UTA-Do African Cities Summer School 2026 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!


The 2026 summer school (9-13 February 2026) marks a new partnership between UTA-Do and Wagon2Africa, focusing on African cities with a dedicated track on the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus. This initiative addresses the significant challenges faced by urban scholars in Africa, who grapple with heavy teaching loads, exorbitant journal paywalls, inconsistent salaries, and scarce research funding. These constraints often limit their ability to contribute effectively to global urban discourse. Despite this, African urban scholars are leading ground-breaking research: UTA-Do is an opportunity to join forces and plant seeds for future collaborations. 


Why a Dedicated Focus? There's an urgent need to cultivate an interdisciplinary dialogue among African scholars and urbanists. This dialogue aims to challenge existing knowledge and funding imbalances, amplify perspectives from the continent, and foster collaborative contributions with global partners. UTA-Do believes that the "think-feel" of "doing" urban studies – actions, practices, and performances – are crucial. The summer school incorporates emergent humanities thinking, including intersectional politics and sensory engagement with cities through immersive musical experiences and ethical field trips. These complement conventional urban theory discussions on topics like the future of urban infrastructure, urban financialization, climate emergencies, and urban politics and governance.


In preparation for the 2026 workshop, the Urban Centre in Addis Ababa, a social enterprise dedicated to fostering debates on planning and architectural practice in the city, will serve as a key partner and host. The Addis Ababa summer school will convene academics and non-academics, including architects, planners, activists, artists, and city officials. This gathering will leverage their critical expertise in the Water-Energy-Food Nexus to co-produce a more inclusive community of knowledge creation, focusing on African cities, infrastructure, and architecture. Furthermore, the summer school will strengthen the burgeoning network of urban academics, activists, policymakers, and artists engaged with African urban spaces. This network is poised to challenge uneven power dynamics within urban environments and the institutions that theorize them.


The summer school will also feature dedicated skills-building tracks for both academics and urban practitioners. One track, tailored for academics, will focus on paper writing and academic career development. The other, for urban practitioners, will emphasize project management, communications, and other horizontal skills essential for working as urban experts.


Partnerships:

2026 Program Highlights:

Participation and Scholarships:


The workshop is free and primarily for emerging scholars, activists, and artists interested in urban theory and practice. We plan to accept 10 local Ethiopian participants, 10-15 participants from other African countries, and 5 international participants working on African cities.


Wagon2Africa offers 10 full scholarships specifically for participants based in and traveling from: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Madagascar, Mauritius, Burundi, Rwanda, and Sudan. Additional information is required for scholarship consideration.


For the Urban Studies writing track, an extended abstract of your proposed paper is required, with an expectation to submit the paper to the journal within six months of the summer school's completion.


Selection criteria