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Dr Karen Horwood

Senior Lecturer

Karen is a senior lecturer in Planning. Her research focuses on women and planning. She is an associate member of the RTPI, and the gender mainstreaming lead for Women in Planning.

Karen has been a member of the course team since 2012. She is currently module leader for Development of Planning Thought, Planning Policy & Practice and Women and the Built Environment (jointly with Dr Bronwen Edwards).

Karen is an associate member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Prior to working at Leeds Beckett, she gained experience in regeneration practice at Leeds City Council. She is the gender mainstreaming lead for Women and Planning and on the committee of the Yorkshire Branch. She has been an invited speaker at Festival of Place, New Architecture London, Homes England and Women of the World Leeds Festival 2023. She has also been interviewed for the planning press. In 2020 she was one of The Planner's Women of Influence. She was featured on 50 Shades of Planning's International Women's Day podcast 2023.

Karen's research focuses on women and planning, considering how women's needs are recognised and met within the planning system. She was the convenor of the Women and Planning conference at Leeds Beckett in 2019, and founder of the Women and Planning Research Group. She guest edited a special edition of Town Planning Review in 2022 featuring papers from the conference.

Current Teaching

BA (Hons) Human Geography and Planning
BA (Hons) Human Geography
MPlan Planning
MA Town and Regional Planning
MA Housing, Regeneration and Urban Management
Degree Apprenticeship Town Planning

Research Interests

Karen's research focuses on how women's needs are identified and met within the planning system. Most recently she has been focusing on the extent to which the needs of women are included within planning policy and practice. She is also interested in the history of women and planning movements, and the stories of women across generations who have been involved in this work.

In 2019, Karen convened the Women and Planning conference. This conference sought to develop a conversation between academics and practitioners, and those in-between, and (re)build a network of those interested in women and planning in the UK. The conference themes included historical understandings of women in planning, and how this informs us today and in the future. The conference brought together women in academia and practice, across generations, and from the UK and abroad to share and discuss women and planning. Papers from this conference were published in a special edition of Town Planning Review in December 2022.

Karen has been interviewed for publications and podcasts, and an invited speaker at numerous events to share this expertise.