Professor Katherine Brickell FBA
- Fellow type
- UK Fellow
- Year elected
- 2026
- Subjects
- Anthropology, Geography
- Sections
- Anthropology and Geography
- Website
- King's College London
Summary
Katherine Brickell is Professor of Urban Studies and Associate Dean (Impact & Innovation) at King's College London (KCL). Prior to her joining KCL's Department of Geography in 2023, she was Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. Katherine's PhD in Geography was awarded in 2007 from the London School of Economics.
Katherine’s career-long research has focused on everyday domestic and working life with a strong focus on the intersecting issues of household debt, domestic abuse, family homelessness, forced eviction, and modern slavery in both the United Kingdom and Cambodia. Her research is impact-focused, aiming to make positive contributions to policy development and legal advocacy to address these issues.
Katherine is co-author of 'Debt Trap Nation: Family Homelessness in a Failing State' (2025, Edinburgh University Press). In June 2026, the book was described by The Baroness Polly Neate CBE in the House of Lords as "foundational" to a proposed amendment to the Social Housing Bill so that people in England who have incurred debt as the result of domestic abuse are not prevented from bidding for social housing. Katherine is invited member of multiple government advisory groups on temporary accommodation.
Her other books include 'Home SOS: Gender, Violence and Survival in Crisis Ordinary Cambodia' (2020), 'The Handbook of Displacement' (2021), 'The Handbook of Contemporary Cambodia' (2017), 'Geographies of Forced Eviction' (2017) and 'Translocal Geographies' (2011).
In recognition of research excellence, Katherine was conferred the Times Higher Education 'Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences' in 2020; the Philip Leverhulme Prize in 2016; and the Gill Memorial Award by the Royal Geographical Society in 2014. She has edited the flagship disciplinary journal 'Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers' (2023-2026) and 'Gender, Place and Culture' (2017-2023).