Expanding UCLA’s global reach is one of the strategic goals under the UCLA Connects initiative. In support of that initiative, the UCLA Global Advisors Council has awarded nearly $260,000 to 17 faculty across campus in its second annual Global Research and Global Education awards.
Paavo Monkkonen, chair of UCLA Luskin Urban Planning, is one of just two scholars campuswide to receive awards in both categories.
Monkkonen’s Global Research Award will fund his study, “Housing and Migration in the Americas: The Reality Behind the Rhetoric.”
“This project responds to the housing impacts of recent migration flows across the Americas, both on individuals’ conditions in terms of health and finances, but also on the political discourse around migration and housing,” said Monkkonen, professor of urban planning and public policy.
The study will compare immigrant housing conditions across the 35 countries of the Americas and assess how different housing markets absorb new people and households. UCLA researchers will collaborate with TECHO, a Latin American organization focused on housing poverty and informal settlements, to complete the project.
The Global Education Award, which supports UCLA faculty, departments, and programs wishing to internationalize their curricula, is designed to expand the university’s reach as a global university.
Monkkonen will use the award to update UCLA Luskin’s Comparative Urban Planning course, which delves into the contextual factors allowing some cities and countries to produce high-quality urban environments. His project will produce a deeper analysis of planning resources to enrich case studies of urban areas in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as the United States.
