Matthew Slaats
Infrastructures of the Marvelous: Black Social Transformation in the Southern US
Matthew Slaats is a fifth-year Ph.D. Candidate in the Constructed Environment, housed in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning. Over the last 5 years he has developed a partnership with Public Housing Association of Residents, a Charlottesville based public housing advocacy organization, to share the missing, 40 year history of Black female led community organizing efforts to assert the right to affordable housing. Using a participatory action research methodology, the project is training public housing residents to listen and tell their history via oral histories and exploring a trove of archival documents. The project brings to light the important physical and social infrastructures that these communities useto envision a paradigm shift for public housing in the US.
The project follows a trajectory of destruction, discrimination, and re-emergence. This begins by recognizing the trauma that urban renewal inflicted on the Black communities, efforts to re-assert self-determination in the face of racism and ongoing bureaucracy, and ultimately how public housing residents have defined redevelopment of public housing. The partnership queries the spatial logics, the importance of relationships, and the organizing processes that have been used to seek and realize this social transformation.
Beyond his research work, Matthew is an active leader in state, national, and global initiatives to build a more resilient and democratic world. This includes involvement in the Community Economies Research Network, the US Solidarity Economy Network, and the VA Solidarity Economy Network. He is a consultant for participatory budgeting and supporting worker cooperative development in the South. His teaching explores the intersection of social movements and urban spaces.
Committee:
Primary Advisor and Chair: Suzanne Moomaw, Ph.D (2019-presents)
Committee: Kwame E. Out, Ph.D. (2019-present)
Committee: Anne Garland Mahler, Ph.D. (2019-present)
Committee: Richard Schragger, J.D. (2019-present)
Former Education:
University of Wisconsin-Madison; Master of Fine Arts (2006)
University of Wisconsin-Madison; Master of Arts (2005)
University of Evansville; Bachelor of Arts (1999)