HOMES AS SANCTUARIES

IN-PERSON GIDEST SEMINAR 
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2023
12:00-1:30 PM
GIDEST LAB, ROOM 411, UNIVERSITY CENTER, 63 FIFTH AVENUE

Gabriela Rendón will present “Homes as Sanctuaries,” a work-in-progress chapter that delves into the housing struggles that immigrant tenants have endured over the last two decades in Booklyn’s Sunset Park. It underscores how the Latinx community — assisted by immigrant and tenant rights groups — has fought against harassment, eviction, and criminalization to protect their communities, homes, and lives. The chapter particularly examines the organizing and coalition-building efforts immigrants used as their homes became precious assets for predatory real estate speculators, and their neighborhoods were encroached on by federal immigration law enforcement agents during the Trump administration. Through the voices of the Mexican community, this chapter depicts the immigrant’s housing experience in Sunset Park as the epitome of many other immigrant communities at risk of displacement in a borough traditionally known for its ethnic enclaves and, more recently, for its hip and gentrified neighborhoods.

Gabriela Rendón’s seminar will be drawn from her book-in-progress tentatively titled Defiant Neighborhoods: Rise, Revitalization, and Gentrification in Latinx Brooklyn. The book is based on nearly ten years of research and work with grassroots groups and community organizations in the predominantly Latinx neighborhoods of Bushwick and Sunset Park.

Gabriela Rendón is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Community Development and Founding Director of Parsons Housing Justice Lab at The New School. She is also co-founder of Urban Front, a transnational consultancy offering localized knowledge to public and third-sector organizations that work for social and environmental justice, and of Cohabitation Strategies, a nonprofit that facilitates community-led local efforts through participatory frameworks leading to urban and social transformation. She has worked on projects commissioned by nonprofits, public agencies, municipalities, and national governments across cities in Western Europe and South and North America.

GIDEST SEMINAR

The bi-weekly GIDEST seminar is a site for exploring work-in-progress presented by scholars and practitioners who share our commitment to innovative and substantive transdisciplinary research. For more information, click here.

COVID POLICY: Masks must be worn in lecture venues. Masks are encouraged and optional elsewhere indoors. To be admitted, you will need to download the CLEAR APP to utilize Health Pass, an online tool that verifies proof of COVID-19 vaccination. For detailed instructions on downloading and using CLEAR, visit the Events and Gatherings section on our Access to Campus page.

Presented by the GIDEST.