Taking up the theme of ‘Nocturnal Cities’, the 2026-2027 ASCA Cities seminar will explore the city after dark: The nocturnal city is both a place and a time, and, as Nick Dunn argues, also a “state of being” (2016). The night changes not just what and how we see in the dark, but also our ways of moving in and through the city – for reasons as diverse as limited modes of nightly transportation, the alternative centers of nighttime culture as well continuing concerns around safety in the dark. In cities like London, Berlin and Amsterdam, the night also plays a central role in urban policy. With frameworks like The Amsterdam Night Vision, the (often conflicting) interests of residents and tourists, performers, promoters and neighbors of cultural nightlife are addressed – if not always resolved. As something to not just be enjoyed but also controlled, managed and policed, the nocturnal city is situated within the tensions of urban regeneration and urban gentrification (cf. Koren & Hracs 2024), raising questions about who the night really belongs to. 

How can we analytically approach the night as a phenomenon at the intersection of media and culture, and what does an interdisciplinary perspective tell us about the relationship between darkness and the urban? Approaching the city at night also opens up questions about our own experiences of and with urban nights: What does the nocturnal city look and feel like to its human and non-human inhabitants? In what ways can we navigate the city in and through the darkness? And how does our experience of the city change when we are surrounded by darkness? Engaging with and expanding on such questions, the seminar seeks to bring together perspectives from media and culture, cultural and urban geography, sound studies and popular music studies, environmental humanities, anthropology and technology studies as well as architecture and design research.