RGU Academic wins international recognition for research

Dr Quazi Zaman has been awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design (HKIUD), for his outstanding contribution to the global and interdisciplinary Border Urbanism Research Centre (BURC) which includes 28 researchers from 28 countries.

Border Urbanism Research Centre (BURC) held its inaugural conference in Aberdeen in 2018, and now comes together every October to discuss the globalizing world and the resulting challenges for global boundaries, borders, displacement, fragility of lives and shelters. Since then, BURC has joined e-DAU (Global Design, Architecture & Urbanism) in Brazil and is partnering with HKIUD in Hong Kong to take BIRC to a higher level and to identify a new line of knowledge on borders.

Dr Quazi’s research, summarized in the opening chapter of a book called Border Urbanism published by Springer, explores the impact of geopolitical relationships, socioeconomic transactions and disaster induced migration caused by war and natural disasters such as earthquakes and its impact on people’s lives.

Reflecting on the award, Dr Quazi Zaman, a lecturer at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment and Chair of the Borders Global Research Group said: “Winning a Certificate of Excellence for the Border Urbanism initiative is a collective recognition for the university as well as the global collaborations on the emerging issues of border as a political debate in urban design and architecture. In a globalizing world, challenged by displacement, migration, spatial and social disorder including a fragility of shelters and disruptive societies, it is vital that intellectual communities connect to deal with these global problems.

“The subject of border urbanism reminds us of the current condition of war and aggression across the world and the knock-on effects that this has on populations that causes them to be displaced and to be forced to migrate, often against their will. 

“The Border Urbanism book opens up the opportunities to connect various urban issues with border and its dire consequences to social life, habitat and urbanity. The worldwide concern is now on inter-regional and global tensions centred on divisions and borders. The experience is not a positive. It is therefore important that we develop a greater understanding about the impact of conflicts and aggression, which are often created by borders, to understand the impact on civilisations across the world.”

Professor Nick Fyfe, Vice Principal for Research and Community Engagement, said: “I am delighted that Dr Zaman has received international recognition for his outstanding research on border urbanism and that he is collaborating with researchers from across the world as part of an international research study to address local and global challenges.  RGU is committed to growing the quality and impact of the university’s globally recognised, innovative, and interdisciplinary research That’s why we are making a significant investment in growing our research capacity, supporting impact, and facilitating new interdisciplinary projects.”