Madeline Wander ’08 is a scholar of transportation and racial-spatial inequality, and her commitment to social justice and experience as a community organizer drives her research and teaching.
Her doctoral research examined the relationship between mobility and racial-spatial isolation in suburban environments, particularly in Southern California. An urban and environmental policy major at Oxy, she received a master’s in urban and regional planning and a Ph.D. in urban planning from UCLA.
What attracted you to Occidental as a student, and later professionally?
Then and now, I wanted to be in a liberal arts environment in a city. I knew that 鶹Ƶwas unique for both its (relative) diversity and urban location. I wanted to be at a place that valued inter-disciplinarity, cultivated critical thinking, and activated students to become involved in the community (both at and outside of the College). In addition to developing a community of shared inquiry with my peers and professors, I was seeking authentic mentorship from professors—which is exactly what I got. Through internships and in-class engagement with local community organizers, the UEP program was my initial connection to getting involved in social movements, which continues to drive my work as an engaged scholar in and of Los Angeles. Indeed, even after I graduated from Oxy, my former professors continued to provide guidance and connections as I found my place in the movement for social justice.
When I became a professor, I was extremely motivated to contribute to a department that has been so influential on my own trajectory. I’m so excited to be at Oxy, where I can now contribute to UEP’s scholarship—particularly in the areas of transportation and racial inequality—and engage with undergraduates from across campus toward questioning systems of oppression, imagining what a more just world could look like, and planning how we might get there.
How did you take an interest in urban and environmental policy, and in your specialty in particular?
I came to 鶹Ƶknowing that I wanted to study and pursue social justice, but, as a first-year, I had little direction. Taking Professor Amy Lyford’s First Year Seminar called “Architecture, Urbanism, and the Politics of Space in Los Angeles” helped give me that direction. Soon thereafter, I learned about the UEP department, and I was so grateful, because I found a department that not only focused on issues I care deeply about (environmental, housing, and transportation justice), but one that is deeply connected to communities experiencing and fighting for these issues. UEP is a gem—it not only helps students develop understandings and analyses of what they see in the world, but provides tangible opportunities through internships and beyond to get involved in the work on the ground.
Can you talk about a favorite class you have taught (or are currently teaching) and what students can expect to take away from it?
I love all the classes I teach—but two I would like to highlight are UEP 101: Environment and Society and UEP 305: Urban Data Analysis. I love teaching UEP 101 because it introduces students to critical issues facing communities today (such as environmental racism) and frameworks for understanding how and why communities face such issues; what this does is set students up for working toward solutions (during their time at 鶹Ƶand beyond). Indeed, when I was a UEP student, UEP 101 is the class that set me on the path I’m on today.
In UEP 305, students learn how to document and analyze urban and environmental problems and policies using quantitative data. When I was a UEP student nearly two decades ago, there was no class for students to learn how to use quantitative analysis to identify and address the critical urban and environmental policy issues I was learning about in my other UEP classes. To learn these skills, I had to become a math minor (which worked out because I also really love math). And so, teaching the class I wish had existed when I was a student here at 鶹Ƶfeels very special, and very full circle.
Outside of work, what do you enjoy doing in Los Angeles?
I love raising my kids (ages 2 and 8) in this amazing city. Los Angeles is made up of fierce and loving communities of care who raise each other up and protect each other in the face of injustice—currently, an authoritarian attack from the federal government. So in addition to going on long urban hikes between the mind-blowing eateries in Northeast L.A., I love being able to show my kids what communities of care can be.