joteropena@gradcenter.cuny.edu
Javier Otero Peña is a PhD candidate in Environmental Psychology from Caracas, Venezuela. Javier is the Student Advisor for the M.S. in Data Analysis and Visualization at The Graduate Center, CUNY. He is also a research associate at the Public Space Research Group, and a research assistant for the PARCS study in the CUNY School for Public Health. His dissertation looks at park use, park renovations and place attachment in New York City.
Javier’s field research paper studied the politicization of public spaces through a participatory mural in East Harlem. He was a GC Digital Fellow from 2016-2020. In 2016, he took part in the CUNY-Humboldt University Summer School in Berlin, and in 2017 he participated in the Digital Humanities Research Institute in Victoria University, Canada. He was a Digital Humanities Research Institute Fellow in 2018-19, and received the Provost’s Digital Innovation Grant in 2017 and 2019.
Javier holds a Master in Environmental Policies and Sustainable Development, and taught a class on Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean at the Paris Catholic University. He also studied Urban Planning and Management at UCV, and Sustainable Urban Mobility in Developing Countries (UNITAR). Javier worked as a consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme for three years.
Research interests: public space, urban environmental justice, place attachment, arts, culture & identity, sustainability & climate change action, Latin America and the Caribbean.
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