Catalina Neculai

Catalina Neculai is an Assistant Professor at Coventry University's LIB Centre for Academic Writing. She holds a PhD from the University of Warwick (focusing on New York literature and neoliberal urbanism), alongside MA degrees from the University of Warwick and University of Bucharest, and a BA from the Lower Danube University of Galati. Her research bridges urban cultural geography and writing studies, examining intersections between culture, community activism, neoliberal urbanization, and spatialized knowledge production. She co-convenes AILA's Academic Publishing and Presenting in a Global Context network.

• Expertise: Urban restructuring, gentrification, literacies for marginalized communities, multi-media documentation of urban politics
• Grants: £9,500 in funding for projects on New York community activism and Coventry's 'City of Culture' literacies initiatives

Her work critiques privatized urbanism through literary and documentary analysis, with recent publications exploring post-2008 financialization impacts on cities and academic writing pedagogies in crisis contexts. She advises PhD students and mentors researchers via collaborations with CUNY and Warwick.