Research and advocacy for a more equitable urban future.
Supporting collaboration and co-creation.
The MIT Slums and Informal Settlements (MIT SIS) Research Group engages in qualitative participatory research with slum dwellers* and other development actors. Daily hardships in slums and informal settlements are directly linked to deep-rooted structural issues of inequality, stigmatization, and uneven development.
Established in 2020, MIT SIS grew out of a dire need to address these structural issues and the gaps in knowledge that were elucidated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
*We acknowledge the problematic uses of “slum” as a lexicon for settlements and neighborhoods inhabited by the urban poor (Gilbert, 2007; Arabindoo, 2011; Hurchzemeier, 2014). However, we use the terms slum and slum dwellers based on our partnership with local Freetown chapters of Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI), a global network of community-based organisations that are comfortable with this identity and reclaim it to empower themselves (D’Cruz and Mitlin, 2007).
MITx Course: COVID-19 in SIS - 2nd Run (2022)
MIT SIS is proud to announce the launch the 2nd Run of our Course on COVID-19 in Slums and Informal Settlements, starting in September 2022. Sign up today to here to enroll, and find out about the responses to the pandemic from residents and leaders in low-income urban communities across the world.
COVID-19 in MIT SIS Research
When COVID-19 was officially declared a pandemic in March, 2020, MIT SIS took to investigating the effectiveness and feasibility of guidelines and responses in slums and informal settlements.
Student Run MIT Course
In the fall of 2019, a group of graduate students in the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning came together to create a self-guided, for-credit spring course on slums and informal settlements.
“As residents of urban poor settlements, we celebrate this opportunity to put our voices front and center.”
— Musa Wullarie, FEDURP & Foundation for the Future, MIT SIS Partner
Contact
Please reach out to us with any questions, inquiries about joining projects, or interest in joining our email list!
Email
slumsettlements-admin@mit.edu
Address
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139