Michele Acuto

Michele is Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor (Global Engagement) of the University of Bristol, where he is also a Professor of Urban Resilience in the School of Geographical Sciences. A keen researcher and practitioner of urban governance, he is a regular commentator on urban issues in the media. Michele a renowned voice on the international dimensions of city leadership, and currently leads a number of research programs centred on urban politics and how cities tackle ‘global’ challenges.

Michele regularly serves as an expert on a variety of government initiatives on urban policy. He has worked with numerous city networks, UN agencies, and mayors around the world supporting city diplomacy across climate, health, resilience and migration. Outside of academia, Michele has worked in the multilateral sector for the European Commission, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank. Before joining Bristol, Michele was Professor and Director of the Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne. He was also as Professor of Urban Theory and Director of the Urban Policy Lab at University College London, having previously taught at the Australian National University and the University of Oxford. Michele recently authored Managing Cities at Night (Bristol University Press, 2021) and How to Build a Global City (Cornell University Press, 2022).