Sayd RANDLE
Assistant Professor of Urban Studies; Lee Kong Chian Fellow; Urban Fellow (Urban Systems); Basket Coordinator for Environment and Society
Sayd Randle is an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Singapore Management University and a Fellow at SMU's Urban Institute. Trained as an environmental anthropologist, her research uses the tools of ethnography and the lens of political ecology to explore processes of urban environmental change. Broadly focused on climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, she studies how attempts to rework critical infrastructural systems transform material flows and urban lives, rearranging labour and power across the extended metropolitan landscape in the process. Her past work was grounded in the arid U.S. West and she is currently developing new projects in Singapore and Nepal. Her first book, Replumbing the City: Water Management as Climate Adaptation in Los Angeles, was recently published by University of California Press.
Qualifications
- PhD in Environmental Studies and Sociocultural Anthropology, Yale University, USA, 2018
- MPhil in Environment, Society & Development, University of Cambridge, UK, 2010
- BA in English, Williams College, USA, 2008
Research Interests
- Climate Adaptation
- Environmental Justice
- Infrastructure Transitions
- Water Politics
- Resource Temporalities
- Multispecies Ethnography
Research Areas and Areas of Expertise
Strategic Priorities
HighlightsRecognized for advancing critical perspectives on urban water and environmental infrastructures, bridging anthropology, geography, and urban studies; combines ethnographic depth with policy-relevant insights; awarded for scholarly excellence and interdisciplinary leadership; active in creative collaborations and public engagement.
Focused research areas include Explores the politics, ecologies, and social dimensions of urban water systems and infrastructures; investigates climate adaptation, environmental justice, and the spatial reconfiguration of cities; comparative studies of storage landscapes, interspecies entanglements, and the urbanization of nature in the US and Asia.
- Singapore Management University College of Integrative Studies, Singapore Ministry of Education Tier 1 Grant: "Storage landscapes in 21st century Nepal," 2024. SG$18,688.
- Singapore Management University Urban Institute, Singapore Ministry of Education Tier 1 grant: "Natural infrastructure, interspecies entanglements, and spatial relations in Singapore and Houston," 2024. SG$46,000
- American Council of Learned Societies and Mellon Foundation Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2017-2018. US$30,000
- Wenner Gren Foundation Dissertation Fieldwork Grant, 2014. US$20,000
- Yale Department of Anthropology Williams Fund Award, 2014. US$3000
Showing up to 6 latest publications from the past 5 years.
- A ‘City in Nature’and its porcine interlopers: Confronting the edges of urban ecological order [2025]S RandleEnvironment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 25148486251400184, 2025
- O Woods, S RandleUrban Geography 46 (9), 2019-2041, 2025
- SY Shee, O Woods, S RandleEnvironment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 25148486251385366, 2025
- S Randle, M ArcherAntipode 57 (4), 1181-1193, 2025
- S RandleAntipode 57 (4), 1216-1235, 2025
- S RandleUniv of California Press, 2025
Sayd Randle is an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies at Singapore Management University and a Fellow at SMU's Urban Institute. Trained as an environmental anthropologist, her research uses the tools of ethnography and the lens of political ecology to explore processes of urban environmental change. Broadly focused on climate adaptation and mitigation efforts, she studies how attempts to rework critical infrastructural systems transform material flows and urban lives, rearranging labour and power across the extended metropolitan landscape in the process. Her past work was grounded in the arid U.S. West and she is currently developing new projects in Singapore and Nepal. Her first book, Replumbing the City: Water Management as Climate Adaptation in Los Angeles, was recently published by University of California Press.
Qualifications
- PhD in Environmental Studies and Sociocultural Anthropology, Yale University, USA, 2018
- MPhil in Environment, Society & Development, University of Cambridge, UK, 2010
- BA in English, Williams College, USA, 2008
Research Interests
- Climate Adaptation
- Environmental Justice
- Infrastructure Transitions
- Water Politics
- Resource Temporalities
- Multispecies Ethnography