Keynote Speakers
Agnieszka Leszczynski
(University of Western Ontario)
Agnieszka is a human geographer interested in the intensifying relationships between digital technologies and cities, situating her scholarship within the intradisciplinary field of ‘digital geographies’. She currently have three active research projects that examine different dimensions of these technology-city relationships, all funded by SSHRC:
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1) A four-year project (2022-26) investigating the visual aesthetics of urban platformization. This research examines how these aesthetics inform and are informed by projects of world-class city making, via which cities aspire to position themselves at the ‘top’ of global status hierarchies. This project is comparative in its approach, focussing on cities in Canada, Poland, and South Africa.
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2) A second project, on which she is co-investigator, examines how small Canadian cities function as sites of digital experimentation for a number of technology-based initiatives that may, or may not, scale to larger Canadian metro regions.
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3) Currently in its concluding phases, her third project examines where material traces of urban platforms are visually encountered in cities, and investigates the relationship of the locations of platforms and
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Paul Langley
(Durham University)
Paul Langley is Professor of Economic Geography. He joined the Department in 2011, and was previously Professor of International Relations at University of York. Paul's Departmental roles have included Deputy Director of Education, Programme Director BA(Hons) Geography, and Convenor of the Economy & Culture research cluster. He is presently Deputy Director for Research Postgraduates.
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Paul's research interests centre on money and finance. He is the author of three monographs - World Financial Orders (Routledge, 2002/2013), The Everyday Life of Global Finance (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Liquidity Lost (Oxford University Press, 2015). His research has received support from the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), British Academy, and European Commission.
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Paul is also Managing Editor of a leading interdisciplinary journal for social scientists - Economy and Society.
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