Dr. Rita Lambert

Biography

Rita Lambert is an urban development planner and architect with twenty years of professional experience in academia and practice. Her studies include a degree in architecture (2001), a Master's in Environment and Sustainable Development (2011), and a PhD (2019). Originally from Ethiopia, her work has encompassed diverse urban geographic regions including Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Her research, teaching, and external engagements are closely intertwined with feminist political ecology and environmental justice, focusing on the development of methodologies to observe complex urban processes and advance equitable sustainable urban futures. She is particularly interested in making visible the legacies and mechanisms that reproduce territories, peoples, and ecosystems under conditions of vulnerability. Rita has contributed to the understanding of peripheral urbanization and governance in urban environmental planning, analyzing vital themes such as water, energy, housing, food, and ecological systems, and understanding how policies and everyday practices interact to create risks of violence. Her advocacy and contributions to policy-making stem from her interest in connecting expert and lay knowledge, and she promotes action-research to foster knowledge co-production and support advocacy by marginalized groups. Additionally, she has developed participatory methodologies that build capacity for these groups to collect data and engage in dialogue with state actors.

Research Interests

Experience