UCD School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy

I am a human geographer with a regional interest in Latin America. My research lies at the intersection of urban geography, cultural geography and critical theory. My doctoral research centered on the struggles resulting from the implementation of revitalization policies in the Historic Center of Mexico City. More specifically, I examined how excluded groups negotiate and struggle over changing power structures in their everyday lives. I conducted fourteen months of qualitative fieldwork in Mexico City and triangulated information gathered from archival work; open ended and semi-structures interviews with members of policy circles, and groups of affected citizens; and participant observation with street vendors in the Historic Center. I also worked in a six month project at the Colegio de México (Mexico City) funded by the World Bank and the Government of Mexico City in June 2004. The project was designed to develop a contingency plan for the construction of a new system of public transportation (metro-bus) in Mexico¿s capital city.

Prior to my appointment I worked as a postdoctoral researcher in a project that examines the impact of the emergent creative class and rise of creative industries in the Dublin metropolitan area. This research forms part of an EU-wide examination of the conditions for creating or stimulating competitive `creative knowledge regions¿.