Since 2018, I have served as an assistant professor in the Urban Studies Program at the University of Toronto, and was also a community-engaged learning faculty fellow at the Centre for Community Partnerships.

I completed my PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, where I was awarded the department’s most outstanding dissertation prize for my investigation of the politics of community media in post-disaster cities. I was also awarded the Institute’s highest public service award for co-designing MIT’s first course located inside a prison, and for co-publishing scholarly work related to the course innovations.

Prior to academia, I helped develop data democratization projects and impact measures from grant-making at the Boston Foundation; conducted research in Mumbai about non-profit capacity in slums; and worked for a mission-driven affordable housing developer in Washington D.C.

I design courses and research projects in collaboration with community partners for the purpose of social change, and, through my pedagogy, reflect on the process of knowledge production. My research and teaching critically examine discrimination, inequality, resource divestment, and media bias as these affect marginalized urban communities, and identify promising new social and technological infrastructure developments that can help address these disparities. I use participatory methods to ensure that affected communities are not mere subjects of academic research, but, rather, are co-creators of public knowledge.