South African urban planning scholar Vanessa Watson is visiting UB this week to host conversations with the university and surrounding community on the intersection of rapid urbanization in Africa with issues of equity and conflict around food security and global health.

Watson, professor of urban planning at Cape Town University in South Africa, will present a free  public lecture on Nov. 7 on the disconnect between rapidly urbanizing and largely poor African cities and Dubai-like proposals for their development. Watson’s talk, “African Urban Fantasies: Dreams or Nightmares?” will take place at 6 p.m. in 403 Hayes Hall, South Campus.

Watson comes to UB as the Will and Nan Clarkson Visiting Chair in Planning, an endowed position awarded semiannually at the School of Architecture and Planning to spur public debate and knowledge exchange on pressing issues in the profession.

Her visit to UB is also co-sponsored by the Community for Global Health Equity and the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab at the School of Architecture and Planning.

Watson’s research and publications focus on southern perspectives on planning theory, African cities and urbanization, urban food security, and currently on planning and corruption in Africa. More recently, she has followed the new economic forces re-shaping African cities, in particular the private-sector driven property development initiatives.

In addition to her public lecture Watson will take part in a panel conversation on post-colonial planning institutions in Africa with UB urban planning professor Emmanuel Frimpong Boamah; participate in a workshop with community members to discuss the relationship of local food system dynamics in Buffalo and African cities to the global food system; and meet with students and faculty in urban planning, environmental design and related disciplines.