Alison Swinth is a junior studying Anthropology with a focus on urban Anthropology and specifically on housing justice. A New York City native, much of Alison's interest in these topics is informed by her upbringing in the city. Beyond academics, she has been involved with the housing justice group HOPE here at Brown and though that work is different from her research, it fuels her passion for the subject. In her free time, Alison likes to sew, hang out with her dog, and go for runs.

Project: 

Alison's project focuses on the policies of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) that regulate who constitutes a family and can live together, often separating families by relying on traditional models of nuclear families. Rather than telling a story of victimhood, her research will focus on the creative ways that NYCHA families resist these policies by “kin-making” both within and outside of public housing complexes. It explores the complex intersection of state social supports and kin-based networks of care, specifically examining the kinds of relationships this intersection produces and how experiences of this intersection are raced, classed, and gendered.

Advisor: Jessaca Leinaweaver