about Our research
Urban heat raises a host of health problems. Heatwaves, exacerbated by urban heat islands, are torrid manifestations of how high temperatures disrupt city life, bringing issues of climate injustice into stark relief. Yet extreme temperatures are only one aspect of the ever-evolving relationship between urban heat and health, one that has some positive features, such as summer festivals or swimming outdoors.
Melting Metropolis brings together a team of scholars, a community engagement manager, and a research artist to understand better the past and present of urban heat and health. With a focus on sensory, community, and cultural experiences in postwar London, New York, and Paris, we investigate how city dwellers have experienced heat and sought to mitigate its impact on their health and well-being. We aim to move beyond the widespread focus on “climate resilience” to uncover the multiple responses to urban heat and health during an era of climate breakdown.
We have four main research aims:
To develop and deepen understandings of changing experiences of urban heat through engagement with affected communities and historical sources.
To explore, within climate justice and transnational frameworks, how Londoners, New Yorkers, and Parisians have responded to formal (i.e., public health, municipal) policies and practices related to heat and health.
To investigate how Londoners, New Yorkers, and Parisians have embraced heat and sought to protect themselves from it.
To consider how a historical perspective on heat can inform current or planned interventions into improving urban health that go beyond “resilience.”
Melting Metropolis is funded by a Wellcome Discovery Award and runs from 2023 to 2029. We are based at the University of Liverpool and Queens College, City University of New York.
Our project partners are the Living Centre in Somers Town, London, and Queens Memory Project, New York. We are also collaborating with Urban Archive.