I have conducted fieldwork in Brazil in 2022, 2024, 2025, and 2026 across various projects. I carried out eleven months of dissertation fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro in 2025 as a Fulbright-Hays fellow, studying how responses to environmental risk in informal settlements are brokered between residents of at-risk areas, the state, and “expert” intermediaries such as engineers, lawyers, and urban planners. Below are some scenes from my fieldwork!
A dense mountainside favela communityHomes built to the edge of a cliff in a high-risk area for landslidesInformal housing built along a riverbankA flood-risk area which experienced a devastating flood in 2024Public hearing to gather input for the municipal social interest housing planPublic hearing to gather input for the municipal social interest housing planLocal survey partnersA favela home marked “SMH” (Secretaria Municipal de Habitação) by the municipal housing secretariat, indicating plans for removal/eviction.Housing social movement leadersTechnical site visit along the Acari river with the municipal civil defense agencyA community participatory mapping exercise about flood riskA citizen-generated data project about flood riskThe launch event of a federally-funded risk reduction project through PAC (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento)A public hearing hosted by the public defender’s office about implications for residents who will be displaced by PAC implementationInterview with civil engineers about risk mappingTechnical visit to Rio’s Center for OperationsInformal construction“Climate Memory” Exposition, hosted by the Sustainable Favela NetworkSlope stabilization projectSteep hillside housing with concrete drainage infrastructureRemains of a home which collapsed into the river during a flood
