Here’s an article about her in the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/arts/geographic-information-systems-help-scholars-see-history.html?pagewanted=all

November 9, 2012

Dr. Teresa Córdova
Director, Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago

“A Scholarship of Engagement: Values, Theory and Practice”

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.

Room 110
CUPPA Hall
412 S. Peoria St
Chicago, IL 60640

FREE LUNCH! http://ow.ly/i/13MQH

In November 2011, I traveled to India to conduct research on urban resistance in Mumbai. The specific proposal I drafted for my research paper is as follows

This paper explores the politics of slum dwelling and slum demolitions in the state of Maharastra, India. Specifically I have used the case study of the slum Golibar, which means ‘firing range’ in Hindi. This name was given to the slum due to the fact that the location of the slum was at one point, army land, a firing range which was abandoned and subsequently squatted. Golibar is located in Khar East, not too far from the city center.  Looking through the lens of “Right to the City” discourses (Lefebvre, Harvey, Davis, Mitchell) I examine at the production of space in Mumbai’s slums and the way in which various actors such as politicians, NGO’s, tourists, and residents of the city alike shape the discourse around ownership and space.  Through a critical analysis of these ideas and theories, I use field notes from participatory observation and on-the-ground interviews I conducted in Delhi, Bangalore, and Mumbai to develop a comprehensive understanding of social justice in the realm of slum life and the modes of urban resistance which are employed in Mumbai against neoliberal urban planning and demolition practices.

What I found after conducting these interviews and reading some raw reports and statistics from Maharashtra regarding slums and slum dwellers was vastly different from what I had imagined.

I was able to present this research at the RGS/IBG conference in July 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland. Unfortunately the panel I was on (Urban planning problems north and south) did not have a single paper which focused on the response of the people who are affected by urban planning policies, but rather focused on the policies themselves. I wrote more about my experiences at this conference here.

Perhaps the most important experiences I had in India and in the aftermath of my research are the friendships I have formed with both activists working in Ghar Bachao, Ghar Banao (Save Homes, Build Homes) in Mumbai but also journalists, filmmakers and urban planners who work around issues of slum demolitions in Mumbai, Dehli, and Bangalore. It was very heartwarming to see so many people directly and indirectly involved in trying to put an end to the injustices by various branches of Indian governments in regards to issues of land and housing.

  I highly recommend everyone watch the AlJazeera documentary, and post comments and questions on this blog post about land scams in Mumbai.