Julen Ugartetxea, PhD Candidate

Julen Ugartetxea is a graduate in International Relations and holds a MSc in Environment and Development from the University of Copenhagen. He has an interest in indigenous peoples’ worldviews, livelihoods and governance structures, globalisation processes and the geographies of rural-urban transformations. He has conducted fieldwork in Bolivia, and has professional experience within the public administration and NGO sectors. (jugartetxea@gmail.com)

Boon Kia Meng, Post Doc

Boon Kia Meng is a political anthropologist and holds a PhD. from Kyoto University, Japan. His work is situated at the intersection of political anthropology and political theory, focusing on law, policing and the coloniality of power in Malaysia. In the Urban Frontiers project, he will be researching peri-urban land conflict, legality and Malaysia’s racial regime of property ownership.

Daniel Kojo Leon Brenya Yeboah, Post Doc

Daniel Kojo Leon Brenya Yeboah holds a joint Ph.D. in Environmental Management and Sustainability from the University for Development Studies, Ghana, and Development Studies from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. His research focuses on agro-pastoral relations, the political economy of natural resource conflicts, and the intersection between land access, authority, and state-building in Ghana. His current research investigates how urbanization shapes peri-urban land regimes and transforms socioeconomic and political interaction in Tamale, Ghana.

Line Jespersgaard Jakobsen, Post Doc

Line Jespersgaard Jakobsen holds a PhD in Global and Development Studies from the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde University, in association with the Danish Institute for International Studies. Her interests include corporate security practices in natural extraction sites, peace and justice in post-conflict settings, corporate accountability, and implications of ‘green’ technologies and infrastructures. Line investigates reconfigurations of urban property regimes in the context of a large urban flood-risk mitigation resettlement project in Cali, Colombia.

Ghammaz Husnain, PhD candidate

Ghammaz Husnain is a PCATP licensed Architect and Planner. He completed his undergraduate studies in B. Arch from RHSA at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore and received his MSc in Urban Planning & Policy Design from the Politecnico di Milano. His research primarily focuses on Cross-Border Regions, and Urban Governance. Prior to joining KU as a PhD fellow, he was an Assistant Professor and Director of the Centre for Urban & Rural Environment (CURE) at the Razia Hassan School of Architecture at BNU, Pakistan.

Joshua Obara, PhD candidate

Joshua Obara has an interdisciplinary profile at the intersection of natural resources management, governance and social rights protection. He holds an MSc in Sustainable Resource Management from the Technical University of Munich. He is interested in property rights, economic land transformations, housing in marginalised communities—small towns, and equitable urban development for social good. In the Urban Frontiers Project, he is researching land governance, conflicts, claims, recognition and identity in the post-conflict Gulu City, Uganda. He is also a co-founder of the start-up, African Sustainable Homes: african-sustainable-homes.com.

Wina Khairina, associated PhD candidate

Wina Khairina is a PhD student at the Department of Anthropology, University of Indonesia. She is also an affiliate researcher at the ETNOGRAFIK Research Center (ERC), University of North Sumatera. Her research interests include agrarian reform, indigenous peoples, migration, the precariat, human rights issues, and urban and rural frontier. She works with Christian in Medan, Indonesia, as a research assistant.

Scientific Advisory Board

Nandini Sundar, Professor of Sociology, Delhi University.

Penelope Anthias, Associate professor of Geography, Durham University.

Karen Büscher, University of Ghent.