Experience

Buscada

• United States
• Design Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Principal

  • Aug 2001 - Present

  I co-founded Buscada to practice an interdisciplinary art, design and social research approach to place. We work with communities and organizations to make safe spaces for dialogue and the emergence of new knowledge on complex, often contested, urban questions. Our projects foster the nuanced exchange, careful listening, and expression of diverse lived experience critical for building a more just city.Our fields of expertiseOrganizational strategic planningPublic humanitiesVisual urbanismPlace-making & place-keeping



The Laundromat Project

• United States
• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Interim Director of Programs

  • Jan 2022 - Jun 2022



Bryn Mawr College

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Visiting Assistant Professor

  • Jan 2021 - Feb 2022

  Teaching in the Growth and Structure of Cities Department, bringing critical, creative practices into conversation with histories of home and housing. Teaching in the Growth and Structure of Cities Department, bringing critical, creative practices into conversation with histories of home and housing.



The New School

• Education Administration Programs

• Adj Asst Professor, Urban Studies

  • Jun 2012 - Jun 2021

  I teach classes in Urban Studies and Arts + Social Engagement that pioneer hybrid forms of studio and seminar, and build partnerships with arts, community and housing organizations around the city, including the Laundromat Project, Broadway Housing Communities, the New York Council for the Humanities and the High Line. I develop pedagogies that connect with both arts and communities to create new spaces for dialogue about the city. My courses include: Public / Art; Community/Art/Development; City Studio; Critical Approaches to Placemaking

• Associate Director of Civic Engagement Initiatives

  • Jul 2012 - Jul 2015

  My work centers on thinking critically about partnerships and collaboration, and how these can be mutually rewarding and respectful between universities and communities. I work to create a culture of critical civic engagement at The New School, and as such, I convene a great number of public and New School conversations around this civically-engaged practice. My role involves teaching workshops for faculty and students based on my "Working with People" critical pedagogy project, hosting collaborative and critical conversations on civic engagement, collaborating with community organizations to develop lasting partnerships with the New School, mentoring our Public Engagement Fellows, and collaborating with the Executive Dean and Associate Deans to create long-term civic engagement strategies for the New School for Public Engagement. I also teach in the Arts and Social Engagement and Urban Studies programs, creating civically-engaged partnerships with organizations including housing activists GOLES, the New York Council for the Humanities, the Laundromat Project, and Place Matters.

• Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban Studies

  • Sep 2009 - Jun 2012

  As Visiting Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, I created a range of innovative courses, particularly by engaging with creative practice as a way to understand and critically explore the contested city. I also worked in-depth to create lasting community partnerships and to create spaces for critical dialogue within the university around civic engagement practices. The courses I created included : - City Studio : which built long-term community partnerships to explore a contested site on the Lower East Side and created annual exhibitions as sites for dialogue.- Visual Urbanism : which explored the field whose name I coined and helped students to begin critically using and making visual material as a way to research the city- Urban Arts and Publics : in which students explored the many meanings of the intersection between art and public, and in which they developed their own proposals for engagements between art practice and the public.- Urban Public Space Critical Studio : a collaboration with a landscape architect to explore how students could interweave research and design interventions in a small urban space.

• Strategic Planning Consultant

  • Nov 2016 - Apr 2020

  Since November 2016, I have led The Laundromat Project through a unique participatory strategic planning process, grounded in critical conversations about the meanings of community, public, and power for the organization, and evolving into a strategic plan framework deeply owned by all levels of the organization from staff to board. Since November 2016, I have led The Laundromat Project through a unique participatory strategic planning process, grounded in critical conversations about the meanings of community, public, and power for the organization, and evolving into a strategic plan framework deeply owned by all levels of the organization from staff to board.



International Center of Photography

• United States
• Photography
• 200 - 300 Employee

• Postdoctoral Fellow in Visual Culture & Social Justice

  • Jan 2017 - Jan 2019

  Experimenting with new ways of engaging multiple publics, using visual culture and photography as a tool for catalyzing conversation and action on social justice. Experimenting with new ways of engaging multiple publics, using visual culture and photography as a tool for catalyzing conversation and action on social justice.



