As a doctoral student in the UCLA Urban Planning Department, I primarily use historical and ethnographic research methods to answer my research questions. For the dissertation, which I am in the early stages of, I am analyzing Black community building in the context of ongoing displacement and dispersal across Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, the Antelope Valley, and the High Desert. This research is rooted in critical urban theory, diaspora studies, suburban studies, Black feminist theory, and participatory planning literature. If any part of this work is of interest to you, please get in touch! 

As a community-engaged researcher, I am committed to developing public scholarship and supporting people's histories. This has entailed: conducting research for museums and libraries, including the Smithsonian Institution’s Anacostia Community Museum, the Southern California Library, and the Library Company of Philadelphia; writing for public audiences through The Black Agenda Report, Deem Journal, and Monument Lab; contributing to social movements in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, most substantially the tenant organizing of the Los Angeles Center for Community Law and Action; and strengthening institutional support for open access publishing through UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. Between 2017 and 2020, I conducted research with and stewarded public-facing programs of the Housing Justice in Unequal Cities Research Coordination Network, an NSF-funded initiative of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy. ​Additionally, I am committed to language justice, so I strive to conduct and/or facilitate the production of much of this work - particularly the work related to housing justice - in Spanish as well as English.