Biography
Toby is a third year PhD student and member of the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research (UCR) in the Department of Architecture.
His PhD research examines the spatial implications of the ‘camp’ that has manifested in European cities during the most recent refugee crisis, with a particular focus on Berlin. He is also interest in wider conceptualisations of camps and refugee shelters, and the interactions, tensions, and opportunities that are created between them and cities.
Toby received his BA in History from the University of Bristol in 2015, where he focused on urban heritage and the spatial implications of memory in Berlin. He received his MPhil in Architecture and Urban Studies from the University of Cambridge in 2016, with a research interest in the socio-political and cultural aspects of architecture and urbanism. He continued to explore contemporary urban issues in Berlin, in particular the ways in which the city responded to the current refugee crisis. His Master’s thesis was entitled ‘The Urban Camp: the role of the city in the Berlin-Tempelhof refugee camp.’
Toby has also spent a year working in the UK civil service and for the London Mayor’s office. This supported his long-term focus of bridging the gap between academia and built-environment policy making to establish better evidenced approaches to urbanism in both the public and private sectors.
You can follow him on twitter @TobyParsloe
Publications:
Katz, I., T. Parsloe, Z. Poll & A. Scafe-Smith (2018). Urban Camps: Hosting Forced Migration in European Cities. In I. Katz, C. Minca and D. Martin (eds.), The Camp Archipelago: Multifaceted Spatialities of a Modern Political Technology. Rowman & Littlefield (forthcoming).
T. Parsloe (2017), ‘Berlin’s Tempelhof: The Camp too Controversial to Customise’, Refugees Deeply/ News Deeply, https://www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2017/06/22/berlins-tempelhof-the-camp-too-controversial-to-customize.
T. Parsloe (2017), ‘Appropriating Buildings to House Refugees: Berlin Tempelhof’, Forced Migration Review, ‘Shelter in Displacement’ issue, vol. 54, 35-6 (journal of University of Oxford; also translated to Arabic, French and Spanish).
Conferences and talks:
2017- ‘The Politics of Architectural Appropriation in the Berlin-Tempelhof Refugee Camp’, Refugee Studies Centre 2017 Conference "Beyond Crisis: Rethinking Refugee Studies", University of Oxford.
2016-‘Illegal Graffiti and the East Side Gallery Monument in Berlin’-Robinson College Research Day, Robinson College, University of Cambridge.
