About
Professor Paula Meth is an esteemed academic at the University of Glasgow, specializing in Southern Urbanism. She joined the Department of Urban Studies & Social Policy in 2024, bringing expertise in Human Geography, Urban Planning, and Development Studies. Her research focuses on the urban global South, examining socio-spatial intersections such as housing & youth, informality, violence & gender, and urban peripheries & social difference.
Her work spans funded projects like Youth and the Work/Housing Nexus (British Academy), Living the African Peripheries (ESRC), and Gender and Housing Formalisation (British Academy). She is a co-investigator on the Urban Citizenship and Transcontinental Lives project and co-domain lead for the African Cities Research Consortium in the Safety & Security domain.
Professor Meth has published extensively in journals such as Urban Geography, International Journal of Urban and Regional Studies, and Environment and Planning: A, and co-authored key texts like Geographies of Developing Areas and Living the Urban Periphery. She is committed to public engagement, curating exhibitions on urban life in Africa.
- British Academy Grant (2025-2026): Evidence Cultures in Post-Apartheid Policy Making
- ESRC Grant (2023): Urban Citizenship and Transcontinental Lives
- FCDO Grant (2022-2023): Safety & Security Domain Co-Lead
She supervises doctoral students on topics including urban policy mobilities, climate emergency planning, and ecological gentrification. Her teaching includes Policy, Politics and Power and Housing Inequality, with upcoming courses on Southern Urbanism and Inclusive Cities.
