The writing of Contested Space, learning to read a city, is a richly illustrated talk, which takes you through the process of the author, in researching, discovering and experiencing the values and significance of George Town, Penang. Writing from the Chinese shophouse in the heart of the historic urban setting, she observed the environment through an urban and architectural anthropologist's lens, seeing the reciprocal relationships between multi cultural - multi ethnic communities, how each community ‘reads’ the interstitial spaces they share and how independently they sculpt their identities in the physical environment of home, work, worship. Although already present prior to George Town’s serial World Heritage Listing (with Melaka), the greatly expanded conservation and tourism industries and their ‘heritage' interpretations have made there mark and what was once environmentally balanced and respectfully shared has become a 'contested space'.

Trained as a 3D designer, Dr Gwynn Jenkins moved to live and work in George Town in 1995. She spent 11 years working with Penang’s pioneering architectural conservation practice, whilst completing her PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology supported by the University of Hull, UK.