Benita Menezes | SCARP | UBC School of Community and Regional Planning

Benita

Menezes

Email: bentita@gmail.com

Benita Menezes is an urbanist and an architect interested in the politics of grassroots planning practices in urban India. Her ethnographic research focuses on locating the political consciousness and agency of neighborhood actors in the context of urban renewal and decentralization of governance in metropolitan Mumbai. She is a Graduate student at the School of Community and Regional Planning, and an IAR student fellow at the University of British Columbia. Currently she is an executive member of the Collective Research Initiatives Trust (CRIT), Mumbai. She has taught at the undergraduate level in Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture and Environmental Studies and coordinated its Research and Design Wing. As a former director of the Research and Resource Centre at the Urban Design Research Institute, she developed a city-archive in digital, visual and text formats, coordinated its city-focused annual lecture series, and actively worked on research projects. She hopes to pursue a PhD program in Comparative Asian Urbanism in the near future.

Publications

Papers Presented, , 2011: The Evolving Politics of Nagar Raj in metropolitan Mumbai, India for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Conference "Envision"., , , , , , 2010: “Politicizing Climate Change within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region”, for the international conference on “Mainstreaming Climate change adaptation measures in Local development Planning’ at the School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Philippines., , , , 2008: Joint discussion on ‘The Politics of Special Economic Zones in Maharashtra’ along with Mujumdar Rohit and Paul Anirudh at the workshop on ‘The Politics of SEZs in India’ organized by the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi., , Discussion on “Urban poor and incremental housing strategies”, for the seminar on House and Housing; Annual Kamla Raheja Memorial Lecture Series., , , , 2007: Presentation of joint-paper titled ‘Conservation in the age of globalization’ along with Mujumdar Rohit and Paul Anirudh in a Seminar on Urban Heritage Conservation and Management, organized by the Regional Centre for Urban & Environmental Studies (RCUES) of the All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG)., , , , 2006: Discussion on ‘Coalitions of the new civil society in Mumbai’ at the workshop titled METRO-logue, organized jointly by Collective Research Initiatives (CRIT) and SARAI, Delhi, ., , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Scholarships and Awards

IAR Student Fellow 2012., , , , , , Peter Oberlander Academic Award 2011., , , , , , Go Global Travel Award 2010., , , , , , The Amacon Beasely Travel Award 2010., , , , , , SCARP Masters Fund 2010., , , , , , Graduate Entrance Scholarship 2009., , , ,

Courses Taken

TERM I
PLAN 548E Cross Cultural Planning / PLAN 540A Omnibus: Being a sustainability Planning Practitioner / PLAN 502 Introduction to Planning Theory and Histories / PLAN 511 Quantitative Methods.
Volunteer: Symposium On Challenges to Sustainable and Affordable Housing. / Trainee at the Centre For Intercultural Communication: International Teaching Assistants Programme.

TERM II
PLAN 548R Digital and Video Planning / PLAN 548O Participatory Planning Methods and Tools / PLAN 515 Qualitative Research Methods / PLAN 550C Directed Studies / PLAN 548 J Deliberation And Group Dynamics: Facilitating Group Discussions And Decision Making.
Volunteer: SCARP Symposium 2010: Planning Resilience Conference/ PSA Representative at the Graduate Student Society / PSA representative on the Teaching Learning and Curriculum Committee.

TERM III
International Studio-Philippines: Building Local Capacity for Sustainable Poverty Reduction and Community Resilience in Plaridel, Bulacan, Philippines.

TERM IV
PLAN 504 The Ecological Context of Planning / PLAN 548B Social Learning Studio / PLAN 548W Introduction to GIS / PLAN 549C Thesis Dissertation.
Volunteer: PSA Representative at the Graduate Student Society / PSA representative on the Teaching Learning and Curriculum Committee.

TERM V
PLAN 506 Legal context of Planning / PLAN 548B Social Learning Studio / PLAN 549C Thesis Dissertation / SOCI 503 Qualitative Inquiry with Human Subjects

TERM VI
PLAN 549C Thesis Dissertation

Teaching Assistantships 2005-2006 Urban Design Research Institute Mumbai Studio in collaboration with the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning (TCAUP) University of Michigan., ,