
Dr Vikki Houlden
- Position: Lecturer in Urban Data Science
- Areas of expertise: urban science; spatial inequality; greenspace; health; mental wellbeing; places left behind; GIS
- Email: V.Houlden@leeds.ac.uk
- Website: Personal Webpage | Twitter | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | Researchgate | ORCID
Profile
Vikki Houlden is a Lecturer in Urban Data Science in the School of Geography, and member of the Centre for Spatial Analysis and Policy (CSAP) research cluster. She also works with Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA) and is a Visiting Researcher at Newcastle University. She previously worked as a Research Associate in Spatial Inequality, within Newcastle’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS). Prior to this, she held a teaching-focussed role as Academic Technologist at the University of Warwick, where she also obtained her Doctorate with Warwick Institute for Science of Cities (WISC).
Vikki’s research aims to understand the ways in which spaces and places embody inequalities, and the social structures influencing how people relate to their environment, with particular interest in how urban landscapes impact health and wellbeing. More specifically, she approaches urban challenges, such as greenspace, mental health, ageing, peripheralisation and migration, through geospatial methods and theory which draws on her interdisciplinary background in urban science, data analytics, engineering and geography. As well as quantitative spatio-temporal analysis, she works with community groups, practitioners and local government, to understand and improve individual experiences of the built environment.
In her spare time, she enjoys baking, travel, and anything that involves being outdoors.
Responsibilities
- Programme Lead for MSc Urban Data Science and Analytics
Qualifications
- PhD in Urban Science, 2019, University of Warwick
- MSc in Data Analytics, 2015, University of Warwick
- MEng in Civil Engineering, 2014, University of Warwick
Professional memberships
- AFHAE- Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Insitute
Student education
I am Programme Lead for the MSc in Urban Data Science and Analytics, which launched in Autumn 2021
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Spatial Analysis and Policy