Biography
Wendy Pullan, PhD, is Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at the University of Cambridge where she is Director of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research. From 2014-17 she was Head of the Department of Architecture. She was Principal Investigator for 'Conflict in Cities and the Contested State’, an international and multidisciplinary research project funded by the Large Grants Programme of the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, for which she received the Royal Institute of British Architects‘ President’s Award for Research. Professor Pullan has published widely on European and Middle Eastern architecture and cities, examining the processes of urban conflict, justice and everyday life. She has been consultant for various organisations, including the UN and ICOMOS. Her publications include: Locating Urban Conflicts (2013), The Struggle for Jerusalem’s Holy Places (2013), ‘Violent infrastructures, places of conflict’ (Sage 2018) and ‘Justice as the Urban Everyday’ (Rowman&Littlefield 2019). She is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.
Research
URBAN AGONISTES: ON THE NATURE OF CONFLICT IN CITIES, 2017-
This book length project investigates the urban conditions that are critical in ethno-national and religious conflicts. It considers the particular features of contemporary cities as the primary loci for such hostilities and probes the long term role of conflict within everyday life. Rather than proposing a means of reconciliation or management, the study focuses on question of agonistic space, where conflict is considered part of the urban condition with precedents for constructive dispute.
THE CENTRE FOR URBAN CONFLICTS RESEARCH (UCR), 2013-, Director: Wendy Pullan
Based in the Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge, the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research is dedicated to investigating cities that experience extreme or particular conflicts, including those caused by ethnicity, nationalism, religion, class or race. Deriving from an architectural and spatial approach to the city, the Centre has expertise in understanding the relationship between policy and planning issues and everyday life. It is particularly concerned with the possibilities for resilience and long term urban transformations and focuses on four main areas: research, consultation, communication and education. Projects vary in size and scope and may be carried out in partnership with other academic teams, government or private organisations, or NGOs. UCR builds upon ten years of research in projects supported by the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, including ‘Conflict in Cities and the Contested State’. It enjoys an international network of collaborating scholars and practitioners. Further details: www.urbanconflicts.arct.cam.ac.uk
CONFLICT IN CITIES AND THE CONTESTED STATE: EVERYDAY LIFE AND THE POSSIBILITIES FOR TRANSFORMATION IN BELFAST, JERUSALEM AND OTHER DIVIDED CITIES (CinC), 2007-2013, PI: Wendy Pullan
'Conflict in Cities and the Contested State' focused on divided cities as key sites in territorial conflicts over state and national identities, cultures and borders. Divided cities in Europe and the Middle East were analysed to better understand how they have been shaped by ethnic, religious and national conflicts, and conversely, how such cities can absorb, resist and potentially play a role in transforming the territorial conflicts which pervade and surround them. The project sought to understand cities as arenas of intensified ethno-national conflicts, particularly with respect to the role that architecture and the urban fabric play as a setting and background for everyday activities and events. The multi-disciplinary initiative included architecture, urban studies, politics, geography and sociology in cities such as Jerusalem, Belfast, Beirut, Berlin, Mostar, Nicosia, Sarajevo and Kirkuk. It was led by Cambridge with teams in a Queen’s Belfast and Exeter Universities. Through 2013, over 50 publications were completed. CinC was funded by the Large Grants Programme of the Economic and Social Research Council of Great Britain (ESRC). It built upon two earlier projects funded by the ESRC’s New Security Challenges Programme (2003-7). Thanks to generous funding, extensive research was enabled over ten years, allowing the long term monitoring and study of sites. Further details: http://www.urbanconflicts.arct.cam.ac.uk/research-projects/conflict-in-cities
