On Friday, 22 May 2026, Sandra Jasper (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) give a NICA Masterclass on “Wastelands and Urban Ecologies” as part of the ASCA Cities Seminar series. Urban wastelands are spaces of scientific discovery and collective memory. Ruins, deindustrialized zones, former railway yards or military sites, and other seemingly abandoned spaces have produced a profusion of plants and animals, and have afforded a place for other-than-human life in the conception of urban spaces’ inhabitation. This masterclass places a particular focus on spontaneous ecologies and their relation to marginal urban spaces.  We will discuss a range of cultural and scientific responses to wastelands that reveal new insights on their re-valorization as biodiversity hotspots and public space. We will interrogate the efficacy of current nature conservation policies and other legal tools to counter the loss of marginal spaces of nature in the context of speculative development. In light of this, we will also query ideas around the malleability of urban nature reflected in recent efforts to adapt cities to climate change, increase public health, compensate for development, or ‘put nature to work’ for its metabolic capacities to clean up pollution. We will also discuss creative approaches to the study of wastelands and urban ecologies including documentary filmmaking and sound recording, and discuss the potentials and limits of combining natural scientific and social scientific methods.

More information and readings here: https://www.nica-institute.com/event-wastelands-and-urban-ecologies-masterclass-with-with-sandra-jasper-friedrich-alexander-universitat-erlangen-nurnberg/