Dalia Milián Bernal

In the current political context, the first thing I would like to say about myself is that I believe climate change is real, that we are in the midst of multiple environmental and social crises, and that all of these crises —societal, environmental and climatic—are the result of our careless relationship with the planet and with each other. Addressing these challenges mobilises my work, my thinking, my dreams, my life. I am convinced that there is still a place in academia - in research and teaching - to address these issues. 

Research

My research interests include grassroots, radical, and insurgent spatial and planning practices, urban activism, and spatial justice; more recently I have become increasingly interested in home and home-city geographies and the way individuals arrange their living environments. Ontologically and epistemologically, I position myself within feminist and decolonial perspectives and I mobilise (and advocate for) critical, creative, and narrative methodological approaches. 

In August 2023, I started my role as project manager (work package 2) and researcher of the project T-winning Spaces 2035 funded by the Academy of Finland. The aim of our work package is to investigate the social and spatial implications for working futures and to propose and design novel spatial and land-use concepts focusing on work conducted predominantly at and from home and adjacent living environments. Our approach aslo aims to recognise and respond to multiple social, environmental, and climatic crises and challenges that disable working futures for a diversity of people.

Since September 2017, I have been working on my doctoral research which lies at the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and critical urban studies. My research critically investigates appropriations of abandoned urban spaces in different Latin American cities. 

Teaching

I have over 10 years teaching experience, both in Mexico and Finalnd. My teaching vocation began in 2012 in Mexico, where I became part of the teaching corps of the School of Architecture at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro. I have developed the curricula and taught about eight courses since. Currently, I teach the courses of Sustainable Architecture with Sofie Pelsmakers and Urban Planning and Design Theory II with Panu Lehtovuori at Tampere University. I have also supervised two master’s thesis, both of which deal with neoliberal planning, tactical and insurgent practices, and new roles for architects in the climate emergency. I believe that the purpose of teaching and learning today should be to make determined efforts to reveal and address the major societal challenges of our historical moment: the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, social and environmental inequities and injustices, and brittle democracies. However, these immense and overwhelming challenges cannot be dealt with individually nor in the abstract, within disciplinary silos, inside the comfort of the classroom, ignoring other people’s experiences, and without engaging with communities beyond our academic boundaries. Therefore, I strongly advocate engaged, situated, and activist scholarship.

Recently, I co-edit the book REPOSITORY: 49 Methods and Assignments for Writing Urban Places. The book gathered a set of methods and assignments from diverse fields of knowledge to engage with the material and immaterial dimensions of urban places via narratives. 

I received the Tampere University 2021 Honourable Mention for Good Teaching and Teaching Development for the Sustainable Architecture course with Sofie Pelsmakers.

Architecture

My doctoral research is partially funded by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (the National Council of Science and Technology - CONACYT) and the School of Architecture at Tampere University.