Faranak Miraftab
I am an urban scholar of globalization. My scholarship is situated at the intersection of sociology, geography, planning, and feminist studies, using case study and ethnographic methodologies. My research concerns social and institutional aspects of urban development and planning that address basic human needs including housing and urban infrastructure and services that support it. I am particularly interested in the global and local development processes and contingencies involved in the formation of the city and citizens’ struggles for dignified livelihood — namely, how groups disadvantaged by class, gender, race, and ethnicity mobilize for resources such as shelter, basic infrastructure, and services and how institutional arrangements facilitate and frustrate provision and access to such vital urban resources.
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Marina Moscoso
After years working as an anthropologist, Marina enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico’s Graduate Planning School where she discovered her passion for urbanism. She later attained an M.A. in Collaborative Urban Design in Barcelona. In 2013, Marina became a professional squatter and urban blight advocate in Puerto Rico.