I am currently assistant professor in human geography and spatial planning and coordinator of an NWO-funded research grant which examines the Water-Energy-Food nexus in Cape Town, South Africa. This is a major collaboration between Utrecht University and several South African universities and societal partners. The project seeks to understand how nexus approaches can be used to address the acute resilience challenges that Cape Town faces in the water, energy, and food sectors. My research focuses on cross-sector infrastructure governance, investigating how governance coordination across sectors shapes urban sustainability and resilience in cities such as Los Angeles, Maputo, and Cape Town. For related publications, see: Smith, S (2025), The Urban Water-Energy Nexus in Cape Town, Los Angeles and Maputo: The Ambivalent Role of Cross-Sector Coordination for Urban Sustainability, Urban Studies, https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980251328292

(For more information concerning the ‘Nexusing Water, Energy and Food to Increase Resilience Cape Town Metropolitan Area’ project please consult the following link. https://nexus.sites.uu.nl/)

Beyond this, I have also contributed to several research initiatives, including the Transforming Infrastructures for Sustainable Cities (Utrecht - Pathways to Sustainability) hub, which scrutinises urban infrastructures through the lens of ‘transformative’ governance approaches, and UrbanHIT – Urban Heterogeneity and Infrastructure Transitions (NWO) which examines infrastructure heterogeneity in Tanzania and Mozambique. In teaching, I coordinate and lecture in both Bachelor’s and Master’s programs, including the Urban Infrastructures module, where I am the coordinator. I received my PhD in Geography from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2016. Before moving to Utrecht, I worked at University College London and the University of Sheffield (Urban Institute) in the UK. 

I currently co-supervise two PhD candidates

Joyce Eledi Kusaana - “The making of urban resilience: Critical energy infrastructure in Accra and Dar es Salaam”

Romeo Dipura - “From Crisis to Risk Management: An Infrastructure Perspective on drought and flood preparedness in Cape Town”

For my latest publications, please see the following;

Smith, S., & Kirshner, J. (2024). When logics collide: uncovering the multiple gas exportation and importation transitions in Mozambique. Space and Polity, 28(1), 103–124. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2024.2325341

S Smith, J Monstadt, K Otsuki (2022) Enabling equitable energy access for Mozambique? Heterogeneous energy infrastructures in Maputo's growing urban periphery, Energy Research & Social Science, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629622001888

Smith, S. (2023). Mobilizing heterogeneity: understanding the dynamic qualities and diversity of energy access in Maputo. Urban Geography, 44(1), 221–242. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.1959769

My research interests;

• Understanding infrastructure access/challenges in post-colonial cities
• Infrastructural heterogeneity 
• Energy justice
• The politics and political economies of energy transitions in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Landlord-tenant relations, land tenure and the mediation of access to infrastructures
• Cross-sector infrastructure governance
• Urban resilience