Dr. Nakyagaba is an urban researcher and educator of Geography and Sustainability. Her research primarily focuses on how people interact with and adapt to changing environmental conditions and infrastructure systems, and how these interactions shape environmental risks, inequalities, and opportunities for sustainable development in the African context. Before pursuing her Ph.D., she worked as a researcher with Makerere University's Urban Action Lab, contributing to international interdisciplinary projects on climate change impacts, urban sanitation, waste management, resource recovery, and community-based sustainability initiatives. She has co-authored fourteen peer-reviewed articles and four book chapters.
Building on her research in East Africa, she is developing work on disability-inclusive sanitation and infrastructural justice, as well as greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation opportunities in urban wastewater systems. Her scholarship combines qualitative and quantitative methods, spatial analysis, and community engagement to produce policy-relevant knowledge that supports more equitable and sustainable communities.
Dr. Nakyagaba's teaching span Human Geography, Environmental Sustainability, Urban Political Ecology, Environmental and Social Justice, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). At the University of Oklahoma, she received the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability Teaching Award in 2023 and was recognized as First Runner-Up and People's Choice winner in the Graduate College's Three-Minute Thesis competition.
• Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma, USA
• M.A. in Geography, Makerere University, Uganda
• B.A. with Education (Geography and History), Makerere University, Uganda
• GEOG 3133: Geography of Beer, Wine and Spirits
• GEOG 3773: Geography of the United States
• GEOG 1103: Human Geography
• GEOG 2603: World Regional Geography
• GIS 2023: Introduction to GIS and Spatial Thinking
Karpouzoglou, T., Vij, S., Lawhon, M., Nakyagaba, G. N., Nilsson, D., & Larsen, K. (2026). What’s behind the infrastructure? A framework for analysing modern and modest infrastructure. Urban Political Ecology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/30497515261486302
Lwasa, S., Buyana, K., Mukwaya, P., Kisembo, T., Mbabazi, J., Nakyagaba, G. N., Namuli, H., Ocheng, D., Sseviiri, H., & Byarugaba, D. (2025). Knowledge Co-production for Transformation in Low-income Settlements in Urban Africa: The Case of Kampala, Uganda. In C. Johnson & V. Castán Broto (Eds.), Co-production of Knowledge in Action: Emancipatory Strategies for Urban Equality (pp. 55–78). UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800088931
Buyana, K., Walubwa, J., Mukwaya, P., Sseviiri, H., Byarugaba, D., & Nakyagaba, G. N. (2025). The Role of Visual Ethnography in Co-producing Climate Information Services in Cities. Global Social Challenges Journal. https://doi.org/10.1332/27523349Y2025D000000041
Nakyagaba, G. N., Lawhon, M., & Lwasa, S. (2023). Navigating Heterogeneous Sanitation Configurations: How Off-grid Technologies Work and Are Reworked by Urban Residents. Area, 55(3), 364–371. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12861
Lawhon, M., Nakyagaba, G. N., & Karpouzoglou, G. (2023). Towards a Modest Imaginary? Sanitation in Kampala. Urban Studies, 60(1), 146–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980211064519
Hemerijckx, L. M., Nakyagaba, G. N., Sseviiri, H., Janusz, K., Eichinger, M., Lwasa, S., May, J., Verburg, P. H., & Van Rompaey, A. (2023). Mapping the consumer foodshed of the Kampala city region shows the importance of urban agriculture. npj Urban Sustainability, 3, Article 11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42949-023-00093-1
Lawhon, M., Makina, A., & Nakyagaba, G. N. (n.d.). Infrastructure beyond the modern ideal: Thinking through heterogeneity, serendipity, and autonomy in African cities. In M. Kaika, R. Keil, T. Mandler, & Y. Tzaninis (Eds.), Turning Up the Heat: Urban Political Ecology for a Climate Emergency (pp. 186–204). Manchester University Press.
Nakyagaba, G. N., Lawhon, M., Silver, J., Lwasa, S., & Tumwine, F. (2021). Power, political and a poo pump: Contestation over Legitimacy, Access and Benefits of Sanitation Technology in Kampala. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 42(3), 415–430. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12381
Lawhon, M., Le Roux, L., Makina, A., Nsangi, G., Singh, A., & Sseviiri, H. (2020). Beyond southern urbanism? Imagining an urban geography of a world of cities. Urban Geography, 41(5), 657–667. (Invited commentary for the journal’s 40th anniversary). https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1734346
Email: gloriansangi77@gmail.com
