Aleksandra Durova

Aleksandra Durova is a doctoral candidate in City Design and Development in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. Her research is concerned with the ways in which climate change can reinforce inequities associated with uneven urban development. For her dissertation, she investigates impacts of climate change and urban growth over the past twenty years on housing conditions and vulnerability of low-income and Indigenous populations in a large Arctic city region in Russia. Her research will provide insight into factors at the root of equity issues, including tensions and politics regarding housing development and climate change adaptation. Before MIT, she worked on sustainable transport mobility projects in Russia, her home country, and transport infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan. At MIT, she has been part of an inter-disciplinary research team studying sustainability in Arctic cities, within the Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic Project. Durova received a Master in Urban Planning from Arizona State University, where she was a Fulbright Student, and a Master of Science in Urban Engineering from Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Russia.