Susan Parnell is a professor of urban geography at the University of Bristol and emeritus professor at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. She has held previous academic positions at Wits University and the School of Oriental and African Studies. She was a Leverhulme visiting professor at University College London, Emeka Anyaoku Visiting Chair at the University of London and visiting professor at LSE Cities.

She has been actively involved in local, national and global urban policy debates around the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the use of National Urban Policies, and is an advocate for better science policy engagement on cities. Sue has had a lead role in a number of large urban research projects and is currently deputy principal investigator of PEAK Urban.

She is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed publications that document how cities, past and present, motivate for and respond to policy change. Her most recent books include ’Building a Capable State: Post Apartheid Service Delivery’ (Zed) and co-edited volumes ’The Urban Planet’ (Cambridge, 2018) and ’Implementing the SDGs in African Cities’ (Springer, 2021). Sue has also held a wide range of positions on research funding bodies, large research advisory panels and the boards of several NGO structures.