Joyce Angnayeli Eledi Kuusaana is a PhD candidate of a joint doctoral program between Utrecht University, the Netherlands and TU Darmstadt, Germany. Joyce is a professional Architect with BSc. Architecture and PG. Dip. Architecture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. She also holds an MSc. in Infrastructure Planning from the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Her PhD research, “The making of urban resilience: Critical energy infrastructure in Accra and Dar es Salaam”, focuses on functional failures of electricity infrastructure and the responses to such disruptions. The research aims to understand how city authorities, public utilities and other service providers – under an environment of institutional and resource constraints, as well as rapid and informal urban growth – can contribute to the safety and resilience of urban infrastructure systems to protect urban populations from infrastructure failures and the ‘second order’ impacts of urban disruptions. It further explores the preparedness of urban residents to cope with and respond to critical infrastructure breakdown. Joyce is a Scholar of the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) and works within the Research Training Group on Critical Infrastructures (RTG-KRITIS) at TU Darmstadt. She is a member of the Ghana Institute of Architects and worked as Project Architect and Practice Manager for SPAYSIS Architecture, Planning and Engineering prior to the commencement of her PhD studies. She also previously worked, part-time, as lecturer of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Wa campus - Ghana; as graduate teaching and research assistant of the Institute for Regional Planning and Development (IREUS), University of Stuttgart, Germany and as teaching and research assistant of the Department of Architecture, KNUST, Kumasi - Ghana.