lees is an urban geographer and urbanist who is internationally known for her research on gentrification, urban regeneration, global urbanism, urban policy, urban public space, architecture, and urban social theory. In 2023 she was ranked in the top 2% of most highly cited scholars internationally (Scopus, Elsevier, 2023). She was Chair of the London Housing Panel 2020- 22. In 2022, she was awarded the Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award by the Urban Affairs Association, USA. She has published 17 books, 75 journal articles and 46 book chapters. She has delivered over 70 keynotes/plenaries internationally and first supervised over 20 PhDs to completion.

Moderator

Fiona Williamson, Associate Professor, Singapore Management University

Fiona Williamson is Associate Professor in Environmental History at the College of Integrative Studies. She is also Associate Dean (Undergraduate Education), and Urban Fellow (Urban Life) at the Urban Institute. Her work rests at the intersection of environmental history and the history of science, with a particular interest in how weather (and its extremes) interconnect society and science in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.