Peter M. Ward, PhD | Founding Chair, LAHN
Peter M. Ward is the Founding Chair of the Latin American Housing Network (LAHN). He studied geography at the University of Hull, England (1969-72), from which he graduated with First Class Hons. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool in 1976 and subsequently has held senior teaching and research positions at University College London (1976-85), The University of Cambridge (1985-91), and at The University of Texas at Austin (1991-present) where he holds the C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial Chair in US-Mexico Relations, and is professor in the Department of Sociology (College of Liberal Arts), and in the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.
Between 2002-07 he served as Executive Editor of the Latin American Research Review. He is author or co-author of 15 books and almost 100 scholarly articles on low income housing, land markets, social policy, democratization and governance, Mexican politics and megacities (most notably Mexico City). Among his major book publications on housing are: Self-help Housing: A Critique (1982, Editor); Housing, the State and the Poor: Policy and Practice in Latin American Cities (1985 with Alan Gilbert) reprinted in paperback 2009; Mexico City: The Production and Reproduction of an Urban Environment (1990 & 1998; 2004 edition [Spanish]; Colonias and Public Policy in Texas and Mexico: Urbanization by Stealth, (1999).
His direct e-mail is: peter.ward@mail.utexas.edu. Further biographical details are available here.
LAHN Research Associates and Participants at the University of Texas:
Lissette Aliaga
Lissette Aliaga is completing her Ph.D in the Department of Sociology, UT-Austin and participated in fieldwork in the Bogotá restudy in 2007 where she continues to work on informal sector employment and neighborhood micro-enterprise. Lissette has participated in several of the LAHN meetings, and is sometime collaborator with the Bogot? researcher group at the Universidad Piloto, Colombia. A Peruvian national, she received her bachelors degree from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and later her Masters from UT-Austin.
Hui Chung (Gisela) Cho
Hui Chung (Gisela) Cho is completing a Masters Degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. A native of South Korea she spent her formative years in Santiago Chile. She participated in the Policy Research Project during 2008-09 and was one of the survey team members working in Monterrey, Mexico. In November as a part of the LAHN network and in preparation of her thesis she conducted the survey of El Bosque, as one of the survey settlements in the Santiago study. Her direct e-mail is: giselacho@gmail.com.
Erika Denisse Grajeda
Erika Denisse Grajeda is a first-year graduate student at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas, Austin where she recently previously completed a two year MA in Latin American Studies. Her Master’s thesis focused on inheritance and property in Mexico’s former irregular settlements. In 2007 and 2009 Erika participated in the fieldwork in Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico
Denisse Gelber
Denisse Gelber received her Sociology in Universidad Catolica del Uruguay (2005) and is currently studying for her doctoral degree in the Department of Sociology? While pursuing her studies, Denisse is serving providing data management research assistance to the LAHN, as well as serving as liaison and support to the Montevideo team
Email: denugelber@yahoo.com.
Alejandra Ramirez Cuesta
Alejandra Ramirez Cuesta received her professional degree in Architecture, from the School of Architecture, Design and Urbanism at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, and a Masters degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. Currently, she is PhD Candidate at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. Since 2007 she has worked in the LAHN network as a research assistant with Professor Peter Ward (Mexico City and Monterrey cases). Her doctoral dissertation is on “Geography of the Urban Environmental Pollution: The Case of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires”, and she has major research interests in: urban policy, urban environment and poverty, governance, GIS and urban spatial analysis, with a regional interest in Latin America. Email: aerc_tx@yahoo.com.ar, denugelber@yahoo.com.
Sergio Cabrera
Sergio Cabrera rentered the doctoral program of Sociology at The University of Texas, Austin in 2008, having previously received his Bachelors and Masters degrees at the University of Florida. Working with Dr. Ward he participated in the LBJ School PRP and in the Monterrey study, and was research assistant to Dr. Bryan Roberts in Guatemala (see Guatemala section)
Wenjie Zhang
Wenjie Zhang enrolled in doctoral program of LBJ School of Public Policy at University of Texas at Austin in 2006. Previously Ms. Zhang graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with her Master degree in Russian Studies. She received her bachelor in Russian language and Economics from Peking University, China. Currently her research focuses on financial crisis and its influence on China. Before she came into the U.S., Ms. Zhang worked for China Central Television as a journalist.
2008-09 Policy Research Project Graduate Students who participated in the Monterrey study and fieldwork: Sergio Cabrera; Dana Stoval; Maria Garcia; Haydn Kihm; Kendra Kreider; Sabina Mora; Cristeen Pusch; Cristina Saborio; and Lindsey Stuart.
