FOCUS
Angeliz E. Encarnación Burgos will explore the intersections between urban development and health in the Caribbean Region. She is particularly interested in political economy, local governments’ development agendas, exclusions and marginalization; and how they play as key elements in health, environment and urban life outcomes.
MORE ABOUT ANGELIZ
Angeliz Encarnación Burgos is a Ph.D. student at The University of Texas, Austin. Originally from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, she completed her BS and her Master’s in Planning at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. Angeliz then worked on the Caño Martín Peña ENLACE Project for two years with AmeriCorps. As part of ENLACE’s interdisciplinary approach, she was involved not only in the design of instruments to measure program efficiency and collect data in urban and environmental matters, but in social planning issues as well, including adult literacy, violence prevention and housing programs. During this time, she designed methodological approaches and workshops on participatory mapping for an environmental awareness program. She developed a comprehensive GIS database for both ENLACE and the Caño Martín Peña Community Land Trust. Before entering her PhD program, she was working as Associate Director of Research Affairs at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Dental Medicine.
DISSERTATION GRANT AWARDEE — FEBRUARY 2019
Urban Development under Conditions of Colonialism: A Critical Urban History of Santurce, Puerto Rico
This study analyzes how historical political forces and development/planning processes have contributed to shaping the current uneven urban landscape of Santurce, one of the oldest barrios of the capital of Puerto Rico (San Juan), through state interventions (i.e., development/planning policies). In doing so, this study explores the key agents (i.e., institutions and political actors) and practices that have molded the distinctive development/planning institutional ensemble of Puerto Rico over time. It also considers how certain spatial strategies and colonial political interventions in Santurce, Puerto Rico have been deeply tied to economic growth policies to attract US investors and to uphold US hegemony and the colonial state. Herewith, the study proposes to trace pivotal political configurations (including the expansion of federal regulations, funding, and other institutional engagements) and to describe how the evolving historical configurations of a complex development/planning political-institutional ensemble have organized San Juan’s urban space under the shifting, often contradictory conditions of capitalism and colonialism.
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