In investigating the social and political geography of Berkeley, California, Jesse will focus on a central question: How do “liberal” urban and social policies spatialize a sense of belonging in several sites in Berkeley? By analyzing the built environment of Berkeley and conducting interviews with residents, he will illustrate how belonging is shaped, accessed, and restricted. Significant factors that Jesse expects to examine are a racialized history of and access to home ownership, the suburban ethic of single family homes and a practiced white liberalism that obscures certain forms of structural oppression.

Advisor: Josh Pacewicz