Universidade Federal do Ceará
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo e Design

Clarissa F. Sampaio Freitas

Clarissa Freitas has been a Professor at the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) in Fortaleza since 2009. Her research is positioned between the political economy of urbanization and urban design, frequently using digital modeling of the built environment. Currently she coordinates the research project “Informal settlements upgrading in the context of climate change: recognizing socio-environmental convergences” (financed by FUNCAP) and integrates the research team of the project “Planning and Popular Advisory on Urban and Territorial Conflicts in Brazil” (financed by CNPQ), along with a network national and international researchers.

She was a visiting professor at DURP/UIUC (2015/16), and worked as academic coordinator of the Graduate Program of Architecture, Urbanism and Design at UFC (2018 to 2021). Between 2019 and 2020 she coordinated the UFC team of architects hired to developed a Master Plan for the upgrading and land titling of 03 Informal settlements in Fortaleza assigned as ZEIS (Social Housing Zones). She teaches undergrad and grad courses on Landscape Planning; Urban Design and Planning Theory, and contributes to urban movements struggles for Right to the City. Since 2021 she is Associate Senior Editor of the Journal of Urban Affairs.

Prior to her position at UFC, Professor Freitas has taught in public and private universities in Brasília, the modernist planned capital city of Brazil. She has also worked in Brazilian Ministry of the City (2003-2006), supervising the implementation of Habitar Brasil housing program in several municipalities in Central and Southeast Brazil. She holds a master degree in Urban and Regional Planning in UIUC supported by a Fulbright fellowship (2003), and a PhD degree in Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade de Brasilia (UNB) supported by a CNPQ fellowship (2009).

ORCID:  http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-5745 |LATTES: http://lattes.cnpq.br/8637270011810347 |Twitter: @UfcClarissa

Selected Publications:

In english

FREITAS, C. F. S. (2019) Insurgent planning?Insights from two decades of the Right to the City in Fortaleza, Brazil. City, analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action. 23:3, 285-305, DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2019.1648030

CAMARA, G; FREITAS, C.F.S; RUFINO, M.B. (2019) “Informal urbanisation and modernization: popular resistance in Fortaleza, Brazil”. In Routledge Handbook on Informal Urbanisation. edited by ROCCO & BALLEGOIJEN, J.V.

FREITAS, C. F. S. (2017) Undoing the right to the city: World Cup investments and informal settlements in Fortaleza, Brazil. Journal of Urban Affairs, 39:7, 953-969, DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2017.1328974

FREITAS, C. F. S.. Fighting for Planning for the First Time, in Fortaleza, Brazil. Progressive Planning, v. 204, p. 11-14, 2015.

FREITAS, C. F. S. & PEQUENO, L. R. B. (2015) Housing provision in Fortaleza during the 2000s: progress and setbacks. Brazilian Journal of Urban and Regional Studies (RBEUR/ANPUR). V.17, N.1, p.45-59

In Portuguese