Most of my research is centered on studying processes and dynamics that lead to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, bringing together theory from urban planning, public policy, urban and environmental sociology, and urban geography. My projects examine the extent to which urban plans and policy decisions contribute to more just, resilient, healthy, and sustainable cities, and how community groups in distressed neighborhoods contest the existence, creation, or exacerbation of environmental inequities as a result of urban (re)development processes and policies. Since 2016, I am the PI of a five-year ERC-funded project called GreenLULUs (€1.5M) which examines green inequalities and green gentrification in 40 cities in Europe, the US, and Canada.

As part of collaborative and individual international research projects, I study how environmental injustice materialize and get contested. Currently, my focus is on four main research areas: 1) The politics of the green city as a growing global planning orthodoxy; 2) The social and racial manifestations and impacts of green gentrification for historically marginalized residents 3) Urban planning for health and wellbeing, with a focus on health equity and justice 4) Justice and inclusivity in climate adaptation planning, including distributional and procedural insecurities produced by adaptation plans, interventions, and land use configurations and regulations.