Thinking beyond from within the urban PhD
This commentary offers reflections and provocations on some of the contradictions we have encountered between our urban research and universities as an interdisciplinary and international group of doctoral students. Based within universities across Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and Bunurong lands in Melbourne, Australia, these reflections emerge from a settler colonial context in a moment of rising far-right white nationalism and militarism. In drawing on the well-established debates of the possibilities of the university as a site of liberation, we consider our own experiences as PhD students to identify three frictions between our orientation to care-fully just urban futures and the colonial-neoliberal university. In so doing, we join a growing dialogue of critical reflection between international urban early-career researchers.
Authors
- Jasjit Singh Banga
- A. Durkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7569-4471)
- Ashraful Alam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6529-4423)
- Ana Luiza S. de Sá (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6315-8022)
- Abdullah Al Zubaer Evan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0137-7585)
- Ngoc Thao Linh Dang
- Ricardo Camacho (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3836-0709)
- Alexei Trundle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7076-4626)
- Sara Pishgahi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7054-1433)
- Belinda Jane Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7224-2101)
- Tanya Burdett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3042-7131)
- Amal Alghazo
- Imogen Howe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7960-5288)
- Ravi Bhushan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2279-6853)
- Damilola Olalekan
- Anwyn Hocking (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2773-8697)
- Bethany M. Kiss (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6263-2249)
- Lu Rita Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5221-3097)
- Horizons 2024 Collective
- Anh Van Rosie Pham
Institutions
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- La Trobe University (AU)
- Monash University (AU)
- RMIT University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Urban Studies
- Published
- 2026-09-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980261483469
- Primary Topic
- Urban Planning and Governance
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00