A “City Planner” from MIT

Dear friends,

It’s been a while since I updated you on my professional work. These two years at MIT have been pretty hectic, extremely rewarding personally and professionally. I will still need some time to reflect on everything that happened to continue moving forward in the right direction, but here are some quick thoughts.

Along the way, I have been exploring the intersection between arts, culture, architecture, community planning, oppression, systems thinking, system change, action research, co-generation, and reflective practice — all of them complex concepts whose interaction I will need to continue studying in depth. My master’s thesis, titled “The Sparking Cycle: A Culture-Oriented Approach to System Change in Oppressed Communities” has been my closest intellectual approach so far to this fascinating and multi-layered world, yet I still feel far from understanding its full potential and making a meaningful contribution to our societies. I will start sharing soon excerpts of my thesis on here on Medium, and I would love to have your thoughts on any of these topics with the hope of engaging in co-generative conversations.

In the meantime, I am pleased to share with you that I just started working at MIT CoLab, an MIT-based hub for collaborative action and innovation across the Americas, which builds on the idea that the most valuable knowledge can be found at the margins of society. I will be also collaborating with Presencing Institute, a worldwide action-research platform that fosters awareness-based system change.

As you see, all are exciting news. Thanks to all who have supported me so far. I am really looking forward to sharing with you more stories soon during this new professional stage of my life.