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Appointment
- Student
- Development Planning Unit
- Faculty of the Built Environment
Biography
I have more than 15 years of cross-sector experience in violence and precarity in some 15 countries in North and South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. In 2020, the VIP Lab (formerly Impact:Peace, University of San Diego) and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security commissioned me to undertake research on identity-based mass violence in cities. Prior to that, my consulting work took me to San Salvador where I led a team in rewriting the city's public space policy; Mexico City and Monterrey where I documented police reform as part of a joint initiative by Innovations for Successful Societies (Princeton University) and the Tecnológico de Monterrey; and various towns and cities in Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Benin where I strengthened the social impact of entrepreneurial ventures with support from TechnoServe and GIZ. I also developed and refined counterterrorism research methodologies with partners in government and law enforcement across the United States and Canada. I have an MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development from UCL and a BA in Middle East Studies and Political Science from McGill University.
Research Summary
I am a social urbanist and feminist researcher specialising in urban violence, research ethics, participatory urban design, and methodology development. I have focused on Latin America for most of the last 10 years, especially El Salvador, but I have also worked on the Middle East, West Africa, and Southeast Asia.
I drafted several contributions to The Bartlett's Practising Ethics project, among them a guide to risk and wellbeing in research, a case study on gender-based violence in fieldwork, and a definition of feminist ethics. I also work closely with the Women Doing Fieldwork Network to promote the safety, security, wellbeing, and rights of people who identify as women in academia. I often speak publicly about my work in both academic and non-academic contexts including architecture and design firms, workshops, and conferences.
I am completing my PhD in Development Planning and my thesis is called Making dangerous places: Toward a feminist methodology amid extreme and chronic urban violence. It draws from fieldwork I did in San Salvador in 2018.
Teaching Summary
I have been invited to lecture on feminist ethics, applying a gender lens to violence, and fear and violence in postwar contexts, amongst other topics, at UCL, KCL, Anglia Ruskin University, and José Simeón Cañas Central American University. In 2019, I taught on the practice module of the MSc programme Development Administration and Planning, including travelling with students to Kampala for fieldwork. I have also facilitated large-scale graduate and postgraduate simulations.
