MEET THE TEAM
Dr. Colven is Assistant Professor of Global Environment in the Department of International & Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma. As an urban geographer and political ecologist, her research explores themes of water politics, real estate and urban development, adaptation to environmental threats, and environmental justice in Asian cities.
Ms. Astuti teaches planning theory and studios in The Department of Urban Planning and Real Estate Development at Universitas Tarumanagara (Jakarta). Her research interests include urban transformation, property and water politics in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area.
Ms. Martinua is Lead Researcher (socio-cultural) of the ASEAN Studies Centre, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore. Her research interests revolve around smart city initiatives, urban resilience, and institutional framework and policy for advancing climate ambition in Southeast Asia. Before joining the Institute, she was a program manager at Kota Kita Foundation, Indonesia and a researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies (Centropolis) at Tarumanagara University Jakarta. Melinda studied urban planning at Tarumanagara University, Jakarta and Columbia University, in New York City.
Dian Tri Irawaty is a Ph.D. candidate in the Geography Department, UCLA. She researches social movements, urban politics, and housing. Her dissertation project examines resistance to eviction in Jakarta, and grassroots movements fighting for housing justice through insurgent planning.
Dimitar Anguelov is a Ph. D. Candidate at the Department of Geography, UCLA. As an economic geographer his research examines the geopolitical-economy of globalizing capitalism, marked by competing market-based and state-led development paradigms. In particular, his research investigates how multilateral development banks seek to institutionalize a market-based Public-Private Partnership regime for infrastructure financing in Indonesia, and how this model is contested and selectively appropriated as it articulates with Indonesia's and Jakarta's post-colonial political-economies. With respect to the Speculative Urbanism project, his contributions have focused on the financial strategies of real estate developers building megaprojects, and on how marginalized residents negotiate their displacement by such projects and the unequal consequences thereof.
Mr. Nowak is PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. An urban and economic geographer, his research is broadly concerned with the political economy of urban transportation systems, and currently examines how digital platforms are transforming labor politics, informal transportation, and urban governance in Jakarta.