Laura Nkula-Wenz

Laura Nkula-Wenz

Lecturer and student affairs coordinator

laura.nkula@uct.ac.za

Projects

Bio

Laura Nkula-Wenz is a lecturer and student affairs coordinator for the MA in Critical Urbanisms, University of Basel, as well as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the SNSF-funded ‘Governing Through Design’ project, where she co-leads the South Designs initiative together with Prof. Kenny Cupers. She is a human geographer by training with a passion for postcolonial urban theory, African urbanism, new pedagogies of the city and public culture. Her research has focused on local urban governance transformation, the impact of international events and urban accolades, on urban experimentation and interurban knowledge networks, the nexus of cultural production and urban change, as well as the role of professional integrity in the urban development sector.

In pursuits of her diverse research interests, she has collaborated with colleagues and organisations inside and beyond academia, including Transparency International, Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrade (VPUU), the City of Cape Town’s Department of Arts and Culture, UNESCO and Global Integrity. Laura is equally committed to emancipatory pedagogy and engaged scholarship. She convenes the postgraduate course Urban Everyday at the Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics and is part of the editorial committee at Gateways – International Journal for Community Research and Engagement, an open access refereed journal that responds to an emerging global movement of collaborative, critical and change-oriented community-university research initiatives.

Nkula-Wenz received her PhD in Geography from the University of Münster/Germany (summa cum laude), where she also completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in Human Geography, Communication Studies and Political Science. Prior to joining ACC in January 2018, Laura was a postdoctoral fellow at the Pôle de recherche pour l’organisation et la diffusion de l’information géographique (Prodig) in Paris, funded by the Laboratory of Excellence “Territorial and Spatial Dynamics” (Labex DynamiTe).

Nkula-Wenz’s work has been published in Environment and Planning A: Economy & Space, the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Habitat International, Cultural Trends, Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, as well as in several edited collections. She is also a regular contributor to sub\urban, a multilingual, open access journal for critical urban research, published in Germany. She has also been invited to review for a range of journals, such as CITY, Habitat International, Planning Theory & Practice, IJURR etc.

See Nkula-Wenz’s academic publications on ORCID or Google Scholar. She has also written for The Conversation Africa and developed a series of animated videos on urban planning and integrity. She is also part of the Quote This Woman+ database of experts.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOKS 

  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Oldfield, S., Cupers, S., Herz, M., Distretti, E. & Perret, M. (Eds.). (2022). What is Critical Urbanism? Zurich: Park Books.  

BOOK CHAPTERS

  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Oldfield, S. (2022). Ways of Knowing the City. Making Tensions Productive. In: Nkula-Wenz, L., Oldfield, S., Cupers, S., Herz, M., Distretti E. & Perret, M. (eds). What is Critical Urbanism? Zurich: Park Books, pp. 20-25
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. (2022). Worlding Design. In: Nkula-Wenz, L., Oldfield, S., Cupers, S., Herz, M., Distretti E. & M. Perret (eds). What is Critical Urbanism? Zurich: Park Books, pp. 64-71
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & C. Cupers. (2022). The Urban Beyond North and South. Learning Across Geographies. In: Nkula-Wenz, L., Oldfield, S., Cupers, S., Herz, M., Distretti, E. & Perret, M. (eds., 2022) What is Critical Urbanism? Zurich: Park Books, pp. 59-63
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Siame, G. & Zinnbauer, D. (2022). Activating Urban Planners for Fostering Urban Integrity – An Inroad into Curbing City-Level Corruption. In: Croese, S. & S. Parnell (eds.) Localizing the SDGs in African Cities. New York: Springer Press. 
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Minty, Z., Roux, N., Sadie, V., Sitas, R. & Selmeczi, A. (2020). doual’art: Art, Publics, and the City as a” Field of Experience”. In: Kuoni, C., Baltà Portolés, J., Khan, N.N. & S. Moses (eds.) Forces of Art: Perspectives from a Changing World. Amsterdam:Valiz, pp. 283-306
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. (2018). Interrogating the role of international accolades in worlding Cape Town’s urban politics. In: Bassens, D., Beekman, L. & Derudder, B. (eds.) The City as Global Political Actor, Routledge.
  • Wenz, L. (2015). The local institutional dynamics of international accolades: Cape Town’s designation as World Design Capital 2014. In: Haferburg, C. & Huchzermeyer, M. (eds.). Urban Governance in Postapartheid Cities. Stuttgart: Schweizerbart; Durban: UKZN Press, pp. 251-270.

JOURNAL ARTICLES

  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Larsen, M. (under review). Academic Freedom Across Geographies. The (Im)possibilities of Critical Urban Scholarship in (Plausibly) Genocidal Times. Geographical Helvetica
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Brown-Luthango, M. & Sitas, R. (2022). Guest Editorial. Urban Youth – Engaging young people and their futures in African cities. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 15 (2) 1–10. https://doi.org/10.5130/ijcre.v15i2.8210
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Alexander, C., Berrisford, S., Siame, G., Ndhlovu, D., Watson, V. & Zinnbauer, D. (2022). Challenges and Opportunities of Curbing Urban Corruption and Building Professional Integrity: Experiences of Planners in South Africa and Zambia. Habitat International 122, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102541
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Robin, E. (2020). Beyond the success/failure of travelling urban models: Exploring the politics of time and performance in Cape Town’s East City. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/2399654420970963
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Oldfield, S., Cupers, K., Herz, M. & Distretti, E. (2020). Urban Studies at the University of Basel. GeoAgenda Special Issue 01/2020: 15-17
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Minty, Z.(2019). Effecting Cultural Change from Below? A Comparison of Cape Town and Bandung’s Pathways Building Urban Studies in Switzerland, to Urban Cultural Governance. Cultural Trends. 28 (4), 281-293.
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. (2018) Worlding Cape Town by design: Encounters with creative cityness. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 51(3), 581–597. 
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. (2018) Of ‘godziners’ and ‘designer citizens’: The emergence of designers as political subjects in Cape Town, Journal of Urban Cultural Geography, 5 (2), 165–185    
  • Wenz, L. (2015). Worlding – Zwischen theoretischer Annährung, kritischer Intervention und gelebter (Forschungs-) praxis. Kommentar zu Stephan Lanzs “Über (Un-) Möglichkeiten, hiesige Stadtforschung zu postkolonialisieren”. In: Sub/urban Zeitschrift für Kritische Stadtforschung, 3 (1), pp. 97-102
  • Wenz, L. (2013): Changing Tune in Woodstock: Creative industries and local urban development in Cape Town/ South Africa. Gateways – International Journal of Community Research & Engagement, 5, pp. 16-34.

