Currently visiting: Sandra Guinand

09.12.2020

From October till December 2020, Sandra Guinand is visiting professor at the Department of Geography and Regional Research. The urban planner and urban geographer enjoys experimenting as well as testing new tools and conceptual frameworks. With her research she would like to contribute in improving urban settings.

  • What is so fascinating about your research area?

My fascination is twofold. On a personal note, I feel challenged by ordinary observations, which then lead to research questions that I attempt to further investigate. I also enjoy experimenting, testing new tools and conceptual frameworks. Then, having been trained as an urban planner, I also feel that I am responsible to give back to the public and that my research in urban geography should lead to propositions or findings that can improve our urban settings (socially, environmentally, etc.).

  • Which central message should your students remember?

For me, the central message that students should remember is that in order to be engaged with their (scientific) work and curriculum it requires enthusiasm, curiosity and critical thinking. As teachers, we are not here to deliver them the “truth” but equip them with the conceptual, methodological, etc. tools to build their own scientific understanding of the world.

 

  • Why did you decide to do research and teach at our Faculty?

I have had the chance to get in touch and then meet some members of the research group of spatial research and spatial planning at the department of Geography and Regional research while conducting research in the United States and later in Vienna. Among the group, there is a promising and enthusiastic young team with whom scientific exchanges, discussions and collaborations have been facilitated. This makes a lot of difference for my research on public-private partnerships in urban redevelopment. I have been invited by the current director of the research group, Aloïs Humer.

  • Which three publications characterise your work?

Guinand, S. (2020): Re-arranging public private partnerships. The case of South Street SeaportNew York, Journal of urban affairs.

Schaller, S., Guinand, S.  (2017): Popup landscapes: a new trigger to push up land value?, Urban geography, Vol. 39 (1), pp. 54-74.

Guinand, S. (2015): Régénérer la ville. Patrimoine et politiques d’image à Porto et Marseille. Rennes : Presses universitaires de Rennes.

 

Thank you & welcome to our Faculty!

 

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Sandra Guinand, visiting professor at the Department of Geography and Regional Research from October to December 2020. © Universität Wien

The urban planner and urban geographer would like to contribute to improving urban settings and equip students with the tools to build their own scientific understanding of the world. © privat/Yazid Ben Hounet