Taibat Olaitan Lawanson of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Environmental Science will deliver the 21st Inaugural Lecture of the 2021/2022 Academic Session of the University of Lagos UNILAG) on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at 4:00 pm in the J.F. Ade. Ajayi Auditorium.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Folasade Ogunsola, will preside over the lecture, which is titled: “Alternative Urbanisms: Beyond Utopian Visions of the ‘Emerging’ African City”.
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Professor Taibat Olaitan Lawanson was born on August 21, 1976 in Lagos, Nigeria, to the family of retired Major Kehinde Danmole of Ita Agarawu, Lagos Island and Mrs. Roseline Danmole of the Erewa Megisson Family of Warri.
She attended Command Children School, Ans Barracks Yaba, Lagos (1979 – 1986) for her primary education, and Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Bakori, Katsina State (1986 – 1992) for her secondary education.
Between 1993 and 1998, she attended the Federal University of Technology,
Akure, graduating with a Bachelor of Technology Degree in Urban and Regional Planning (Second Class
Honours, Upper Division).
After the mandatory National Youth Service year, she moved to the University of Lagos where she obtained a Master of Science Degree with Distinction in Geography (Human Settlement Studies) in 2002; and a Postgraduate Diploma in Education Administration and Planning in 2004. She earned a Doctorate
Degree (PhD) in Urban and Regional Planning from the Federal University of Technology Akure in 2011.
Professor Lawanson joined the services of the University of Lagos in April 2002 as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
She was promoted to Lecturer II in 2004, Lecturer I in 2008, Senior Lecturer in 2011, Associate Professor in 2015 and Professor of Urban Management and
Governance in October 2019.
She has taught courses, supervised and led research in the areas of urban planning, sustainable livelihoods and environmental justice. She has supervised over one hundred (100) Bachelor’s Degree projects, thirty-four (34) Masters Dissertations and two (2) Doctoral Theses.
She is currently supervising seven doctoral researchers. Under the DAAD SDG graduate schools programme, she led the process of developing the following multidisciplinary postgraduate programmes at the University: Masters in Urban Management and a Ph.D. in Sustainable Urbanisation.
Professor Lawanson has served the university in various capacities including Acting Head of, the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (2013 – 2015); Chair, the Faculty of Environmental Sciences Research and Publications Committee (2017 – 2021); Chair, Faculty of Environmental Sciences Research Committee (2023 till date); Co-Director of the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development where she also leads the Pro-Poor Development Research Cluster (2018 till date) and Associate Researcher, Institute of
African and Diaspora Studies (IADS), UNILAG.
A member of the UNILAG Journal of Humanities Editorial Board (2012– 2017 and 2019 till date), Ethics Committee (2022 to date) and Central Research Committee (2023 till date), the internationally acclaimed Professor of Urban Management was a member of the UNILAG Counselling Centre
Management Committee from 2009 to 2016 and Ceremonies Committee from 2014 to 2016.
Beyond the University, Professor Lawanson has served as External Examiner at several tertiary
institutions within and outside Nigeria including Yaba College of Technology, Covenant University, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Obafemi Awolowo University, Federal Universities of Technology, Minna and Akure, University of Ghana, Nelson Mandela University, Universities of South Africa, Witwatersrand,
Kwazulu-Natal and the Free State as well as Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
She was a Visiting Professor at the Habitat Unit, Technical University Berlin Germany in 2017.
A well-travelled recipient of many grants including the Best Researcher Award for the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the UNILAG Research Conference and Fair six times between 2006 and 2012,
Professor Lawanson has visited forty-nine (49) cities in twenty-three (23) countries in the course of her
career so far.
Her research focuses on the interface of social complexities, urban realities and the pursuit of spatial justice in Africa.
She is a firm believer in the African Renaissance and thus adopts a decolonial approach to her work.
She has led and participated in many studies, and collaborated with colleagues from one hundred and
twenty-four (124) universities and research organisations, as well as received research funding for over
thirty (30) projects from the UNILAG Central Research committee, Lagos African Cluster Centre, Heinrich Boell Stiftung, British Academy, Norwegian Research Council, DFID now FCDO, USAID, GCRF as well as DAAD, African Multiple Cluster of Excellence, Global Land Alliance, Missereor, World Bank, GIZ, Cambridge Alborada Fund, NIHR and the Global Resilient Cities Network, to mention a few.
Professor Lawanson has contributed to the following urban development policy documents and plans as an invited expert or project lead: Lagos Island North Action Plan, Ajegunle Ikorodu Resilience Action Plan, Ikorodu Sub-Regional Master Plan, Niger State Urban Support programme, Lagos Resilience Strategy,
and the Lagos Energy Resilience Assessment, as well as UNHABITAT’s Review of the Implementation of
the New Urban Agenda in Africa.
She has co-edited nine (9) books and co-authored seventy-nine (79) peer-reviewed articles, as well as over forty (40) working papers, short articles and documentaries. She has convened eleven (11) international urban planning and policy fora and presented papers (including nine Keynote Addresses)
at one hundred and twelve (112) local and international conferences and workshops.
She has received over six hundred and twenty (620) citations for her work with index of fourteen (14).
Professor Lawanson is a registered Town Planner, Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners, pioneer World Social Science Fellow of the International (Social) Science Council and an alumna of the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Academic Residency.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Lagos Studies Association, as well as the editorial advisory committees of leading urban
studies journals including Urban Forum, Urban Studies, Housing Studies, International Journal of Urban
and Regional Research and Area Development and Policy.
The former Vice President of the African
Planners Institute (2021 – 2022) is also a member of the International Society for City and Regional Planners as well as the steering committee of Future Earth Urban Knowledge Action Network and International advisory committee of UNHABITAT’s flagship report – State of the World’s Cities.
Professor Taibat Olaitan Lawanson is married to Mr. Ladi Lawanson and blessed with two children.
