Morgan Campbell

Profile

I am a researcher and lecturer working on issues related to cities, mobility, culture and social justice, with a geographic focus on India. Coming from an interdisciplinary background, I investigate questions related to fissures between how cities are experienced by different populations and how they are represented as meta narratives of economic production, political power, and lifestyle consumption. Additionally, I look at public transport as a form of public space in motion; agency and negotiation in the context of everyday mobility of underrepresented populations.

Research interests

• Transport equity and mobility justice
• Passengering and the future of public space/ public transport
• Labour and temporality
• Gendered mobility | Cultures of mobility
• Automentality
• 'Expert' knowledge and planning
• Representation of the city | Urban experience 
• Postindustrial cities
• Qualitative Research Methodologies | Participatory Action-based Research

I am currently working within the dynamic and diverse Inclusive Public Space project team. IPS is a cross-country/city investigation into the social justice problems caused by city streets which exclude some pedestrians – particularly pedestrians whose circumstances mean that they do not meet general expectations about mobility or ability.

Along with Greg Marsden, I am part of the e-drone project, focusing on understanding the potential governance implications of future logistic drone operations operating in shared airspace.

On a city level, Peter Hart, Laura Cunliffe and I, with support from Kate Cameron, are working in partnership with Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Sports Foundation and local organisations supporting young people to develop the Active Travel Toolkit to better understand how young people feel about active travel and the mobility barriers they face more broadly.

Along with Robin Lovelace and the Leeds Emergency Active Travel Group, I am looking at the impact of Active Travel Neighbourhood initiatives in Leeds and England and public reception to such initiatives more broadly.

Culture on your Doorstep is another local, Leeds-based project, initiated by Briony Thomas to boost place-based learning within the context of 15-minute neighbourhoods. This work engages local artists and is working with two primary schools to support curriculum development in response to the 2019 Ofsted framework requirement for schools to demonstrate how they develop the cultural capital of every child by focusing on places, cultures and knowledge held within communities. 

Partnerships for Social Justice was an initiative that brought together four equity-focused Networks that will collaborate to explore how to reduce inequalities through work with public services, community organisations and academics. 

Under Reform was a two-year project looking at transport reform in India from May 2018 to May 2020. Its aims were to develop cutting edge insights into how reforming transport governance works, and how best to generate more sustainable transport systems in Indian cities looking specifically at the Smart City Mission.

Qualifications

• BA, Kalamazoo College
• MA Critical Theory & Cultural Studies, University of Nottingham
• MUP, Hunter College
• PhD Urban Planning & Public Policy, Rutgers University

Student education

I’m involved in student education within the Geography with Transport Studies BA and MSc dissertation supervision within the Institute for Transport Studies. Students whose interest align with the above areas are welcome to get in touch. Within the University of Leeds I am involved in the following courses:

• Transport Integrated Project 
• Exploring transport and society 
• Transport policy in action 
• Sustainable spatial planning and analysis 
• Contested cities 
• The making of the modern city 
• Diplomatic practice 

Outside the UK I have taught on the following courses:

• Transportation, environment, and public health
• Introduction to planning and policy
• Research methods
• International inequalites
• Gender and development
• Gender, poverty and development
• Feminist advocacy
• Principles of public health

Research groups and institutes

• Social and Political Sciences