Dr Anna Plyushteva

Anna is Titular Associate Professor in Human Geography at the Transport Studies Unit (TSU), School of Geography & the Environment (SoGE). Anna was previously Departmental Research Lecturer at the TSU and SoGE (2019-2025), and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Free University Brussels (2017-2019). She holds a PhD (2016) in Human Geography from University College London and a Master’s degree (2009) in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam.

Anna is a Human Geographer who studies urban inequalities through a focus on mobilities, infrastructures, economies, and emotions. She has conducted research in cities globally, including Brussels, Lima, Manila, and Sofia. Her current work focuses on South-East Europe and the UK. A commitment to inclusive methodologies, knowledge co-creation, and an ethics of care is at the heart of her approach to research, teaching, and engagement with partner organisations.

Her work has been funded by the ESRC, EC Horizon 2020, the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership, and the Oxford John Fell Fund.

Anna is PI of the ESRC/DUT-funded project Caring and Youth-centric Mobilities for Inclusive Urban Proximity (CAMINUP, 2026-2028). This is a €1 million project which brings together partners from the UK, Bulgaria, Belgium, and Romania to explore how the everyday experiences of young carers can inform more equitable and sustainable urban mobility. 

Anna is also Co-I on the ESRC-funded project Care on the Move (2024-2026, PI Middleton), which focuses on the everyday mobilities of children with non-visible disabilities and their families. 

In addition, Anna is Co-I of the Road Safety Foundation-funded project Safe-SEND (2025-2027, PI Schwanen). This project examines how road safety concerns shape the mobility of adolescents with special educational needs and disabilities.

Anna convenes the MSc elective in Urban Infrastructure Futures. She also contributes to the MSc in Sustainable Urban Development and the executive education programme in Global Challenges in Transport.

Anna supervises MSc dissertations and doctoral research at the School of Geography and the Environment. She welcomes inquiries from prospective research students whose research interests align with the above.

Current Graduate Research Students

Anna aims to build lasting collaborations with partners beyond academia. Examples include  Swindon SEND Families Voice, Living Streets, Sofia Municipality, Jacobs, Swindon Borough Council, and the London Borough of Hounslow. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Anna worked with essential workers to document their everyday experiences at work, at home, and on the move. She regularly provides written evidence to multiple government enquiries, is co-author of a UK Department for Transport report on young people's changing travel habits; and has contributed to the campaign work of inclusive and sustainable mobility advocates in Bulgaria.

Selected Publications

• Plyushteva, A. (2026) The politics of infrastructural reversibility: no-regret futures at the London Euston high-speed railway station, The Geographical Journal. 
• Plyushteva, A., Caset, F., van Bergen, L., & Popescu, R. (2025). Planning transport for the needs of young carers. Journal of Transport & Health, 45, 102207.
• Plyushteva, A. (2025) Worrying the right amount: intimate relationships and the emotional work of pursuing financial literacy together, Economy and Society.
• Munoz Zech, D., Lee, K. and Plyushteva, A. (2024) Beyond fare evasion: the everyday moralities of non-payment and underpayment on public transport. Mobilities [Preprint].
• Plyushteva, A. and Schwanen, T. (2022) "We usually have a bit of flood once a week": conceptualising the infrastructural rhythms of urban floods in Malate, Manila. Urban Geography.

See Google Scholar for full overview of publications