AFFILIATIONS
I am currently an Assistant Professor in the section of Spatial Planning and Strategy of the Department of Urbanism at TU Delft. I am also the lead of the Citizen Voice Initiative, co-founder of the Citizens Collective and a member of the Centre for the Just City, the TU Delft Climate Action Program, and the TU Delft Climate Safety & Security centre (CaSS).
MY Journey
I grew up during a time of increasing awareness of climate change and urgent calls for sustainability, which profoundly shaped both my worldview and academic trajectory. At sixteen, I chose to study engineering, believing that science and technology could lead the way toward sustainable futures. This was during the “boom” of renewable energies, promoted by various global insitutions like the IPCC. Over time, I witnessed climate change intensify and intertwine with local and global crises, disproportionately affecting those least responsible for socio-environmental degradation. This realisation prompted me to re-evaluate the role of technology and expand my inquiry into the social, political, and spatial dimensions of climate change. Through this process, I took a “humanities turn” in my career, transitioning from a technical to an inter- and trans-disciplinary pathway.
BACKGROUND and experience
I have an interdisciplinary academic background, with academic degrees in Engineering (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil) and Energy & Environment (Sorbonne, France), a PhD in Building Physics and Sustainable Design (KU Leuven, Belgium), and a postdoctoral fellowship on socio-spatial inequalities (TU Delft, The Netherlands). This journey across disciplines has equipped me to engage critically with the ways space, knowledge, and technology intersect in shaping collective imaginaries of how we should live.
My research has been published in several prominent journals and book volumes. My latest book, Evolving Education, is an edited collection of manifestos to transform higher education written by academics, students, and education professionals. My project portfolio includes both critical studies (e.g., Start Making Sense, Decolonising Data Science) and practice-oriented research (e.g., HE-UP2030, NWO-funded CIVILIAN). I also have experience with different contexts, including cities in Europe, India, Africa, and Brazil.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research examines how people and communities imagine and build alternative futures, here and now. By analysing both grassroots action and progressive institutional change, I seek to understand how social transformations occur from the bottom up and the top down. My most recent research focuses on the potential of collective action and prefigurative politics for transformative change. My research in this field has led to novel concepts and empirical insights across different sustainability themes, including climate adaptation and resilience, energy transition and energy poverty, public participation & citizen empowerment, and more recently housing.
RESEARCH Approach
In my academic practice, I aim to amplify voices historically excluded from decision-making and develop practical insights that integrate social justice and sustainability, while ensuring human dignity and plural ways of living. To do so, I ground my work in critical theory, and I often combine quantitative, qualitative, participatory, and creative research methods. This approach requires moving beyond universal, Western-centric paradigms of research and development, acknowledging the legitimacy of multiple pathways toward justice and sustainability.
PEDAGOGY
With a transdisciplinary and justice-centred approach, my pedagogy encourages critical reflection and engaged education. I advocate for education as an awakening and empowering experience – “education as freedom” inspired by Freirian pedagogy – rather than a process of passive knowledge transmission. My teaching invites students to grapple with real-world challenges, engage with people and communities, and question dominant narratives in spatial planning and development. To date, I have supervised more than 40 MSc students and currently contribute to the MSc Urbanism (TU Delft) and the MSc Metropolitan Analysis, Design and Engineering (TU Delft and University of Wageningen) programmes.
Positionality statement
I am a brazilian, cisgender woman. Being an academic from the homogenised “global south” working in a dutch university, I have my position shaped by both privilege and marginalisation. Coming from a middle-class background in brazil, I benefited and still benefit from social and economic privileges within my home country, where I am perceived as a white person. However, upon relocating to europe, this racial categorisation shifts, and I find myself navigating a more complex racial identity, where whiteness is defined differently, and I am no longer seen as white. To this, I add a gender dimension. I lost count of how many times I was the only (latin-american) woman in the room – from earlier on during university lectures and later in professional settings. This dual experience not only shapes my social identity but also informs my academic work and professional attitude. I am constantly negotiating the intersections of race, class, and gender, balancing the privilege from my upbringing with the challenges of being “othered” in europe.
Mentoring
If you are a student or junior researcher, please have a look at the opportunities to collaborate. If none of the open topics interest you, but you feel our interests align, do not hesitate to reach out!
Juliana Gonçalves 