Mariana Alegre Escorza

Mariana Alegre is an urban planner, lawyer, and urban studies scholar whose work focuses on urban governance, civic participation, public space, social inclusion, and citizen-led urbanism in Latin America. Her research and teaching examine urbanism, citizenship, and the right to the city, with particular attention to mobility justice, inequality, public space, and risk management. She is a tenured professor at the Business School of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP) and a Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is also the founder and executive director of Sistema Urbano, a Latin American urban innovation ecosystem that bridges research, policy, and practice through data, participation, and collaborative action. She currently serves on an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine contributing to the Roadmap for Transformative Action to Achieve Health for All at Net-Zero Emissions.

Research Interests: Urban disobedience; social movements; spatial justice; and how collective action challenges and shapes formal planning systems.