How did you end up in the masters?
I'm a civil engineer by training, but I want to steer towards a multidisciplinary career. I graduated, and I ended up working in the energy industry as a designer. Despite that, I was very interested in transport, and the other masters that I was looking at did not answer the social questions related to mobility. This is what excited me most about the program: I was finally getting a more social perspective, too, which is the perspective that I feel engineers are massively lacking. Before starting the master, I was designing energy infrastructure, pipelines for gas, electricity and petrol. However, when you dig deeper, there are many uneven power dynamics shaping not only the energy industry, but transport planning as a whole. Coming from Colombia, I started understanding how the exploitation of resources exists with a system that is inflicted by histories of power. When I read through the curriculum of the masters, something clicked, I thought I was finally getting some answers.
I do not know if there exists another city like Brussels, there is a lot of political and linguistic complexity. With that comes a lot of chaos, so if you want to study urbanism, it is the perfect place.
How did you experience the interdisciplinary approach in the master?
In my bachelor's, we worked in interdisciplinary teams, for example, with architects and with some social scientists. However, it was more of a one-way interaction. During the master, I felt like we actually discussed the particular points of tension that occurred. It felt more like a negotiation process, and I learnt a lot from that.
"This is what excited me most of the program: I was finally getting a more social perspective too, which is the perspective that I feel that engineers are massively lacking. Before starting the master, I was designing energy infrastructure, pipelines for gas, electricity and petrol. However, when you dig deeper, there is many uneven power dynamics shaping not only the energy industry, but transport planning as a whole."
What is your work like right now?
I have gravitated through different types of jobs, and just after finishing my master, I got a job in a startup. I was leading a mobility team, and I was the liaison between business and research. I would direct the group of researchers towards the important questions and a relevant methodology. After a year, I decided that I wanted to learn more about transportation, so I decided to do a PhD in Antwerp.
How is your everyday life looking like as a PhD candidate?
It is very hands-on, almost like a project expert or manager position - but with a PhD to present in 3 years. I work with two different European-level projects: SPINE and Sharedimobihub. The SPINE project involves 11 different cities, 4 Lead cities and 7 Twinning cities. I work with the 4 lead cities where the UA creates business models for different smart mobility initiatives, e.g., mobility hubs, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), citizen mobility platforms, etc. We travel across cities and explore their initiatives while participating in capacity-building activities.
For the other project, we create an impact assessment for mobility hub pilots in 3 cities and evaluate the upscaling activities from the other 4. Our assessment tries to take into account the demographics and transport context of each pilot. I also report on best practices and give presentations about project progress and workshops.
So yes, it is quite a busy PhD, and a good combination between industry and academia. I am very lucky to have been able to do so much qualitative and quantitative research, where I have talked to different stakeholders in the field.
Thanks to MUS, I got to know very interesting people in Belgium. So, I really expanded my network. This really allowed me to get a job after the program. During the process of writing my thesis, I met some of the stakeholders that I am working with now, for example. It is all about taking the opportunities that you see. However, moving to a foreign country comes with challenges. In my work, language has been an obstacle. You really need to understand the local culture to understand how people move around the city. It is evident that language also shapes culture. I am in the process of learning the local languages.
"I got to know very interesting people in Belgium. So, I really expanded my network. This really allowed me to get a job after the program for example. During the process of writing my thesis, I met some of the stakeholders that I am working with now for example. It is all about taking the opportunities that you see."
How does your experience in the master translate into the skills you are employing in your current job?
Critical thinking: I take everything with a pinch of salt. The master really teaches you to question what lies behind specific phenomena. You learn how to have a flexible mind, as a social scientist you have to talk to people to understand their subjective experiences. My engineer friends now call me a ´soft engineer´.
"The master represents resilience to me, because I stayed until the end. It was a tough time but filled with a lot of learning."
What does the master represent to you?
It was very difficult because my master took place during COVID. So, I was going into urbanism without necessarily knowing the city. So, I guess the masters represents resilience to me, because I stayed until the end. It was a tough time but filled with a lot of learning.
Can you name one key lesson that you take away from the program?
I think what stuck with me is the idea that everything is so interconnected. This is something that is not really on top of our heads, so I feel like that is one way in which the master’s really expanded on the way I am thinking.
Do you have contact with other students of the master?
I know people who are involved with the transport field. I also know some graduates who ended up in PhDs in other institutions in Belgium.
Can you describe Urban Studies?
I always say that it is everything with cities. I usually say that I study all the phenomena that happen within the city, from history to architecture to transport.
"I think what stuck with me is the idea that everything is so interconnected. This is something that is not really on top of our heads, so I feel like that is one way in which the master’s really expanded on the way I am thinking."
This interview was conducted in April 2024.