She is Associate Professor of Geography at University College London (UCL). Her research draws on her background in performance studies, anthropology and geography. She studies forms of entrepreneurial and improvised urbanism and their effects. She is particularly interested in the cultural and economic geographies of work outside or alongside the wage economy, and in livelihood strategies in precarious urban environments. Her research, publications and teaching span four areas: youth geographies and hustle economies; the urban political ecology of sanitation and waste; social enterprise and development; and migration and cities. Thieme moves between urban contexts in the majority and minority worlds, and between diverse spaces of learning (university, prison, street and studio). She combines academic writing with collaborative storytelling, drawing, dance and short films. She is the author of Hustle Urbanism: Making Life Work in Nairobi (University of Minnesota Press, 2025).