Malembe Dumont Copero

Malembe Dumont Copero is a four-year Ph.D. candidate in City and Regional Planning. Her dissertation examines how historic pre-, during-, and post-relocation processes shape and reshape embodied individual and community health experiences and impacts over time and across the spaces of relocation in communities along the Caño Martin Peña in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her research aims to point to the historical processes under public health discourses that displaced communities and created health inequities. It also aims to understand current community-based relocation efforts along Caño to avoid the continuation of displacement and improve community health. At the core of Dumont Copero’s efforts is centering the embodied health experiences of relocated residents. Thus, part of her efforts are about unpacking methods for the production and circulation of knowledge on health equity. As the continuous iteration of disasters becomes the norm, this research can offer empirical knowledge to improve policies at the housing, climate, and health nexus. She has a bachelor’s in Political Science from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, a master’s in International Sustainable Development from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and a second master’s in City and Regional Planning as a Fulbright fellow at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.