JC Niala

JC Niala is an allotment historian and writer who explores the connections between nature, culture and community through allotments. Her doctoral research defined allotments as ‘banal utopias’ – everyday sanctuaries where people collaboratively create paradise with nature. In 2022, she won the Social History Society Public History Prize for recreating a 1918-style allotment. And in 2023, she collaborated with Greenpeace to highlight allotment waiting lists and urge councils to recognise their potential for urban sustainability.