Dr Michael Short

Associate Professor (Teaching) in City Planning

Dr Michael Short has been at the Bartlett since September 2015 having previously worked as a planner-conservation officer across a range of public and private organisations. He read for his PhD at the University of Manchester looking at the impact of skyscraper proposals on the character of place, co-funded by the ESRC and English Heritage from 2003 to 2007. He is a full member of both the Royal Town Planning Institute (MRTPI) and Institute of Historic Building Conservation (IHBC), and an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism.

More about me

Michael has been a member of UCL's Academic Board since 2016, and is a UK representative (substitute, from June 2020) to the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP). He joined UCL's LGBTQ+ Equality Steering Group (LESG) in November 2020. He then joined UCL's LGBTQ+ Equality Implementation Group (LEIG) in June 2022; LEIG is tasked with developing a strong programme of action that will help create an inclusive and welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ staff and students, as well as alumni and visitors, at UCL. He has been elected as non-professorial member to UCL’s Academic Committee in 2022. He also currently chairs the School's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group.

He undertakes practice-based projects, teaching, and research in three main areas: firstly, he is interested in how design issues are negotiated through the planning process and how they are implemented on site; secondly, he is interested in the conservation and protection of buildings and areas of the recent past; and thirdly, he is interested in the debates about increased building height and density in historic environments. Furthermore, he is interested in queer pedagogies and the experiences of LGBTQ+ staff and students in higher education.

Research Focus and Interests - historic, queer pedagogy, design quality.