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

Her primary focus is relationship between cities and mobilities.

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.

In her current research within Smart Cycling Futures project she focuses primarily on

(1) How smart cycling changes the meaning, the experience and governance of cycling in cities.

This research is primarily based on textual analysis, two papers were published in 2019.

(2) Impact of smart technology in collecting data on cycling for cycling planning, policy and advocacy. 

This research is based on 80 interviews with policy-makers, innovators and activists in four European cities and is in the write-up phase.

Finally, she conducts research on living labs and experiments as methods of governing transitions through participating in ongoing living labs in Amsterdam and Utrecht.

Member of Urban Cycling Institute and Centre for Urban Studies

Organiser of the Cities & Mobilities Seminar series 

Recent papers:

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

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.

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