Mara Torres Pinedo

Dr. Mara Torres Pinedo serves as a Lecturer (Teaching) at the Institute for Global Prosperity within the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment at University College London (UCL). She has held this position since 2023, having previously served as an Associate Lecturer (2021-2022) and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (2017-2020) at UCL. For the 2024-2025 academic year, she shares her teaching time between the Institute for Global Prosperity and the UCL Arena Centre for Research-Based Education. Prior to her academic career, she worked for over eight years in international development practice across Mexico, the US, and Latin America.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Social Science from University College London (2017-2023)
• MSc in Risk, Disaster and Resilience from University College London (2015-2016)
• PG Cert in Project Management from Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESO), Mexico (2010)
• BSc in International Relations from Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESO), Mexico (2004-2008)

Dr. Torres Pinedo's research takes an interdisciplinary approach to urban inequalities and governance of social-ecological systems in the global south. Her work spans risk policy, disaster management, human geography, and development studies, with particular focus on intersectional approaches to vulnerability. Recently, she has expanded into research-based education and decolonizing teaching practices in higher education. She is currently co-leading a research project on syllabus diversity and inclusion to improve student experience in intercultural post-graduate education. Her research methodology often employs mixed methods to develop holistic understandings that can inform more inclusive risk management systems.

Her recent publications demonstrate a consistent focus on transformative education, disaster risk governance, and methodological innovations. The 2023 article "Rethinking Transformative Education" explores community-based research practices, while her dissertation examines network governance in disaster risk management through an intersectional lens. Earlier works include methodological contributions to data analysis and spatial-temporal media analysis, showing her interdisciplinary approach that bridges social sciences with quantitative methods.

Dr. Torres Pinedo has extensive teaching experience across multiple UCL programs. She serves as Module Convenor for "Research Methods for Natural and Planetary Prosperity" and "Dissertation in Prosperity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship," and provides guest lectures on various topics including urban futures, transformative entrepreneurship, and research methods. At the UCL Arena Centre, she teaches staff development programs for teaching assistants, postdoctoral researchers, and early career academics. Her teaching approach emphasizes research-based education and critical pedagogies that address urban inequalities and social-ecological systems.

Her academic work bridges theory and practice, informed by her eight years of experience in international development. Fluent in English and Spanish, she brings a valuable Latin American perspective to her research on Mexico City and broader Latin American contexts. Her current projects focus on creating more inclusive educational spaces through syllabus diversification and advancing understanding of how institutional networks influence vulnerability to disaster risk.