Biography

Dr Zoe Latham is lecturer and researcher with a background in architectural practice. Her recently completed PhD argues for a re-conceptualisation and extension of place theory within architectural praxis, examining the alignment between place and ritual theory as a way to better understand phenomenon that inform a greater connectivity between embodied, situated and meaningful experiences with the environment. These theoretical ideas are advanced through various forms of situated and narratological praxes such as autoethnography, storytelling, cognitive mapping and film. 

Preceding her return to academia, Zoe worked as an architectural designer in New York, concentrating on adaptive reuse, regeneration and conservation of architecture. Prior to working in the USA, Zoe worked in Shenzhen, China for two years; working on high-end interior design, conceptual architectural and landscape design.  

More recent work focuses on river settings, examining how communities experience and interpret these dynamic landscapes through everyday practices (ritual) and shared narratives. Drawing on creative and ethnographic methods, her research seeks to deepen understanding of how place-making and belonging emerge in response to environmental change.

Teaching

UG Architecture Ba Yr 1 Module Leader for Design

UG Architecture Ba Yr 2 & Yr 3 Studio Tutor

Other Academic Roles 

ADA KE Strategic Group   

EDRA57 Conference Reviewer

Past teaching

(2021 - 2024) PG M Arch Context For Praxis Studio Tutor  

(2021 - 2024) HKU Space UG Architecture Ba Yr 3 Studio Tutor

(2021–2022) University of Plymouth International College Foundation in Architecture, Practical Design Skills, Associate Lecturer

(2019–2024) BA (Hons) Architecture Year 1 Communication, Module Leader

2019 BA (Hons) Architecture Year 1 Design Studio project at Riverside Community Primary School nomination for RIBA MacEwen Award 'Multidisciplinary student team from University of Plymouth turn windswept hill into learning space':
 https://www.ribaj.com/macewen-awards/macewen-awards-2020-university-of-plymouth-students-riverside-community-primary-school-plymouth-outdoor-classroom-firepit  

(2026 - present) Tabitha Munday, 'Heritage as understood through the lens of climate change' 

(2026 - present) Leah Dinning, 'Tactile spatial liminality; towards a transformable mapping methodology for reading city spaces.'

(2025 - present) Donna Kukama, 'Ways-of-Remembering-Existing: Performance Art as an Unknowing Vocabulary for (Writing Histories) Memory Work'

(2025 - present) Monika Fischbein, 'Imagining & Imaging the Spiritual Archetypal Energies’ Representation in Visual Culture'

(2024-present) Samantha Southern, 'What does the sea mean to me?' (CDA Partnership PSNMP)

Qualifications:

(2018–2023) PhD Architecture
(2019) Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
(2016–2018) Master of Architecture with Distinction, University of Plymouth
(2009–2012) BA (Hons) Architecture, University of Plymouth

Conferences

November 2025. Dartmoor Society, The Rivers of Dartmoor. Presented Portrait of Place: the River Dart Anglers.

December 2023. ARCHITECTURE_MEDIA_POLITICS_SOCIETY Conference Local Cultures-Global Spaces. Co - Presented and published 'BODY, RITUAL, AND PLACE: Advancing their chronotopic interrelationship in design praxis and pedagogy through an exploration of juxtaposed surfaces, threshold sites of dialogic encounter, and collage' with Professor Robert Brown. 

May 2023. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Place-Based and Placemaking Research Symposium. Presented Casting a Line to the Land: Narratologies of Embodied Rituals and Connectivity to Place.

2022. RIBA China Chapter Women in Architecture Digital Nexus Exhibition. September 2021. Festival of Discovery. Futures 21' Voyage of Discovery. Presented and screened 360 Immersive Film 'River Plym from Source to Sea'with Linda Ward

July 2021. AVANCA International Film Conference. Presented 'How might we simulate a riverside experience through virtual collaboration?' a paper and film co-authored with Linda Ward

May 2021. EDRA Just Environments: Presented 'The Dialogics of Tulous: a simultaneous presence and embrace of difference across cultural landscape, heritage and space' a paper co-authored with Prof. Robert Brown and Anqi Dong

September 2019. Test Space: Expositions of practice led research, Plymouth University Fine Art Studios, Royal William Yard. Presented film as auto-ethnographic method entitled 'Embodied Rituals of Fly-fishing'.

September 2019. Flows of Entanglements: how rivers shape identities, University of Plymouth. Co-convener and participant of methodology roundtable chaired by Professor Owain Jones (Bath Spa University) - presented MPhil/ PhD Methodologies.

May 2019. Rethinking Post Recovery Space, Presented Master of Architecture work with focus Macau flooding.

March 2018. Cultural heritage and social cohesion, Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest. Presented paper titled "Shenzhen's Urban Villages: Dialogic cultural landscapes and resilient rituals": https://socio.hu/index.php/so/article/view/770   

Awards & Funding  

2024. British Academy: £4,601.00.  Brown, R. (PI - Principal Investigator), Latham, Z. (CoI - Co-Investigator) & Martin, J. (CoI - Co-Investigator) Lost and Found: Exploring the capacity for the transformative resilience of everyday ritualised performances and co-joined connectivity to place and identity in the context of future climage change. 

2022. Arts and Humanities Research Council: £3,997.00. Latham, Z. (PI - Principal Investigator), Ward, L. (CoI - Co-Investigator) & Sutton, S. (CoI - Co-Investigator)  Portrait of a Place: The River Dart Anglers. 

2023. Architecture Area Research Fund - Digitising Rivers Assembly Mapping + IAA Impact Workshop [£598]

2022. Research / Career Development Fund - Right to the Water Workshop - Public Space or Private Asset? [£108.60]

2019. Flows of entanglements: How Rivers Shape Identity International Conference Co-convenor, School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Plymouth. [£700]  

Community Activities

March 2024. Portrait of Place: The River Dart Anglers Exhibition. Dartmoor National Park Vistor's Centre. 

September 2023. Ode to the Sea. Hosted 'Sea Pools' book launch, research dissemination event. Ocean Studios, Royal WIlliam Yard.

September 2023. River Collective River Dart Festival. Dartington Hall TRust. 

March 2023. Rivers Assembly. Designing and facilitating interactive mapping of social and environmental projects along local rivers for Sustainable SouthHams.

June 2022. The Right to Water: Public Space or Private Asset? Co-hosted workshop to explore current issues and debates associated with access and the ‘right to water’.  Devonport MArket Hall. 

Research groups

https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/urban-dialogues https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/environmental-cultures https://lex.landscaperesearch.org/profiles/zoe-latham/

Award nominations

http://www.presidentsmedals.com/Entry-46411?fbclid=IwAR3dSj16B9V1IQ5tJAaAtlPuASlpLAAzLwe7sf2hHgjplB2x9yNKZKZtQDs

https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/practice/students/aj-student-prize-2018-university-of-plymouth

https://www.archiprix.org/2021/projects/4449