Chenab Navalkha

Chenab Navalkha is a PhD candidate at DUSP. She studies the political economy of housing and urban development, with a particular interest in how grassroots actors negotiate and contest transformations in the governance of housing and cities, and how social movements and tenant organizers formulate and advance visions of more just societal futures. 

Part of her work focuses on understanding how digital real estate technologies impact the landlord-tenant relationship, facilitate global flows of housing investment, and affect the experience of residents. Chenab takes a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from scholarship in political economy, urban planning, geography, and history, with particular attention to local context and histories of racism and racialization in access to urban space and housing.

Before coming to MIT, Chenab worked as an 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.