Event Update

Our programme had now officially changed name into Sustainable Urban Planning. Check out other updates on RTPI accreditation from our brochure:

The first time joining this gigantic conference with other 800 participants, I am very honours that our paper entitled "Monetising Transience from the Periphery": Information Asymmetry and Rent Extraction in a Financialised Student City" under #Track 12 Shelter won the Best Congress Paper Award!

My second Glasgow Science Festival with the Global City Challenge - this year with GeoAI expert Meiliu Wu from University of Glasgow. 11 families of 9 rounds interactive activities, we thank Dr Phillip Cowie and team for organising the GSF 2026 @ UWS Lanark.

From 16-19 June, I participated the Regional Studies Association Annual Conference at Gothenburg, Sweden, our team presented the paper titled "Are International Students Struggling More? Comparing Housing Challenges of British and International Students in Glasgow, UK". I also take this great opportunities to reconnect with friends, colleagues and mentors from across the world.

🚨 New publication from my PhD research 🚨 I’m pleased to share my third journal article derived from my doctoral work: “Still never a local without a local hukou”: hukou stickiness and rural–urban migrants’ lived experiences of reform in China’s Pearl River Delta Link to the published article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2026.2655116 This paper advances the concept of “hukou stickiness” to explain why, despite decades of reform, hukou status contin

On 10 April, It was a pleasure to host Dr Meiliu Wu and members of Geospatial Intelligence for Future Technology and Sustainability Lab from University of Glasgow during their visit to Paisley last Friday, bringing together colleagues from Renfrewshire’s Heritage and Tourism team @Andrew McKean alongside our AI expertise at University of the West of Scotland Fahad Ayaz, PhD . Our discussion offered a valuable opportunity to explore how emerging technologies - particula

On 2nd of April, I visited the newly regenerated campus of University of Torin, generously received by Research Fellow Dr Luca Battisti and Dr Federico Cuomo.

Last Saturday we hosted a screening of Nostalgia followed by a short discussion on post-industrial transformation and collective memory. This is the first time for the award-winning independent documentary to come to Scotland for a public screening. The event was supported by the Urban Studies Foundation with partners at University of the Strachclyde. We are grateful for Dr JIazhi Fengjiang , Lecturer in Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, and Dr Yu Sun, Lecturer in

To sign up, please visit: https://cuhk.zoom.us/meeting/register/ykgmPVjHTfeKm1_A9UY8GA .

Our Town Planning team was nominated Work Placement Learning/Graduate Team of the Year at the University of the West of Scotland!

*** Call for Paper*** RGS 2026 Annual Conference Date: Tuesday 1 to Friday 4 September 2026 https://www.rgs.org/research/annual-international-conference Location: RGS and Imperial College London Submitting Your Abstract to joseph.zhao@uws.ac.uk by 5 March 2026 9:00 GMT Living with Urban Inequality: Ageing, Well-being, and Mobility Co-Convenors: Dr Joseph Hongsheng Zhao (University of the West of Scotland) Dr Sophie Yarker (University of Salford) The panel is seeking sponsors

On 9th December IST 14:00-17:00, our research network of 'mapping opportunities in post-industrial cities' had held a vibrant event at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and online. Thank you Dr Aviral Marwal, Assistant Professor from IITR and Co-PI and your team in making this great event to happen!

Experiential learning is a vital component of planning education. Over the past term, I have designed, led and participated the following field trips for our Scottish Level 7 (Year 1) and Level 9 (Year 3) undergraduate students, as part of our Work-Based Learning BSc (Honours) in Town Planning programme. 2 Paisley Local Fieldtrips 3 Fieldtrips at Glasgow City Centre 1 Fieldtrip at Glasgow Southside 1 Fieldtrip at Glasgow Hamiltonhill On 25 September I took part in this fieldt

Our first seminar in Hybrid mode: online via zoom and in-person at Hive (Block A-100), Paisley Campus at University of the West of Scotland

Our panel 'Creative Methods and Fieldwork in Urban Geography' at University of Birmingham's Royal Geographical Society 2025 Annual...

Thrilled to share some fantastic news! 🎉 Our team has been awarded the prestigious Urban Studies Foundation Research Seminar Series...

The MISTRAL team visited one of the case study site Rybnik's mining district and was warmly welcomed by the local colleagues including...

A great pleasure to present our paper published on IJQM and chair two sessions on Demography, Labour and Migration. Serendipitous to meet...

Thank you Dr Jakub Csabay , my friend and colleague from University of Cambridge , for inviting and hosting my guest lecture at ...