SPECIAL ISSUES

  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & T. Messell. (in preparation). Design Emergencies: Interrogating Innovation in Humanitarian Aid and International Development. Third World Quarterly.
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Brown-Luthango, M. & R. Sitas (2022)Urban Youth – Engaging young people and their futures in African cities. Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 15 (2)

BOOK REVIEWS

  • Nkula-Wenz, L. (2023). Book Review: Daniel E. Agbiboa 2022: They Eat Our Sweat: Transport Labor, Corruption, and Everyday Survival in Urban Nigeria. Oxford and New York, NY: Oxford University Press. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. https://www.ijurr.org/book_review/daniel-e-agbiboa-2022-they-eat-our-sweat-transport-labor-corruption-and-everyday-survival-in-urban-nigeria-oxford-and-new-york-ny-oxford-university-press/
  • Nkula-Wenz, Laura (2017). „Dekolonisieren wir unsere Köpfe“…und unsere Städte! Rezension zu Zwischenraum Kollektiv (eds.) Decolonize the city. Zur Kolonialität der Stadt. Münster: Unrast Verlag. Sub/urban Zeitschrift für Kritische Stadtforschung, 5 (3), 172-175
  • Nkula-Wenz, Laura. (2016) Christine Hentschel 2015: Security in the Bubble: Navigating Crime in Urban South Africa. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 40 (3), 714-16

RESEARCH REPORTS

  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Berrisford, S. & Cirolia, L. (2023). Corruption in Urban Planning. A guide for professional and trainee planners. Transparency International. Available online: https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2023_Report_CorruptionInUrbanPlanning_English.pdf
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., S. Gilbert & D. Zinnbauer. (2020). Methodological Considerations for Researching Corruption and Building Urban Integrity – A Qualitative Action Experiment in Zambia. Cities of Integrity: Second Working Paper, African Centre for Cities, https://www.africancentreforcities.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GI_ACE_WORKING_PAPER_2_3.pdf
  • Nkula-Wenz, L & Oldfield, S. (2018). Urban Immersions. Preparing for Our Global Urban Future. European Association for International Education Winter Forum: Unexpected Internationalisation, 36-38, https://www.eaie.org/our-resources/library/publication/Forum-Magazine/2018-winter-forum.html
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Oldfield, S. (2018). A joint semester at the University of Cape Town. In: Newsletter of the Swiss Society for African Studies, 1/2018, https://sagw.ch/fileadmin/redaktion_sgas/dokumente/newsletter/2018_1.pdf
  • UNESCO. (2016). Culture: Urban Future. Global Report on Culture for Sustainable Urban Development. [Contributor to Study Area 1] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000246291

REPORTS/WORKING PAPERS etc.

  • Nkula-Wenz, L., Berrisford, S. & Cirolia, L. (2023). Corruption in Urban Planning. A guide for professional and trainee planners. Transparency International. Available online: https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2023_Report_CorruptionInUrbanPlanning_English.pdf
  • Nkula-Wenz, L., S. Gilbert & D. Zinnbauer. (2020). Methodological Considerations for Researching Corruption and Building Urban Integrity – A Qualitative Action Experiment in Zambia. Cities of Integrity: Second Working Paper, African Centre for Cities, https://www.africancentreforcities.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GI_ACE_WORKING_PAPER_2_3.pdf
  • Nkula-Wenz, L & Oldfield, S. (2018). Urban Immersions. Preparing for Our Global Urban Future. European Association for International Education Winter Forum: Unexpected Internationalisation, 36-38, https://www.eaie.org/our-resources/library/publication/Forum-Magazine/2018-winter-forum.html
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Oldfield, S. (2018). A joint semester at the University of Cape Town. In: Newsletter of the Swiss Society for African Studies, 1/2018, https://sagw.ch/fileadmin/redaktion_sgas/dokumente/newsletter/2018_1.pdf
  • UNESCO. (2016). Culture: Urban Future. Global Report on Culture for Sustainable Urban Development. [Contributor to Study Area 1] https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000246291

OTHER MEDIA

  • Nkula-Wenz, L. (2022). Africa’s urban planners face huge corruption pressures: some answers. The Conversation Africa: https://theconversation.com/africas-urban-planners-face-huge-corruption-pressures-some-answers-170281
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & Zinnbauer, D. (2020). Building Momentum for Urban Integrity: City Planners as Hidden Champions. Animated Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZTChv2FBKA
  • Nkula-Wenz, L. & D. Zinnbauer. (2020). Tackling Urban Corruption: A fresh take on a persistent problem. Animated Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXS-IOulJHM
  • Wenz, L. (2013): Woodstock’s urban renewal: Much more at stake than the loss of parking. Daily Maverick, 15. March 2013.

Latest