Contact Information
Office Hours
Research Areas
Biography
Marina has a strong academic background in Social Sciences and Urban Studies. She has studied and/or conducted research in San Juan (Puerto Rico), Barcelona (Catalonia) and Buenos Aires (Argentina). She has developed an extensive on-the-ground work and research on the problem of abandoned properties in Puerto Rico. She is the co-founder of Casa Taft 169 (2013), a grassroots initiative pursuing the "off' grid" rehabilitation of a long standing "public nuisance", and "Centro para la Reconstrucción del Habitat (2017), a nonprofit dedicated to support public, private and community efforts to abate blight.
Research Interests
Urban history and geographies, land-use policies, displacing forces, housing, gender, decolonial studies, collaborative and interdisciplinary research.
Research Description
Informal urbanization, urban squatting, alternative forms of tenure, politics of space, urban ecology, degrowth, impacts of massive school closings in Puerto Rico, gentrification, touristification, climate change, and adaptation in the Caribbean Archipelago.
Education
Minor Gender Relations in International Development - UIUC
Master in Urban Design, University of Barcelona
Master in Urban Planning, University of Puerto Rico
BS in Anthropology, University of Puerto Rico
Grants
Ford Foundation - Just Cities and Regions, 2019
ArtPlace America National Creative Placemaking Fund, 2016
Awards and Honors
Rafael and Celestina Cordero - 45 Builders of Hope, Community Foundation of Puerto Rico, 2021
Courses Taught
Graduate Teaching Assistance (Fall 2021) - UP510-Plan Making Puerto Rico
Highlighted Publications
Moscoso, M., 2018. ¡Aquí vive gente! O sobre la lucha por el lugar. 80grados. Available at: https://www.80grados.net/aqui-vive-gente-o-sobre-la-lucha-por-el-lugar
Rubiano, D., Moore, E., Gallardo, L., and Moscoso, M., Puerto Rico's Public School Closures; Community Effects & Future Paths. Berkeley, CA; Othering & Belonging Institute, (2020)
Recent Publications
Arabía, MM. 2025. Evicted: A Retrospective Look at the Recent Outbreak of Occupy Initiatives in Puerto Rico. Iberoamericana – Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 54(1): 49–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/iberoamericana.632
Singh S. and Moscoso Arabía, M. (May 2025) Pension Funds, Tenants and Housing Insecurity in Global Financialized Real Estate in Insurgent Ground: Land, Housing, Property Edited by Ananya Roy, Terra Graziani, Annie Powers, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy Available: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6mf8k3zg