Real Estate & Planning Research Seminar by Dr Katie McClymont, UWE, Bristol. Title: But what is cemetery? Reflections on different engagements with this question and an ongoing research agenda.

Abstract: This presentation will reflect on a range of research projects I have been involved with, all around the idea of the role of cemeteries and other ‘deathscapes’ for contemporary cities and for planners. It will consider cemeteries as greenspaces, as public spaces, as ‘municipally spiritual’ spaces, as places of identity and heritage, as places of multiculture/multifaith belonging or isolation.

Drawing on themes and challenges from these different projects and explorations, the presentation explores the implications emerging from these for planning for cemeteries and wider ‘deathscapes’ now and in the future. It reflects on how ideas of ‘dignity’ and ‘the public interest’ can be interrogated from these findings and questions.

Bio: Dr Katie McClymont is an Associate Professor in Urban Planning with research interests in planning theory, regulation, housing and ‘deathscapes’. She has extensive research experience in both UKRI research council funded project and commissioned research projects for the Planning Advisory Service, Homes for the South-West, the National Infrastructure Planning Association, Power to Change and the West of England Combined Authority. Work from these latter projects has won The Sir Peter Hall Award for Wider Engagement in 2021 and 2024. She is an editor of the RTPI’s Planning Theory and Practice Journal and has been an expert reviewer for the Polish National Science centre, the British Academy, the Independent Social Research Foundation the National Research, and the Hungarian Development and Innovation Office.

As well as being joint programme leader for the MSc Urban Planning, she is the programme leader for the Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship at UWE. She was a member of the QAA Subject Benchmark Review Panel and has been appointed as an external examiner at several English accredited planning schools. Her teaching focuses on questions of planning theory and community engagement in planning at both masters and undergraduate levels.