Anna Nikolaeva is Assistant Professor in Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam.

In her research, writing, teaching and public speaking she engages with a variety of themes in urban planning and human geography, and her current priorities are:

1. Inclusive mobilities and the politics of knowledge in planning.

2. Gendered mobilities.

3. Intersections between low-carbon and just transitions.

4. The role of mobility as social infrastructure of the city.

5. Commoning mobility.

In 2014 she defended the PhD thesis on Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as a multifunctional public space. Before joining UvA she conducted research and taught at Utrecht University, Royal Holloway, University of London and VU University Amsterdam, and was a visiting scholar at City University of New York. At Royal Holloway she worked in the global comparative project on futures of mobility Living in the Mobility Transitions. As a result of this unique project, together with fellow researchers she wrote the book Moving Towards Transition. Commoning Mobility for Low Carbon Future  (2021).

She teaches in Bachelor Social Geography and Planning, master programmes Urban and Regional Planning and Human Georgaphy and supervises bachelor, master and research master theses. 

PhD supervision:

Ran Zhang (ongoing)

Lindsay Broadwell (ongoing)

Matthew Bruno (completed, 2022)

Arnoud van Waes (completed, 2021)

Samuel Nello-Deakin (completed, 2021)

Member of Urban Cycling Institute and Centre for Urban Studies

Organiser of the Cities & Mobilities Seminar series 

Key papers (for the full list see the tab Publications):

Nikolaeva, A., & Nello-Deakin, S. (2019). Exploring velotopian urban imaginaries: Where Le Corbusier meets Constant? Mobilities, 0(0), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2019.1694300

Nikolaeva, A., te Brömmelstroet, M., Raven, R., & Ranson, J. (2019). Smart cycling futures: Charting a new terrain and moving towards a research agenda. Journal of Transport Geography, 79, 102486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102486

Nikolaeva, A., Adey, P., Cresswell, T., Lee, J. Y., Nóvoa, A., & Temenos, C. (2019). Commoning mobility: Towards a new politics of mobility transitions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12287

Nikolaeva, A. (2012) Designing Public Space for Mobility: Contestation, Negotiation and Experiment at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie/Journal of Economic & Social Geography, 103(5), pp. 542-554. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2012.00740.x

Waes, A. van, Nikolaeva, A., & Raven, R. (2021). Challenges and dilemmas in strategic urban experimentation An analysis of four cycling innovation living labs. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 172, 121004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121004

Brömmelstroet, M. T., Nikolaeva, A., Cadima, C., Verlinghieri, E., Ferreira, A., Mladenović, M., Milakis, D., Silva, J. de A. e, & Papa, E. (2021). Have a Good Trip! Expanding Our Concepts of the Quality of Everyday Travelling with Flow Theory. Applied Mobilities, 0(0), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2021.1912947

te Brömmelstroet, M., Nikolaeva, A., Nello-Deakin, S., van Waes, A., Farla, J., Popkema, M., van Wesemael, P., Liu, G., Raven, R., de Vor, F., & Bruno, M. (2020). Researching cycling innovations: The contested nature of understanding and shaping smart cycling futures. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 8, 100247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2020.100247

Nikolaeva, A., te Brömmelstroet, M., Raven R. (2021) Smart cycling: meaning, experience and governance. In Zuev, D., Psarikidou K., & Popan C. Cycling Societies: Emerging Innovations, Inequalities and Governance (pp. 38-57). Routledge.

Bruno, M., & Nikolaeva, A. (2020). Towards a maintenance-based approach to mode shift: Comparing two cases of Dutch cycling policy using social practice theory. Journal of Transport Geography, 86, 102772. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2020.102772

Nello-Deakin, S., & Nikolaeva, A. (2020). The human infrastructure of a cycling city: Amsterdam through the eyes of international newcomers. Urban Geography, 0(0), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2019.1709757

Nikolaeva, A., & Nello-Deakin, S. (2019). Exploring velotopian urban imaginaries: Where Le Corbusier meets Constant? Mobilities, 0(0), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2019.1694300

Nikolaeva, A., te Brömmelstroet, M., Raven, R., & Ranson, J. (2019). Smart cycling futures: Charting a new terrain and moving towards a research agenda. Journal of Transport Geography, 79, 102486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.102486

Nikolaeva, A., Adey, P., Cresswell, T., Lee, J. Y., Nóvoa, A., & Temenos, C. (2019). Commoning mobility: Towards a new politics of mobility transitions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12287

Nikolaeva, A. (2018). Rebordering Europe from the Margins Since the 1970s: A History of a Layered Arrival Infrastructure for the Mobile Poor in Amsterdam. Meeus, B., Arnaut K. & B. van Heur (Eds.) In Arrival Infrastructures: Migration and Urban Social Mobilities. Palgrave Macmillan.

Nikolaeva A., Adey, P., Cresswell, T., Lee J., Novoa, A. and C. Temenos (2018). A new politics of mobility: Commoning movement, meaning and practice in Amsterdam and Santiago. Centre for Urban Studies Working Paper Series. http://urbanstudies.uva.nl/content/working-paper-series/working-paper-series-no.26.html

te Brömmelstroet, M. C. G., Nikolaeva, A., Chan, C., Glaser, M. A., & Nicolaisen, M. (2017). Traveling together alone and alone together: Mobility and potential exposure to diversity. Applied Mobilities 2(1), 113-129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23800127.2017.1283122

Temenos, C., Nikolaeva, A., Schwanen, T., Cresswell, T., Sengers, F., Watson, M., & Sheller, M. (2017).  Theorizing Mobility Transitions: An Interdisciplinary Conversation, Transfers, 7(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/TRANS.2017.070109

Nikolaeva, A. (2017) “Spoiled”, “Bored”, “Irritated” and “Nervous”: The Transformations of a Mobile Subject in Airport Design Discourse. In Spinney, J., Reimer S. & P. Pinch (eds.), Mobilising Design. Routledge.

Bosma, K. & A. Nikolaeva (2013). ‘The Airport: Prototype of the Global City?’ in K. Bosma (ed.), Megastructure Schiphol: Design in Spectacular Simplicity (pp. 198-217). Rotterdam: nai010 publishers.

Bosma, K. & A. Nikolaeva (2013). ‘Farewell to Spectacular Simplicity?, in K. Bosma (ed.), Megastructure Schiphol: Design in Spectacular Simplicity (pp. 298-306). Rotterdam: nai010 publishers. 

Nikolaeva, A. (2012) Designing Public Space for Mobility: Contestation, Negotiation and Experiment at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie/Journal of Economic & Social Geography, 103(5), pp. 542-554. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9663.2012.00740.x