Dr J.Y. (Julie) Ren

Assistant Professor of Urban Geography

Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

GPIO : Urban Geographies

Visiting address

Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Room number: C4.08

Postal address

Postbus 15629
1001 NC Amsterdam

Contact details

Social media

Profile

Dr. Julie Ren is an Assistant Professor with the Urban Geographies Group at the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development, University of Amsterdam and an Assistant Professor at the Departement Gesellschaftswissenschaften, Universität Basel as part of her SNF Starting Grant "Aspirational Urbanism and the Recodification of Defiance" from 2025-2029. The project explores the cruelty of hope and ways of recognizing aesthetic possibilities in the face of inevitability. It engages with cities like Hong Kong and Taipei, and the practice of urban theorizations at the very small scale.

Previously, she has held postdoctoral posts at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, London School of Economics, the City University of Hong Kong and the Universität Zürich, where she completed her habilitation (2023). Her research on art events and spaces has used comparative urbanism as a means to contribute to a more global urban theory. Her latest book is Engaging Comparative Urbanism: Art Spaces in Beijing and Berlin (Bristol University Press, 2021).

She is book forum editor at the journal Urban Geography.
Curriculum Vitae

Ren, J. (2024) “Specifying elsewhere and middles” in conversation with S. Teo et al (2023) “Theorizing with Urban China.” Dialogues in Human Geography. 14(3): 444-446.

Ren, J. (2024) The City after Property: a conversation on critical geographies of race and property. Urban Geography 45 (5): 895-896. Availabe online: https://www.urbangeographyjournal.org/journal/book-reviews/the-city-after-property-a-conversation-on-critical-geographies-of-race-and-property.

Dimitrakou, I., H. Hilbrandt and J. Ren (2023) Research-based collaboration: A toolkit for teaching and learning. Zurich: University of Zurich. Available from: www.zueri-urban.com/toolkit.

Dimitrakou, I. and J. Ren (2023) Boring dystopias in fictional geographies: affective atmospheres of enclosure. Lo Squaderno 66: 29-33. Available online: http://www.losquaderno.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/losquaderno66.pdf

Ren, J. (2023) “Editorial: Reviving a Platform: Book Review Forums.” Urban Geography 44(4): 567-569.

Ren, J. and R. Sancarlo (2023) “’We can’t be provincial about Venice’: An interview with Jane da Mosto.” Third Text: Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Art and Culture Online. Available online: http://www.thirdtext.org/interview-damosto.

Ren, J. (2021) “Understanding Local Impact.” In Past Present Futures of Urban Change. ACT Magazine. Berlin: MitOst e.V. Available online: https://www.actorsofurbanchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/ACT_Magazine2021_Digital_Spreads_Small.x47702.pdf

Ren, J. (2021) “The Wounds of Utter Otherness: Asian Exclusions and the Need for Solidarities.” Society and Space Magazine. Forum on Anti-Asian Violence. Available online: https://www.societyandspace.org/articles/the-wounds-of-utter-otherness-asian-exclusions-and-the-need-for-solidarities

Ren, J. (2020) “Book Review: Making Urban Theory: Learning and Unlearning Through Southern Cities by Mary Lawhon. Urban Studies 57(14): 3002-3005.

Ren, J. (2016) Segregation Research on Urban China. CityU on Cities Working Paper Series, No. 1/2016. City University of Hong Kong. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3277.4644

Ren, J. (2013) “Gentrification Disco No. 9.” In M. Eddy and F. Lazaridou-Hatzigoga (eds.) 附录 Appendix. 家作坊 HomeShop, 55-57.

Ren, J. (2008) Interview with Sir Peter Hall. SP3, Spring(4), 16-18.

Ren, J. (2008) "Youth Centres in Immigrant Neighbourhoods: A Case Study." SP3, Spring(4), 26-30.

Publications
2025

Dimitrakou, I., & Ren, J. Y. (2025). Critical geographies of everyday crisis. City. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2024.2447688

Hilbrandt, H., & Ren, J. Y. (2025). Doing urban geography in times of crisis: Introduction to the forum “Urban geography in times of crisis”. Geographica Helvetica, 80(1), 23-29. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-80-23-2025

Hilbrandt, H., & Ren, J. Y. (2025). Reworking relations of epistemological authority in teaching collaborations. City. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2024.2447684

2023

Ren, J. Y. (2023). Comparative geographies. In L. Lees, & D. Demeritt (Eds.), Concise Encyclopedia of Human Geography (pp. 69-73). Edward Elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800883499.ch14

