Bio

Brenda Parker is an Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research interests focus on gendered, raced, and political economic inequalities, particularly in North American cities. She uses feminist theories to analyze these inequalities and how they are manifested and transformed in cities and knowledge production processes, to understand how we might cultivate better cities for all residents. Among other projects, she has studied women in academia and public office, housing, community development and community organizing, community mapping, urban homesteading, and progressive and urban policies and practices. Her book, Masculinities and Markets: Raced and Gendered Urban Politics in Milwaukee was recently published by the University of Georgia Press (2017) and she has articles in journals such as Antipode, Urban Geography, and Gender, Place, and Culture. Prior to becoming an academic, she worked in community development and continues to be active in this arena.

Project

During the Faber Residency, I will be studying the practice and production of restorative urban spaces that elicit positive outcomes of improved physical, psychological or emotional health, or an overall sense of improved well-being for individuals and communities. I am especially interested in how these spaces and practices can benefit those affected by trauma and/or marginalized by gender, race, poverty, or other factors. As part of this research project, I am exploring community and householdself-provisioning(through farming, cooperatives and other methods) and its relationship to restorative spaces and practices.