Clara Xavier Marques

Territories in Transition: Exploring Recovery and Governance After Environmental Events

Clara Xavier Marques is a PhD student in the Constructed Environment program at the University of Virginia, advised by Dr. Vanessa Guerra. Her research examines the social, spatial, and institutional dimensions of recovery and reconstruction in the aftermath of environmental disruptions. She is particularly interested in how communities respond to large-scale environmental events and how these responses interact with planning systems and governance structures over time. She is currently examining two case studies in Minas Gerais, Brazil: the 2015 Fundão and the 2019 Córrego do Feijão Tailing Dam ruptures as key case studies.

Clara holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil, and a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Since her undergraduate studies, she has been actively involved in research projects and has received multiple scholarships in urban planning and landscape studies.

In Portugal, she was awarded a Foundation for Science and Technology Research Scholarship for her work on the AQUA Project at the University of Lisbon—an international, multidisciplinary initiative at the intersection of urban planning, landscape studies, and the history of science and technology. Her contributions to this project, along with her master’s research, resulted in peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and presentations at conferences in Portugal, Spain, and Brazil. Her work was further recognized with a Fulbright Research Scholarship at Johns Hopkins University’s Department of the History of Science and Technology in Baltimore, Maryland.