Barbara Lipietz is a Lecturer at the Development Planning Unit where she co-directs DPU’s MSc in Urban Development Planning and convenes the DPU Research Cluster on Urban Transformations.I am an interdisciplinary planner with a formal background in history and development studies.  In  the DPU, I am co-director of the MSc in Urban Development Planning and teach on two of the core modules for the course. I am convener of the Urban Transformations research cluster within the DPU and coordinate the ACHR/DPU Junior Professional Internship Programme. Outside the DPU, I am secretary of the Urban Planning Advisory Group (UPAG) which reports to UNISDR's Special Representative of the Secretary General. I also sit on UCL's Urban Lab Steering Committee. Finally, I am editor of the 'Forum' section of the journal CITY which seeks to stimulate debate on the city from a variety of experiences and viewpoints - especially those outside the confines of academia and the 'global north'. Before joining the DPU, I straddled the worlds of research and practice, working as a research fellow at the LSE and collaborating with a number of international and (particularly South Africa-based) local institutions such as UN-Habitat, the Green Group of the European Parliament, Isandla Institute, John Hopkins University, the Transitional National Development Trust, NURCHA, the National Business Initiative, the Gauteng Provincial government and the City of Johannesburg. This work has spanned monitoring and evaluation, policy recommendations, and strategic planning input in the fields of (urban) governance, participatory governance, partnership-based service delivery, urban poverty, urban regeneration and housing. I continue working with a number of these organisations, including most recently UNISDR, Metropolis, Just Space (London), the Asian Coalition of Housing Rights, the Asian Coalition for Community Action and Genre en Action through DPU-related course/research work and other forms of collaboration.I hold a PhD in Development Studies and an MSc from SOAS (University of London) and a BA in History from the University of Cambridge.