Joel Simpson

Junior Researcher

Joel is a junior researcher. He has been part of Social Life's fieldteam since 2023, working intensively in Grahame Park in Barnet in 2023 and Mayfair and Belgravia in 2024.

Joel has been a lecturer in the Fine Art department at Chelsea College of Arts for the last four years, where his teaching explores how socially engaged art practice can support communities in contexts of extreme environmental change. He has  an MSc in Urban Development Planning from UCL, where his thesis analysed the relationship between the discursive framing of water types by the City of Cape Town government and the increase in unregistered groundwater usage within the municipality.

Joel is also a trustee at community land trust RUSS, who are currently facilitating a self-build affordable housing project at Church Grove in Lewisham, south London.