Pushpa Arabindoo is an Associate Professor in Geography & Urban Design at UCL Department of Geography. She trained in architecture and urban design before completing her PhD in Planning from the London School of Economics which paved the way for an inter-disciplinary approach to addressing urban challenges. She is the Deputy Director of UCL Institute of Advanced Studies and Co-Director of UCL Urban Laboratory where she leads the research priority theme of Wasteland. She is also the co-convenor of the MSc Urban Studies. As an academic-practitioner, she pays close attention to the multiple modes of knowledge production debunking the theory/practice binary. This has led to creative collaborations including a photographer and a playwright.