Jessie Speer is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at the London School of Economics. Her US-focused research analyzes domesticity and housing in a market society from a post-colonial, feminist, and political ecology lens. She’s currently working on a book examining the demolition of homeless encampments in the US as a larger attack on urban informality. Jessie incorporates her law background assisting people who experienced domestic violence and eviction in California in her current work.
In this podcast, Jessie delves into exclusionary property law in the US, looking at the “legal fiction of property law” to explore the insidious nature of a framework that centers on the right to exclude. She talks about her book project, stressing the urgent humanity crisis around demolitions and insufficient anti-homeless policies. Jessie uses intersectionality to approach the plurality of housing experiences and the critical importance of including voices that are too often overlooked in theory and policymaking. She leaves us with her take on what she sees as a potential way forward in achieving fairer urban environments.
