Kimberly Noronha is a doctoral candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. She studies the lived experience of urban informality in the global south, focusing on the production and use of space to create and perpetuate the intersectional urban identities and the inequalities of informality, poverty, climate change, and gender in India and Ghana. She employs participant observation, visual ethnography, photovoice, and participatory mapping to explore these questions and their implications for urban planning in rapidly urbanizing cities of the Global South. With over 15 years of experience in the development sector, Kimberly has worked on urban policy, livelihoods, education, and sanitation across India. She holds an MPhil in African Studies from the University of Delhi, an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS University of London, and a BA in Anthropology and Sociology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Her research has been supported by Penn’s Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), the Mellon Humanities Urbanism and Design Initiative, the Center for Experimental Ethnography, and the Penn Presidential Fellowship.
