Picture
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University and a Research Fellow at the Global Cities Institute, University of Toronto. Previously, I held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto. I hold an MSc in Global Politics from the London School of Economics and a PhD in Planning from the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto. My research focuses on urban issues and planning, urban politics, and participation in large urban centres, especially in cities in Brazil and Canada.

Currently, I am working on research exploring metropolitan governance and planing institutions in Brazilian cities. I am also working on research on land value capture in Toronto and São Paulo through an equity lens, and comparative research to better understand paradiplomacy, or cities relations with the international world, also focusing on Toronto and São Paulo. Additional research has included exploring the impact of graduate community-engaged learning in planning education, national urban policy and participatory budgeting in Canadian cities. My doctoral research investigated the local practice of a 2001 national Brazilian law called the Statute of the City. The Statute recognizes the right to the city, or the right to participate in urban life, mandates institutionalized participation in planning, and aims to promote social justice by alleviating the array of problems faced by Brazilian cities.  Please see my CV for more details.

In addition, I have over ten years of experience conducting research and policy in the public and community sectors, and international organizations. Please see my consulting page for more details about my consulting services.    

To get in touch with me, send me an email. 
Recent news

Participation in Confronting Informality at TU Delft, June 7, 2018. 

New article: "Paradigm or Paradox? The 'Cumbersome Impasse' of the Participatory Turn in Brazilian Urban Planning." 

​Article (in Portuguese) about my project on metropolitan governance in Brazil.

New article: "Community Service-Learning in Graduate Planning Education." 

See my profile in U of T news.
​
Article in Novae Res Urbis mentions my research on land value capture. (Posted with permission of the publisher of NRU Publishing Inc. Original article first appeared in Novae Res Urbis - Toronto. Vol. 21, No. 28, Friday, July 14, 2017.)

​Commentary on national urban policy and federalism in Citiscope.

New article: "Urban Policy, Social Movements and the Right to the City in Brazil."