2008-09 Austin based innerburbs fieldwork and PRP participants were: Lauren Dimitry; Edna Ledesma; Jordan Munn, Meng Qi, Orly Shturman, Olivia Starr; Mary Esther Sullivan; Laura Vanoni and Ju Hyun Yoo
LAHN Research Associates in Monterrey:
Roberto García Ortega
Roberto García Ortega is has a degree Architecture from the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and a Ph.D in urbanism from the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail. He is a Professor/researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. A.C. (EL COLEF) en Monterrey. México and in 2008-09 was a Visiting Scholar at UT-Austin during which time he collaborated the Monterrey Study. He has served as the Director General for the Northeast and Monterrey Regional Director of EL COLEF, and is a former Director of Urban Development Planning in the Ministry of Urban Development and Public Works, State of Nuevo León. He is author of 5 books and a number of articles about urban problems of the Metropolitan Area of Monterrey and the Northeast region of Mexico.
Mariana Gabarrot
Dr. Mariana Gabarrot leads a research team on Social Development and Globalization at ITESM and teaches qualitative methods in the Masterls Program of Public Administration and Public Policy in EGAP and in the PhD on Social Sciences in the Division of Social Sciences — Campus Monterrey. Her main area of study is the analysis of the impacts of US migration on development in Mexico. Overall, she uses qualitative approaches to analyze the implications of transnational migration for the design of public policy addressing local development needs. She has a Ph.D from the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University, an MSc. in Social Sciences by the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO), in Mexico and a bachelors degree in international relations from Universidad de Monterrey.
Blanca Algarra
Ms. Blanca Algarra is a Ph.D student in Social Sciences in Tecnológico de Monterrey. She currently teaches undergraduate courses in Sociology and International Relations Theory and is also a member of the Social Development and Globalization Research Group. Her area of interest is the construction and reconstruction of identity in global contexts, particularly in marginalized urban areas. She has an M.A. degree in International Studies from the School of Public Administration, also at Tecnol?gico de Monterrey, and a bachelor?s degree in Social Anthropology from Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana (UAM-Iztapalapa).
Luis Portales
Luis Portales is a student of the Ph.D in Social Sciences at Tecnológico de Monterrey. He currently co-teaches graduate courses in Social Responsibility and is a member of the Humanism and Management research Group. His areas of interest are social capital and development in marginalized areas, and Social Responsibility in SMEs. Recent publication includes articles nationally and internationally on issues of social responsibility and social capital, he also is author of a case study for the United Nations Program for Development. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Tecnológico de Monterrey.
Mtra. Sandrine Molinard
Mtra. Sandrine Molinard es Directora del Centro Metropolitano y Territorial de la Escuela de Graduados en Administración Pública y Política Pública (EGAP), en el Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). Imparte clases en el Departamento de Arquitectura del ITESM, la Maestría en Prospectiva Estratégica y la Maestría en Gestión Urbana Local en la EGAP. Se graduó en 2001 del Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Rennes, Francia, en Ciencias Políticas y Administración Pública, y en el año 2002 de la London School of Economics and Political Science, del Master Cities, Space and Society. Participó en la realización del Plan Maestro: Monterrey Ciudad Internacional del Conocimiento, para el Gobierno del estado de Nuevo León, y dirigió el Diagnóstico de Desarrollo de los Municipios de Nuevo León y recomendaciones de política pública, para el Congreso del Estado de N.L. Sus áreas de interés se centran en la prospectiva urbana y territorial, los procesos de participación ciudadana en la gestión urbana, la gobernanza metropolitana, y los fenómenos de violencia ligados al entorno urbano. Contacto: smolinard@itesm.mx
Arq. Rena Overgaard Porsen
Arq. Rena Overgaard Porsen graduated in architecture from the School of Architecture in Aarhus, Denmark, and later received her Master’s degree in the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, Spain. Between 1997 and 2001 Rena Porsen was the director of the department of urban planning of the city of Monterrey. Currently she is in charge of the research program on Urban Regeneration and is a full time professor of the department of architecture of ITESM, where she gives classes in architectural design both on the Undergraduate and Masters degree programs.
e-mail: rporsen@itesm.mx
Monterrey Tec Eugenio Garza Sada Avenue 2501 64849 Monterrey, Mexico
Poster summarizing the findings and challenges of public policy in the city of Monterrey.
Cartel que resume los hallazgos y retos de política pública en la ciudad de Monterrey.
These materials are also described in the Research Methodology section for the Monterrey Case.
Maps of the Settlements:
Below is a final draft report by students from the LBJ School Graduate Policy Research Project (PRP) class The “Innerburbs” of Monterrey Mexico and Austin in Comparative Perspective. It contains a section about the preliminary findings for the two settlement studies that will be discussed in greater depth and reported upon later in 2009 and in 2010 on the LAHN website. Several sections from this PRP report are also repeated elsewhere on the Monterrey pages.