Ren, J. Y. (2023). Exceptionalism and theorizing spatial inequality: Segregation research on cities in China. Journal of Urban Affairs, 45(7), 1225-1237. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2021.1921592

Ren, J. Y. (2023). Making a Comparative Case. In P. Le Galès, & J. Robinson (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Comparative Global Urban Studies (pp. 185-194). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429287961-15

Ren, J. Y., Dimitrakou, I., Gehriger, L., Grafe, F.-J., & Hilbrandt, H. (2023). Langweilige Dystopien in fiktiven Geographien: Eingeschlossensein in affektiven Atmosphären. sub\urban: zeitschrift für kritische stadtforschung, 11(1-2), S. 205-234. https://doi.org/10.36900/suburban.v11i1/2.737

Ren, J. Y., Matter, C., Sancarlo, R., & Marano, V. (2023). Crisis and Collectives Shaping Art Events: From Events that Matter to Events that Care. Third Text, 37(5-6), 601-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/09528822.2023.2297626

2022

Chakkalakal, S., & Ren, J. Y. (2022). Un/Doing Future, Unsettling Temporalization. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 46(5), 845-850. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13101

Hilbrandt, H., & Ren, J. Y. (2022). Refracting Eurocentrism, operationalizing complicity: The Swiss Sonderfall as a vantage point. Environment and Planning D - Society & Space, 40(4), 589-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758221107671

Ren, J. Y. (2022). A more global urban studies, besides empirical variation. Urban Studies, 59(8), 1741-1748. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980221085113

Ren, J. Y. (2022). Theme park follies: the publics of art biennials in Dakar and Taipei. Urban Geography, 43(6), 857-864 . https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2022.2049535

2021

Ren, J. Y. (2021). Obscuring representation: contemporary art biennials in Dakar and Taipei. Geographica Helvetica, 76(2), 103–113. https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-76-103-2021

2020

Forrest, R., Ren, J. Y., & Wissink, B. (2020). The City in China: New Perspectives on Contemporary Urbanism. Bristol University Press.

Ren, J. Y. (2020). Engaging Comparative Urbanism: Art Spaces in Beijing and Berlin. Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781529207057.001.0001

Ren, J. Y. (2020). Conclusion: Everyday Cities, Exceptional Cases. In R. Forrest, J. Ren, & B. Wissink (Eds.), The City in China: New Perspectives on Contemporary Urbanism (pp. 231-245). Bristol University Press.

Ren, J. Y. (2020). Postcolonial Urbanism. In R. Dilworth (Ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in Urban Studies Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780190922481-0018

2019

Fuller, M., & Ren, J. Y. (2019). The Art Opening: Proximity and Potentiality at Events. Theory, Culture & Society, 36(7-8), 135-152. https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764198346

2017

Luger, J., & Ren, J. Y. (2017). Art and the City: Worlding the Discussion through a Critical Artscape. Routledge.

Ren, J. Y. (2017). Introduction: Disruptions of a Critical Artscape. In J. Luger, & J. Ren (Eds.), Art and the City: Worlding the Discussion through a Critical Artscape (pp. 1-12). Routledge.

2016

Ren, J. Y. (2016). ‘Creative class' subversions: Art spaces in Beijing and Berlin. In J. Wang, T. Oakes, & Y. Yang (Eds.), Making Cultural Cities in Asia: Mobility, assemblage, and the politics of aspirational urbanism (pp. 177-190). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315726052

2015

Ren, J. Y. (2015). Gentrification in China? In L. Lees, H. B. Shin, & E. López-Morales (Eds.), Global gentrifications: Uneven development and displacement (pp. 329-347). Policy Press. https://doi.org/10.1332/policypress/9781447313472.003.0017

Ren, J. Y., & Luger, J. (2015). Comparative Urbanism and the ‘Asian City': Implications for Research and Theory. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(1), 145-156. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12140

2010

Ren, J. Y., & Langhout, R. D. (2010). A Recess Evaluation with the Players: Taking Steps Toward Participatory Action Research. American Journal of Community Psychology, 46(1-2), 124-138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-010-9320-2
2023

Ren, J. Y. (2023). Specifying elsewheres and middles. Dialogues in Human Geography, 14(3), 444-446. https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206231168884
Prize / grant

Ren, J. (2024). Swiss National Science Foundation Starting Grant.
2015

Ren, J. Y. (2015). Locating mobilities and possibilities: art spaces in Beijing and Berlin. [Thesis, fully external, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin]. Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. https://doi.org/10.18452/17539
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Ancillary activities
- Urban Geography
  Book Reviews Editor
- Urban Geography
  Book Reviews Editor

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Dr J.Y. (Julie) Ren

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