Our lab aims to produce interdisciplinary research and public facing scholarship related to intersections of eviction, technology, surveillance, and gentrification, all with an aim of supporting on-the-ground housing justice struggles.

One of the lab’s current focus is on surveillance technologies, tenant screening algorithms, and property management software deployed in throughout the US, with a focus on California, New York, Washington, and Texas. We are also looking at older 20th century histories of surveillance in tenant housing, as well as contemporary racialized and gendered outsourcing geographies of landlord technologies.

Additionally, we are invested in creating popular educational materials useful for tenants and community members in organizing against displacement. Some of this takes place in collaboration with a UW Geography class that McElroy teaches called “Gentrification, Displacement, and Housing Justice.”

Undergraduate and graduate research assistants and interns are able to learn and develop a range of skills pertinent to the project, including legal scholarship, algorithmic analysis, database creation, statistical analysis, archival studies, web and graphic design, data visualization, and more. Students have backgrounds in fields including digital studies, urban geography, urban planning, government, American studies, critical race and ethnic studies, feminist studies, design justice, and computer science. Interest in housing, racial, and technological justice is also key. If you are interested in applying to get involved, please do so here.