I have been working as an educator in urban studies for over ten years, during which I received a doctorate in Environmental Psychology from The Graduate Center, CUNY. My dissertation research focused on Black Geographies of gentrification and the material conditions, contradictions, and experiences of neighborhood change held by long-term Black residents and homeowners in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. As a teacher and independent researcher concerned with issues of urban life and social justice, I hold multiple and interconnected interests including the study of political economy and Marxian frameworks, affordable housing and financialization, constructs of race and gender, and place identity and attachment.
One of my current interests is in further researching two, as of yet, underdeveloped aspects of my dissertation: 1) the historical role of familial and fictive kin networks in acquiring housing in urban communities of color and 2) intra-racial and classed differences in acts of resistance to gentrification in communities of color. In other words, understanding the tensions that exist at the intersection of anti-capitalist approaches to housing, which decenter private property rights, and homeownership as a (the) strategy to build generational wealth.
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Cirriculum Vitae
Education
Doctor of Philosophy 2024, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Field of Specialization: Environmental Psychology
Department: Psychology
Dissertation: Staying Power: The Struggle for Space and Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
MS.Arch 2013, University of Minnesota
Field of Specialization: Sustainable Design
Department: Architecture
Thesis: Perception of Density in the Suburban Residential Built Environment
M.Arch 2010, University of Minnesota
Department: Architecture
Thesis: Le Corbusian Conception of Space Informs an Architectural Design Process
B.E.D. 2003, Texas A&M University
Department: Architecture
Magna cum laude
Teaching Positions
Queens College, CUNY, Department of Urban Studies
(*online synchronous course)
Spring/Fall 2026 Adjunct Professor :: 101CN*:Urban Issues: Poverty & Affluence (College Now Program)
Fall 2025 Substitute Lecturer :: 222/723*:Intro. to Housing/Dynamics of Housing and Homelessness; 114:Sex and the City (2 sections); 120/620*:Writing in Urban Studies/Urban Research Writing (co-taught)
Summer 2025 Substitute Lecturer :: 101*:Urban Issues: Poverty & Affluence (4-week)
Spring 2025 Substitute Lecturer :: 101*:Urban Issues: Poverty & Affluence; 114:Sex and the City (2 sections); 791*:Graduate Seminar on Research and Writing
Fall 2024 Substitute Lecturer :: 222/723*:Intro. to Housing/Dynamics of Housing and Homelessness; 105:Urban Politics; 114/114*:Sex and the City (2 sections)
Summer 2024 Adjunct :: 101*:Urban Issues: Poverty & Affluence (6-week)
Spring 2024 Adjunct :: 791*:Graduate Seminar on Research and Writing
Fall 2023 Adjunct :: 222/723:Intro. to Housing/Dynamics of Housing and Homelessness
Summer 2023 Adjunct :: 101*:Urban Issues: Poverty & Affluence (6-week)
Fall 2022 Adjunct :: 200:Urban Research Methods; 222/723:Intro. to Housing/Dynamics of Housing and Homelessness
Fall 2018, ‘19, ‘20*, ‘21*; Spring ‘22 Adjunct :: 103:Urban Diversity
Fall 2016 – Spring 2019 Teaching Assistant :: 101:Urban Poverty & Affluence
Pratt Institute, Urban Placemaking and Management
Spring 2024 Advisor the UPM Theis students
Fall 2023 Visiting Professor :: 614:Civic Engagement (5-week)
Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
Fall 2019-Spring 2020 Tutor :: Center for Academic Writing Success (part of WRAC Fellowship, partially online)
University of Minnesota, School of Architecture
Fall 2009 Teaching Assistant :: Urban Form & Meaning
Fall 2008 Teaching Assistant :: Structures I
2007-2010 Teaching Assistant :: Environmental Tech., Thermal Design
Research Positions
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Spring 2016-Spring 2023 Research Associate :: Public Space Research Group (PSRG), the Graduate Center, CUNY, Dir. Setha M. Low :: coordinating networking and speaker events (in-person and online), assisting with conference workshops and presentations, updating website
Summer 2023 Research Assistant :: NYS Park-User Surveys (Shirley Chisolm State Park), PSRG-CSU Northridge. PI: Suzanne Scheld, PhD
Spring 2017-Fall 2020 PSRG Fellowship :: Public Space Literature Review Database Project, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Center for the Future of Places
August 2016-Spring 2018 Research Assistant :: Quantitative study of Interrupting Place-Based Inequality: Community Land Trust Homeownership and Child Well-being, The Graduate Center, CUNY, Housing Environments Research Group. PI: Susan Saegert, PhD
Spring-Fall 2022 Graduate Assistant :: Graphics and bibliography editing for Why Public Space Matters by Setha M. Low
Fall 2015-Spring 2016 Graduate Assistant :: Graphics for Spatializing Culture: The Ethnography of Space and Place by Setha M. Low; coding interviews
University of Minnesota, School of Architecture
Spring 2010 Research Assistant :: Dutch Urban Housing Study, produced axonometric drawings of unit typologies and building shell of complex Dutch housing facilities for publication