Beki McElvain
PH.D CANDIDATE - CITY & REGIONAL PLANNING
- Research Interests/Specializations
Resilience; Risk; Disaster Governance; Mexico City; Science and Technology Studies; Geographic Information Systems; Critical Geography
- Degrees
- MCP, City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley
- BA, Public (Urban) Policy, Mills College (Distinction)
- Biography
I study the “global resilience market” and offer a critical perspective on how technical expertise is applied through the collaboration of state and non-state actors (e.g. NGOs, global finance institutions, foundations) to promote urban resilience in high-risk cities and regions undergoing disaster recovery. My work is situated at the relationship between agenda-setting experts, the power imbued in technical tools, and the forms produced by a specific kind of intervention. At this intersection, I hope to understand how expertise about resilience is being produced and operationalized through state and non-state actors, and how this affects the capacity of publics to address risks and recover from catastrophic shocks.
E-mail me at bmcelvain@berkeley.edu.
- Courses Taught
ED4C Future Ecologies
GEOG c188 Geographic Information Systems
CP 204c Methods for Planners Introduction to GIS and City Planning
CP 119 Planning for Sustainability
CP 202 Gateway Introduction to Planning Practice
D-Lab QGIS Fundamentals; AGOL Workshops
- Awards + Recognition
- 2020-21 Recipient of the Blum Center for Developing Economies’ InFEWS Academic Year Fellowship ($34,000)
- 2019-20 InFEWS (NSF) Winter Travel Grant to Mexico City ($2,000)
- 2019 Global Metropolitan Studies (GMS) Summer Pre-Dissertation Fieldwork Grant ($3500)
- 2018-19 InFEWS (NSF) Winter Travel Grant to Mexico City ($2,500)
- 2014 Outstanding Senior Thesis Award, Mills College ($500)
- Selected Publications
“Life Above, Rubble Below: A Case of Historically Produced Risk & Perception in Mexico City” with María Moreno. Ardeth Journal. 2020.
“Dried Lakes Do Tell Tales: Seismic Soil Amplification in Mexico City” with Sissy Nickolaou and Guillermo Fanas-Peña. GeoStrata Magazine. 2019.