Akira Drake Rodriguez writes about race, cities, and space in the US. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Weitzman School of Design. Akira’s forthcoming manuscript, Diverging Space for Deviants: The Politics of Atlanta's Public Housing (University of Georgia Press 2021), examines the dialectic between black feminist politics and public housing policy in Atlanta from 1936 to 2010. She was recently awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation to study critical participatory planning strategies in school facilities planning in Philadelphia.
Akira was born in Alexandria, VA, stopped briefly in Philadelphia, PA, and spent her formative years in Louisville, KY. She received her PhD from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Urban Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. She has a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her husband Ruben and her son Jack keep her laughing in their home in Philadelphia.
Contact:
Akira Drake Rodriguez
University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design
210 S. 34th Street
127 Meyerson Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
akirad [at] upenn [dot] edu