Goldsmiths, University of London

• United Kingdom
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Fellow

  • Sep 2008 - May 2012

  I co-founded the "Urban Encounters" conference series, on the practice and dialogue of visual urbanism, which began in 2008, and has been hosted by Goldsmiths and the Tate Britain. As a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, I have collaborated with the Centre for Urban Community Research and Paul Halliday to develop the Urban Encounters conferences and network. I co-founded the "Urban Encounters" conference series, on the practice and dialogue of visual urbanism, which began in 2008, and has been hosted by Goldsmiths and the Tate Britain. As a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, I have collaborated with the Centre for Urban Community Research and Paul Halliday to develop the Urban Encounters conferences and network.

• Adjunct Professor in Urban Studies

  • Aug 2008 - 2009

  I teach Urban Studies courses that bring students out into the communities of New York - forwarding a goal of civic engagement. These courses also train students to research and analyze the urban environment while bringing visual media into their repertoire of ways to present this work. In fall 2008, I developed City Studio, a class which created an exhibition about the controversial Seward Park Urban Renewal Area on the Lower East Side, and in 2009 will teach Photographing New York, a class which uses photography as a way to explore and think critically about the environment around us. In both classes, I have collaborated with the community and public history organization Place Matters, a project of City Lore.



Lehman College

• United States
• Higher Education
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Adjunct Professor

  • Aug 2008 - 2009

  I teach Environmental Psychology, a class that combines a psychological and social science perspective on people's relationships to place with an understanding of urban design and the design process. I teach Environmental Psychology, a class that combines a psychological and social science perspective on people's relationships to place with an understanding of urban design and the design process.



UC Berkeley

• United States
• Education Administration Programs
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Adjunct Professor

  • Jun 2006 - Aug 2007

  While at Berkeley, I taught in the College of Environmental Design, teaching color photography to architecture students as way for them to transform their understanding of the built environment. While at Berkeley, I taught in the College of Environmental Design, teaching color photography to architecture students as way for them to transform their understanding of the built environment.



City University of New York Graduate Center

• United States
• Higher Education
• 500 - 600 Employee

• Researcher, Public Space Research Group

  • 2002 - 2007

  Led research on the ethnographic connections to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Working for the National Park Service, and in collaboration with Setha Low and Yvonne Hung, we developed a model of threaded personal and cultural connections to complex national spaces. Led research on the ethnographic connections to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. Working for the National Park Service, and in collaboration with Setha Low and Yvonne Hung, we developed a model of threaded personal and cultural connections to complex national spaces.



Paul Warchol Photography

• Photography

• Archivist

  • May 2001 - Jul 2004



Arts Connection

• Entertainment Providers

• Teaching Photographer

  • Sep 2002 - Jun 2003

  Created an innovative curriculum for teaching photography and mapping to 3rd graders, using their neighborhood as a site for exploration, and using many low-tech, non-toxic, and affordable ways for students to explore the elements of photography and image-making. Created an innovative curriculum for teaching photography and mapping to 3rd graders, using their neighborhood as a site for exploration, and using many low-tech, non-toxic, and affordable ways for students to explore the elements of photography and image-making.



University College London, Slade School of Fine Art

• Teaching & Research Assistant

  • Sep 1998 - Mar 2000

  At the Slade, I taught workshops in photography for MA and BFA students, and worked on independent photographic research projects in collaboration with Sharon Marcus and others. At the Slade, I taught workshops in photography for MA and BFA students, and worked on independent photographic research projects in collaboration with Sharon Marcus and others.



Thomas J. Watson Fellowship

• Non-profit Organizations
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Watson Fellow

  • 1998 - 1999

  The Thomas J. Watson Foundation supports independent research abroad. I received a Watson Fellowship to understand the experience of everyday life through photography and walking oral histories in neighborhoods in East London, Buenos Aires and Mexico City. The Thomas J. Watson Foundation supports independent research abroad. I received a Watson Fellowship to understand the experience of everyday life through photography and walking oral histories in neighborhoods in East London, Buenos Aires and Mexico City.

• Teaching Assistant

  • Sep 1997 - Jun 1998

  At Bryn Mawr I developed means for Growth and Structure of Cities classes to critically engage with visual materials and to incorporate critical visual studies into the department's classes. At Bryn Mawr I developed means for Growth and Structure of Cities classes to critically engage with visual materials and to incorporate critical visual studies into the department's classes.