Nancy Odendaal trained as a spatial planner, with her academic work focused on urban studies, infrastructure studies and smart urbanism. She has published extensively on the relationship between livelihoods strategies in the urban south and how that interfaces with the appropriation of new technologies and urban infrastructure. Her book, Disrupted Urbanism: Situated initiatives in African cities (published by Bristol University Press in 2023) examines how digital platforms are contributing to new spatialities in African cities. Recent publications examine the impact of Google on urban spaces and city governance, the governmentality of local government digitization processes and a current preoccupation with hybrid storytelling as a form of knowledge co-production. The latter is also the focus of her current work, which relates to her teaching also.

Current teaching on the Critical Urbanisms degree explores how embodiment practices in the urban research environment can contribute to a more nuanced and incisive reading of city spaces. To this end, Nancy’s pedagogical approach is underpinned by a commitment to experiential and situated learning. Having published on the case study research method (the most notably in the production of an edited book with others on the role of case studies in teaching African urban planning) as well as the challenges of preparing urban practitioners for the complexities of southern urbanization, she has developed a solid suite of methodological skills that she continues to explore with her students and in her empirical work. 

In addition to her immediate teaching and research priorities, Nancy contributes to the larger research community as an editorial board member of the following journals: Urban Geography, the Journal of the American Planning Association, and Progress in Planning. She is a permanent member of the review panel of the Swiss National Science Foundation SPIRIT Programme, as well as a member of its Interdisciplinary Research review panel. She is also a current member of the Urban and Rural Areas review panel for the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development.