We are the Critical Health + Social Ecology Urban Living Lab
The CH+SE Urban Living Lab examines ‘wicked problems’ and the role of urbanicity/urban processes on aging, neighborhood change, and mental health. We are a transdisciplinary collaborative concerned with minding the intersectional gap. In a broad sense, we care about how systems and social context shape how people live, work, and age. We use place-based surveys, epidemiological data, geospatial analytics, oral history, and participatory, community-led approaches to examine questions related to these themes. 
Essential to our work is the study of intersectionality as a social justice imperative. We explore what intersectional approaches mean for psychology and our work specifically. Our engagement with the community puts issues of power, racial-capitalism, and social change at the fore of the work we do to bring groups from the margins to the center.
Our research is grounded in a social ecological framework that focuses attention on the people who inhabit places, highlighting urban stressors as well as citizen actions used to empower, thrive, restore, and reclaim the right to the city.
is an interdisciplinary social scientist. Her research focuses on access to fundamental basic needs – food, housing, and flourishing – for urbanites of every age. She is particularly interested in resistance efforts at the community level to address urban issues. Shellae has written extensively on aging-in-place, participatory geographies, housing and food insecurity, and the psychosocial consequences of gentrification. In another thread of research, Shellae focuses on systemic racism and whiteness, Black women’s experiences of discrimination, and the meaning of Black hair – as a site of intersectional resistance for Black women and girls. Shellae is currently working on several projects related to spatial mapping, embodiment, social memory practices, and measuring the impacts of urban stress, food sovereignty practices, and urban greenery.
Brionna is a doctoral candidate in the Applied Developmental Program (ADP) at Fordham University (Dept of Psychology). Her research interests include food environments and Black women’s health. Her published research examines food sovereignty as a strategy for addressing food insecurity and intersectional invisibility among first-generation college students. Brionna’s MA thesis investigated reports of discrimination among Black women by age; her work was recently published in The Gerontologist. Brionna’s dissertation will explore Black maternal birth outcomes among older women.
Here are just a few of our former lab students who have contributed to our work over the years!
