Dr Nadia Bertolino

Nadia is an Assistant Professor in Architecture, Department Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Chair of the Athena SWAN Department Self-Assessment Team and Architectural Theory thematic strand lead for the UG and PG Architecture programmes. Since 2016, she is Expert Peer Reviewer for several research funding schemes for the Italian Ministry of University and Research.  

She is an architectural theorist, researcher and educator concerned with ethical practices in response to socio-spatial inequalities and environmental emergency. Her approach to "space" as an ever changing, often unbalanced system of social changes, political negotiations and architectural propositions is positioned at the cross-boundary between architecture and the social sciences.

She is currently PI of several research projects, including "Designing spaces for the social infrastructure” (2023), "Mapping Practices Of Social Inclusion And Environmental Care In Self-organised Communities" (2023), "Race and Space" (2022-2023) and she is Co-I of "HER-cities. Designing Gender Inclusive Cities that Work for All"(2022). Nadia is team member of the research project “CREAfab: Metodologías para una Reindustrialización Creativa de los Centros Históricos", led by the University of Seville and funded by the Housing Department of the Junta de Andalucia (2023-26).

Nadia first joined Northumbria University in 2016 as Senior Research Fellow, working on the project “Place and belonging” funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Prior to that, she held positions at the University of Sheffield, where she was Director of the Master in Architectural Design, University of Pavia and Polytechnic of Milan.

Nadia has a PhD in Architectural Composition from the University of Pavia, Italy. She has been guest lecturer and studio reviewer at a number of international schools and addressed keynote talks at different institutions.

Nadia’s writings are published in journals including: New Geography (Harvard University Press), Space and Culture (SAGE), Methodological innovation (SAGE), Parol: Quaderni d'Arte ed Epistemologia, The Public Sector (TU Wien Press), The Journal of Peer Production. With Sandra Costa Santos, she authored Home and Community (Routledge, 2018). In 2022, she published her new monograph Architettura e Rivoluzione (Maggioli, 2022). 

At Northumbria, Nadia leads the Undergraduate module ‘Theory of Architecture 2’, introducing students to radical theories in the contemporary architectural debate, and the Postgraduate module ‘Architectural Research Methods’, fostering students' ability to design and develop research and to critically draw connections across different fields of knowledge. She also teaches studio-based modules and supervises postgraduate students’ dissertations.

Nadia supervises doctoral students investigating the link between the collective process of production of the architectural space and the social and political values established by the community inhabiting it. 

In delivering teaching and supporting learning, Nadia is committed to educational practices that are inclusive, progressive and socially and environmentally just; consistently with this personal trajectory, she has more recently engaged with feminist pedagogies and issues around decolonising architectural education.