Amal Barre
PhD Researcher
Governance
My research examines how urban renewal policies and real estate trends interact to shape displacement trajectories in racialized and low-income neighborhoods in Amsterdam and Des Moines, Iowa. Using a historical-critical lens, I examine how these policies become embedded in the built environment, shaping land use, development patterns, and neighborhood change.
Using historic GIS, narrative analysis, and spatial data visualization, my work reconstructs lost landscapes to assess the socio-spatial impacts of policy interventions and displacement.
Building on my PhD research, I launched Walking in Place in 2023, a film and community archival project that uses GIS and collaborative storytelling to reimagine lost urban landscapes. The project invites communities to engage in critical conversations about urban change, memory and placekeeping, and the socio-spatial consequences of displacement.
Research question
How do regulatory interventions and real estate dynamics influence displacement trajectories in racialized and low-income neighborhoods?
RESEARCH FOCUS
Spatial inequality
unevictIA
Amal is the founder and research director of unevictIA, a Des Moines-based housing displacement and tenant rights research initiative she launched in 2020 to inform public policy and raise awareness about housing instability.
Just Space
Amal is the co-founder of Just Space Collective, a women-owned urban and environmental planning consulting firm specializing in community-centered, justice-informed research and engagement services.
Amal co-hosts the Just Space Podcast
