I am a third year human geography student at UBC, looking to pursue urban planning and community development. As an Ontarian-turned-Vancouverite, my eclectic list of interests includes road trips, mountain biking, ice hockey, and spoken word poetry, among others.
One of my goals in studying cities of the global south is, as Ananya Roy suggests, to “unknow poverty.” I am interested in the intimate tie between the structures of poverty and the conditions that precede it, and the ways in which physical/social infrastructure is deployed to either better incorporate or further marginalize the masses living below the poverty line.
I chose to study housing in Lagos because a news report on the Eko Atlantic development piqued my interest. I decided that it would be worthwhile to assess the explosive city growth in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of this course.