The LAC Cities Collective is pleased to invite you to an insightful presentation by Dr. Bjørn Sletto, Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin.
Event Description: Decolonizing planning research involves a thoughtful and respectful engagement with diverse ontological positions and epistemological perspectives. This presentation will explore how we can listen to the stories and memories that imbue places with meaning, while practicing critical reflexivity, reciprocity, and respect for self-determination. Bjørn Sletto will share experiences from research with Indigenous communities in Venezuela, informal settlement residents in the Dominican Republic, and environmental justice advocates in Austin, Texas. The discussion will highlight the complexities of navigating epistemological and ontological differences and the opportunities for co-production that arise from such trans-boundary, place-based research.
Time: 5pm-6:30pm
Date: Thursday, September 26th
Location: Levis Center, Room 300
We hope to see you there!
Bjørn Sletto is Professor of Community and Regional Planning at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include insurgent and decolonial planning, community-based research, and environmental justice. He has engaged in activist scholarship related to Indigenous territoriality and participatory mapping in Venezuela; urban informality in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and community-based environmental justice work and park planning in Austin, Texas. He is co-editor of Radical Cartographies: Participatory Mapmaking from Latin America (UT Press) and Decolonizing Planning: Power and Knowledge in the Informal City (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming).
