Editorial Team

Anaïs Leger-Smith is an Articles editor for JoLA. She has worked as a landscape architect in design studios in Brussels, London and Bristol and is currently a lecturer and researcher at the Toulouse School of Architecture, France. She teaches in the field of territorial strategies, public space and green infrastructure design, landscape theory and project critique. Her research interests are focused on design research, biodiversity and the living environment in cities, metropolitan landscapes, participatory urbanism and landscape imaginaries. She is an editor for the forthcoming book #6 Landscape Architecture Europe. She is the vice-president of the French Federation for Landscape Architecture (FFP) in Occitanie.

Clara Olóriz Sanjuán, PhD, is a researcher and practicing architect. She is a studio master at the Architectural Association (AA) Landscape Urbanism programme, co-directs the Ground Lab research design initiative and the AA Mexico Visiting School “Metropolitan Landscapes” programme with the Monterrey Institute of Technology. Her practice focuses on the design and visualisation of urban and landscape policies to address climate crises from an environmental justice perspective. She understands landscapes as a political technology of territory that redefines nature-society relations. Along with her PhD research and practice within the Ground Lab initiative, she has contributed to several congresses, magazines and books related to innovations in landscape architecture and territory at the intersection between history, theory and practice. Fellowships, grants and awards from the British Council, Conacyt, Bilbao Ekintza, Caja Madrid, Caja de Arquitectos and AA Publications Fellowship have supported her research. She was awarded a Graham Foundation grant for the publication of Landscape as Territory (Actar, 2019).

Maria Gabriella Trovato is an articles editor for JoLA. She is an associate professor of Global Landscape Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), School of Landscape Architecture, where she leads the International Master’s Programme in Landscape Architecture for Global Sustainability. Her research focuses on landscapes in contexts of migration, conflict and crisis, with a particular emphasis on the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions. She has led and participated in numerous international research projects funded by the EU, Erasmus+, FAO, and Horizon 2020, including Landscape in Emergency and Advancing Alternative Migration Governance. Trovato is the founder and director of the Eastern Mediterranean Landscape Observatory (EMLO), co-responsible for the Centre for Landscape Democracy (CLaD), Chair of Landscape Architects Without Borders (IFLA), and a member of the UNISCAPE Executive Board. She has held academic positions in Italy, Lebanon, Canada and Morocco, and is currently a visiting professor at the Politecnico di Milano. Her recent publications include “Ongoing Crises in Beirut: Resistance and Resilience as Everyday Life” (City special feature, 2025) as well as further articles in City, IJIA, Ri-Vista and Land, contributing to debates on landscape theory, resilience and spatial practices in contested territories.

Sonia Keravel is the Under the Sky editor for JoLA. She is a landscape architect and has a PhD in geography. She is currently a lecturer and researcher at the École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage, Versailles-Marseille. She teaches design studios on subjects such as project critique and the history of landscape design. Her research work focuses on the specificity of the landscape architect’s approach, the history and criticism of landscape architecture design and the role of visual representations and particularly photography in the practice of landscape architecture. She contributed to the ANR Photopaysage (2014-2017) and published Passeurs de paysage (2015); she co-coordinated the ‘project and photography’ dossier of the Cahiers de la recherche architecturale urbaine et paysagère (2019).

Usue Ruiz Arana is the Thinking Eye editor for JoLA, a role informed by her keen interest in design and art as forms of research. She is a landscape architect and educator at Newcastle University. She is the programme director of the Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA), and teaches across design studios, design thesis and construction modules. Usue’s current research is focused on two interrelated strands: soundscapes and more than human conceptualizations for landscape architecture practice. Through her research, Usue seeks to affirm design and art as forms of research, drawing from her experimental arts methods that include soundwalks, photography and temporary installations, and her 20-year career in practice.

Ursula Wieser Benedetti is the Reviews editor for JoLA. She is a landscape architect and a Japanologist. She has practiced as a landscape architect in France, Austria and Italy and holds a PhD in Landscape and Garden History. Her research interests focus on Japan, landscape architecture in Belgium, and the question of limits in the landscape. She currently works at the CIVA in Brussels, where she curates exhibitions and events around contemporary landscape architecture and the history of landscape architecture, and organizes the René Pechère literary Prize, distinguishing books of excellence in the realm of landscape architecture. She has directed several publications, including Brussels, Two and a Half Centuries of Public Parks and Gardens (2019).

Alia Fadel is the Transversal editor for JoLA. She is an educator and researcher, architect and landscape architect, biophilic design consultant and ethnographic observation specialist. Fadel is a Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Leeds Beckett University and Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Her area of expertise is Biophilia and Biophilic Design and Urbanism with a scholarly focus on the interrelationship between Design, Health, and Contact with Nature to support health and wellbeing in the built environment. Fadel received several prestigious awards, including Fulbright, 2018 PhD Best Dissertation Award, 2019 ARCC Dissertation Award Honorable Mention from The Architectural Research Centers Consortium, USA. Fadel’s experience in teaching, research, and practice extends for over 20 years to include notable international Universities in Egypt, USA, and UK.