Loretta Lees

Loretta Lees is a university professor, urbanist, author, and scholar-activist. She is the Director of the Initiative on Cities and professor of sociology at Boston University. Prior to moving to Boston, she was Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leicester in the UK and served as Chair of the London Housing Panel working with the Mayor of London and Trust for London. Since 2009, she has co-organized The Urban Salon, a London forum and seminar series for architecture, cities, and international urbanism, which examines urban experiences using an international and comparative frame. Lees’ scholarship focuses on gentrification, urban regeneration, global urbanism, urban policy, urban public space, architecture, and urban social theory. She was identified as the only woman in the top 20 most referenced authors in urban geography worldwide and the top author on gentrification globally. She was awarded the 2022 Marilyn J. Gittell Activist Scholar Award from the Urban Affairs Association. Other accolades of Lees include her election as a fellow of Academia Europaea (MAE) in 2022, and Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) in 2013. She has published 16 books and over 100 journal articles and book chapters. Her research has been featured extensively in documentaries, newspapers, and in podcasts.

She received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and a BA (Hons) in Geography from Queen's University of Belfast. Lees was born in Manchester, England, to a Northern Irish mother and Mancunian father. The Lees side of her family originated in Salford; her first cousin Mike Holden held the British heavyweight boxing title in 2000. She currently resides in both Boston and London.