“Prophets of Doom”: Environmental Stigma in a Leicester Periphery.

When
23 Feb 2026
19:30 - 21:00
Location
Hansom Hall in the Leicester Adult Education College, 50-54 Belvoir St, Leicester LE1 6QL
Spaces left
100

Registration

Guest tickets – £7.00
Guest tickets allow you to attend in person or by Zoom. For this event, it is also possible to pay at the door without purchasing a ticket in advance.
Student Ticket – £3.00
Student tickets allow you to attend in person or by Zoom. For this event, it is also possible to pay at the door without purchasing a ticket in advance.

Image courtesy of the speaker

Sponsored by De Montfort University

Dr Adriana Laura Massidda MPhil (Cantab) PhD (Cantab)

Lecturer in Architectural Humanities, University of Sheffield.

Lecture outline

This lecture reconstructs the environmental history of an urban periphery to the north-west of Leicester, Beaumont Leys, to interrogate the inter-relations between ecological, socio-economic and symbolic stigma. Using a novel methodology that intersects architecture, urban history and urban studies, and engaging a wide range of sources including archival material, urban mapping, written and oral historical reports, radio broadcast recordings and first-hand experience built through working collaboratively in the area, the lecture argues that environmental polemics, especially around waste and toxicity, were at the root of the genealogy of stigma in Beaumont Leys, aggravating the negative narratives faced by council housing nationwide. Through this analysis, the lecture adds to expanding discussions on environmental stigma and the socio-political dimensions of the climate crisis.

Biographical note

Adriana Laura Massidda is a Lecturer in Architectural Humanities at the University of Sheffield. Educated at the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Cambridge, her research focuses on the history of urban informality, environmental history, and the critical analysis of modern architecture, modern planning, and urban design. She has over twenty peer-review publications on these topics, including the co-edited volume Villas en Dictadura. Córdoba, Rosario y Buenos Aires, which received a distinction by the Buenos Aires Legislature in 2023.

Attending the lecture

The lecture is open both to members of the Society and to guests.

The lecture will take place in Hansom Hall - how to find Hansom Hall.

Please note that tea and coffee drinks will be available between 7.00pm and 7.15pm before the formal start of the event at 7.30pm.

The lecture will also be streamed on Zoom. A recording of the lecture may be available to members only.