Caitlin Cahill is an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies and Environmental Psychology. She does participatory action research with communities investigating the everyday intimate experiences of global urban restructuring, specifically as it concerns gentrification, immigration, and education. Caitlin is interested in creating collective spaces for dialogue, creativity, knowledge production, critical research and action. Before coming to CUNY, Caitlin worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah. In Salt Lake City, she co-directed the Mestizo Arts & Activism Collective (with Matt Bradley and David Quijada), an intergenerational social justice think tank that engages young people as catalysts of change in a model integrating community-based collective research, arts and activism.
In addition to co-editing special journal issues on participatory ethics and youth participation, Caitlin’s work has been published in journals including Area; Environment & Planning A; City & Society; Gender, Space & Culture; Journal of Youth Studies, and The International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, among others, and edited collections such as the Gentrification Reader, A Companion to Social Geography, and Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research in Motion. Committed to interdisciplinary, engaged scholarship, Caitlin has received several awards for her research, teaching and public service including special recognition from the ACLU for her work with young people on educational rights. Currently, Caitlin is on the editorial boards of Community Development, Children’s Geographies, and Children, Youth, and Environments. Caitlin is on the advisory board of the Public Science Project http://www.publicscienceproject.org and the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action at Durham University, UK.
Selected Publications
Cahill, C. (2010) Negotiating grit and glamour: Young women and urban economic restructuring. The Gentrification Reader(eds Loretta Lees, Tom Slater and Elvin Wyly). Routledge.
Cahill, C. (2010) “Why do they hate us?” Reframing immigration through participatory action research. Area Volume 42, Issue 2, pages 152–161.
Cahill, C.; Rios-Moore, I.; & Threatts, T. (2008) Different Eyes / Open Eyes: Community-Based PAR. In Cammarota, J. & Fine. M. (eds) Revolutionizing Education: Youth Participatory Action Research in Motion. Routledge, pp. 89-124.
Cahill, C. & Torre, M.E. (2007) Beyond the journal article: Representations, audience, and the presentation of participatory research. In Sara Kindon, Rachel Pain and Mike Kesby (Eds.) Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting People, Participation and Place. Routledge.
Cahill, C. (2006) ‘At risk’ ? The Fed Up Honeys re-present the gentrification of the Lower East Side. Women Studies Quarterly(special issue The Global & the Intimate edited by Geraldine Pratt & Victoria Rosner); Vol 34, issues 1 & 2, pp. 334-363.
Cahill, C. (2004) Defying Gravity: Raising consciousness through collective research. Children’s Geographies Vol. 2, 2.
Cahill, C. (2000) Street Literacy: Urban teenagers’ strategies for negotiating their neighborhood. Journal of Youth Studies. Vol. 3, No. 3, 251-277.
Edited Volumes
Cahill, C. & Katz, C. (Eds.) (2008) The young Americans: Children’s and youth geographies in the USA. Environment & Planning A. Vol 40, 12.
Cahill, C.; Sultana, F.; Pain, R. (Eds.) (2007) special issue: Participatory ethics. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies. Volume 6, 3.
Cahill, C. & Hart, R. (Eds.) (2006/2007) “Pushing the Boundaries: Critical Perspectives on Child and Youth Participation” (co-editors for nine-region international series) Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 16, 2; Vol 17, 1-3.www.colorado.edu/journals/cye
Recent Grants
“Brooklyn’s Public Scholars: Civic research & the Community-engaged campus” (2012-2014) with Michelle Fine, the Public Science Project, and Kingsborough Community College. Funded by the American Association of Colleges & Universities (Bridging Theory to Practice Project)
“NYC Geographic Expedition and Institute: Liberation education for geographic inquiry” (2012) with the Space Time Research Collective and the Public Science Project / CUNY. Funded by the Antipode Foundation.
