Chenab Navalkha

Chenab Navalkha is a PhD student in Urban Planning at DUSP. She studies the political economy of housing, with a focus on contestation between local organizers and residents, and shifts in global capital flows. Her work focuses on understanding how new technologies that mediate the landlord-tenant relationship and facilitate global flows of housing investment affect the experience of local residents faced with displacement. In addition, she studies how housing justice organizers shift their strategies in response to new technologies and changing patterns of real estate investment. Chenab takes a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from scholarship in political economy, urban planning, geography, and history, with particular attention to local context and the history of racism and racialization in access to urban space and housing.

Before coming to MIT, Chenab worked as a urban health researcher and patient educator at the University of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Philosophy from University of Chicago and a Master in City Planning from MIT. Some of her other work has focused on civic technology and data governance.