Melissa Fernández Arrigoitia

Melissa joined CareNet to develop, together with Daniel López and Mònica Genover, the Hub de viviendas colaborativas de personas mayores in 2023-24.

Melissa is a urban sociologist (with human geographer heart) and critical housing scholar – originally from Puerto Rico – with a longstanding commitment to interdisciplinary research and teaching. Her academic background includes a PhD in Urban Sociology and an MSc in Gender and International Development from the London School of Economics (LSE), and a BA in Philosophy and Women’s Studies from Tufts University.

She has taught and supervised students at undergraduate and graduate levels – first as an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck University’s Department of Psychosocial Studies, and later as an Anniversary Lecturer in Urban Futures at Lancaster University’s Sociology Department. She also contributed as convener and guest lecturer in sociology, geography and politics departments in the London School of Economics and Queen Mary University.

Melissa is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies. Currently, she works as a researcher at ICTA-UAB and its Barcelona Lab for Urban Environmental Justice and Sustainability. There, she contributes to IMBRACE (Embracing Immigrant Knowledges for Just Climate Health Adaptation), a European Research Council (ERC) and Horizon-funded project examining the intersections between climate change, health, and migration.

Her funded research across Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, and Europe has focused on two main areas related to the politics and practices of making and unmaking home: a) the study of social housing displacements and their relationship to broader urbanisation processes; and the development, governance, and impacts of collaborative housing models. A recent project (CHIC) funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research explored how innovative forms of social care are taking place in community-led projects, particularly amongst senior cohousing groups.

Check out her webpage: https://www.mfernandezarrigoitia.me