Dr Rita Padawangi

Trustee tenure: 2021-Present

Centre for University Core
Singapore University of Social Sciences
463 Clementi Road
Singapore 599494

ritapadawangi@suss.edu.sg | Profile at the Singapore University of Social Sciences

Rita PadawangiRita Padawangi is Associate Professor of Sociology at Centre for University Core, Singapore University of Social Sciences. With academic trainings in sociology, urban design and architecture, Rita’s research interests span across the sociology of architecture, social movements and participatory urban development. She coordinates the Southeast Asia Neighbourhoods Network (SEANNET), a collaborative project on urban life in cities that connect academic institutions, scholars and communities for research and education.

Rita’s recent works focus on the humanistic aspects of city-making, particularly place-making in city neighborhoods, through collaborative approaches in research, teaching, and community engagement. Her recent research projects include themes of vernacular heritage, urban disasters, and urban aspirations. Rita serves as an editorial board member of the Asian Cities book series with the Amsterdam University Press and journals Asia Pacific Viewpoint and Area Development and Policy. She is the editor of the Routledge Handbook of Urbanization in Southeast Asia (2019) and co-editor of Cities by and for the People in Asia (Amsterdam University Press, 2019). Her paper, “Water, Water Everywhere: Toward Participatory Solutions to Chronic Urban Flooding in Jakarta” (2015, co-authored with Mike Douglass) received the Pacific Affairs Journal’s Holland Outstanding Paper Award of the year. She is currently working on a Cambridge Element manuscript Urban Development in Southeast Asia, with Cambridge University Press (2022) and is co-editing two books, River Cities: Water Space in Urban Development and History (with Paul Rabé and Adrian Perkasa) and The Resilience of Vernacular Heritage in Asian Cities (with Michael Herzfeld).