Prof. Dr. Lindsay Blair Howe

Lind­say Blair Howe is Full Pro­fes­sor of Urban Deve­lo­p­ment and Spa­ti­al Plan­ning at the Depart­ment of Archi­tec­tu­re at the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Munich (TUM) School of Engi­nee­ring and Design, whe­re she leads the Cent­re for Urba­ni­sa­ti­on and Peri­phe­ra­lisati­on (CUSP). Her rese­arch pro­gram exami­nes the urban in a com­pa­ra­ti­ve con­text, empha­sising the inter­sti­ce bet­ween peo­p­le, plan­ning poli­ci­es, and the built envi­ron­ment. Lind­say Hows’ approach includes ori­gi­nal digi­tal and mixed-method tools, such as the use of vol­un­tee­red geo­gra­phic infor­ma­ti­on, along­side estab­lished qua­li­ta­ti­ve urban rese­arch methods from the social sci­en­cesto empha­si­ze the importance of ever­y­day life in theo­rising urban space. Her trans­di­sci­pli­na­ry empi­ri­cal work is pri­ma­ri­ly loca­ted in Sou­thern Afri­ca. She publishes on a wide ran­ge of topics rela­ted to urba­nisati­on and tea­ches how urban theo­ry can be appli­ed in the design sciences.

Lind­say Howe was born in Ber­ke­ley, Cali­for­nia and com­ple­ted her under­gra­dua­te degree in Archi­tec­tu­re and Glo­bal Cul­tu­re & Com­mer­ce at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­gi­nia. After seve­ral years prac­ti­cing in the United Sta­tes and Ger­ma­ny, she com­ple­ted her master’s and PhD degrees in Archi­tec­tu­re at the ETH Zurich. She was a master’s the­sis stu­dent at the Chair of Socio­lo­gy from 2011–2012, a doc­to­ral stu­dent from 2014–2017, and a lec­tu­rer and rese­arch asso­cia­te from 2018–2021 until being appoin­ted Pro­fes­sor of Archi­tec­tu­re & Socie­ty at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Liech­ten­stein in 2021. She was appoin­ted to TUM in 2025.

Cent­re for Urba­ni­sa­ti­on and Peri­phe­ra­lisati­on (CUSP)

The Cent­re for Urba­ni­sa­ti­on and Peri­phe­ralsati­on at TUM inves­ti­gates how eco­lo­gies and liveli­hoods are impac­ted by urba­nisati­on. Groun­ded in a de/postcolonial per­spec­ti­ve, eth­no­gra­phic and com­pa­ra­ti­ve methods are uti­li­zed to enga­ge theo­re­ti­cal­ly and empi­ri­cal­ly with two key ques­ti­ons: 1) What kinds of urba­nisati­on pro­ces­ses can be obser­ved at the inter­sec­tion of human and more-than-human life?And 2) What do the­se chan­ges mean when con­side­ring poli­ci­es, regu­la­ti­ons, and the ever­y­day expe­ri­en­ces of peo­p­le living in sel­ec­ted case stu­dy are­as? Ans­we­ring the­se ques­ti­ons invol­ves analy­sing pro­ces­ses of de/­re-ter­ri­to­ri­a­lisati­on that influence urba­nisati­on, as well as the cor­re­spon­ding pro­ces­ses of peri­phe­ra­lisati­onthat mani­fest through spa­ti­al prac­ti­ces and lived expe­ri­en­ces of the built envi­ron­ment. CUSP also focu­ses on gen­de­red and inter­ge­ne­ra­tio­nal aspects of exten­ded urba­nisati­on and on arti­cu­la­ti­ons of ine­qua­li­ty, for ins­tance, in how housing is con­s­truc­ted, how resour­ces are acces­sed, and how rela­ti­onships to urban infra­struc­tu­re are shaped. South Afri­ca and the West Afri­can cor­ri­dor, par­ti­cu­lar­ly in and around Johan­nes­burg and Lagos, are some of the key sites groun­ding CUSP’s theo­ry-buil­ding pur­suits, along with Ger­ma­ny and Cen­tral Euro­pe.

Lind­say Howe: CUSP TUM

Lind­say Howe: Cur­ri­cu­lum Vitae

Lind­say Howe: Publi­ka­tio­nen