Sharon Dias - PhD Student
Hello! I am an urban geographer, passionate about the relationships between cities and housing. These two major topics have driven my research to take a special look at the spatial and social interactions of low-income communities on urban settlements in the Global South. I also enjoy learning from different cultures. I am fluent in Portuguese, English, have a good command of Spanish, and I am also learning German. My academic background is in Brazil, where I did my undergraduate and master’s degrees. In my previous studies, I developed community-based research to investigate the everyday life of two communities displaced and reallocated in a massive housing project for low-income people, their struggles and living strategies. Working daily with such communities has influenced me as a researcher and as a person, nurturing my desire to seek for adequate housing and social justice.
I am currently a PhD student at University of Victoria, where I am in a Joint PhD Program in partnership with the Federal Fluminense University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At UVic, I am based on the Critical Geographies Research Lab working under supervision of Dr. Reuben Rose-Redwood. My current research draws upon the impacts of financialization of housing on low income people in the Global South/Brazil. Within my research, I expect to stress such impacts, but also highlight low-income householders’ perspectives on housing development. I continue to focus on communities’ housing needs, community engagement and social movement actions for the right to adequate housing and for the right to the city. Additionally, I have experience teaching human geography and urban planning related courses for undergraduate students (as sessional lecture in Brazil), and currently as a teaching assistant consultant (in Canada). I have also worked for human rights in non-profit organizations, participatory urban planning, and social housing development.
Publications
Dias, S. (2018). A Place to Call Home? The Financialization of Housing and its Impacts on Everyday Life in Brazil. Housing Policy Debate (Submitted).
Dias, S. (2018). Profitable urbanization and housing issues in Brazil: from the financialization to the (re) production of big housing projects, newers and olders pattern. Journal ParaOnde!?, Special Issue. Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Dias, S. (2018). Space, and Production of Space: Politics of Space Behind Social Housing in Brazil, and the seeking for the right to the city. 2018 IGU Regional Conference - CAG Annual Meeting - NCGE Annual Conference. Quebec City – Canada.
Dias, S. Gutberlet, J. (2018). For Marielle Franco. Purple Prose: UVic Academic Women’s Caucus.
Dias, S. (2017). Neoliberalism, State, Financialization and City: reflections on housing. XVI Meeting of Geographers of Latin America, 2017, EGAL, La Paz, Colombia (Conference Paper).
Dias, S. (2014) Favelas and the Right to the City in Fortaleza - Ceara. In Journal Geouece, Fortaleza, Brazil, 2014.
Dias, S. (2013). National Symposium of Urban Geography - Housing Policy and Socio-Spatial inequalities in Fortaleza City: From displacement to the everyday life in Maria Tomasia public housing project, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Conference Paper).
Dias, S. (2013) Conference paper: Population mobility and inequality on accessing housing in Fortaleza – Ceará. 3oNorth and northeast regional post-graduation seminar in Geography, João Pessoa, Brazil (Conference Paper).
Personal websites
https://universityofvictoria.academia.edu/SharonDias
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sharon_Dias
http://buscatextual.cnpq.br/buscatextual/visualizacv.do?id=K4430692D2