Aubrey Toldi
#EditorialWriter #Voiceover
Keen interests in community planning, digital practices & presences, and collective mapping
Aubrey Toldi is an American linguist and planner, currently working as a post doc researcher and adjunct professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) at Politecnico di Milano. Before joining polimi, she was a 2019-2020 Fulbright Research grantee hosted by the University of Catania, where she explored how web-based community mapping is actually used in planning practice alongside a community with a strong history of participatory processes. In May 2024, she obtained her PhD in Urban Planning, Design, and Policy from Politecnico di Milano. Her thesis further reflected on how digital practices and presences are shaping collective mapping processes by outlining some of the ways (how) and places (where) community work is currently struggling for interpretation by, with, and through digital mediums.
At present, she is involved in the action-research project ‘(E)Welfare in the City.’ Her current research focuses on how national programs, such as Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), can respond to specific needs of vulnerable groups in diverse urban settings; and the capacity that physical spaces (namely social infrastructure) can play in mitigating digital disparities. Alongside this research project, in the 2024-2025 academic year, she is teaching a second-year master-level Thematic Studio in the fall and tutoring in a first-year bachelor-level Urban Planning Studio in the spring.
Explore Aubrey’s contribution to Urbinary:
