Ksenia Chmutina

Ksenia Chmutina is a senior lecturer in sustainable and resilience urbanism and director of equality, diversity, and inclusion for the School of Architecture, Building, and Civil Engineering at Loughborough University. Chmutina’s research focuses on the processes of urban disaster risk creation and the systemic implications of sustainability and resilience in the context of neoliberalism. Her research interests also include narratives and framings of disasters, intersectionality and vulnerability, and interlinkages between critical urban studies and disaster studies. Chmutina's research mainly comprises location-based case studies and systemic policy analysis; it brings together qualitative research and participatory methodologies to generate a transdisciplinary understanding of disasters as socio-political processes. She uses her work to draw attention to the fact that disasters are not natural. Chmutina has conducted research in the United Kingdom, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, China, the Caribbean, and across Europe, working with policymakers, industry, and marginalised communities. She is a co-author of the textbook Disaster Risk Reduction for the Built Environment (Wiley, 2017) and a Joint Coordinator of the CIB W120 Disasters and the Built Environment. A core part of Chmutina’s activities is science communication: she is a co-host of a popular podcast Disasters: Deconstructed and writes for non-academic outlets.