Gerardo Sandoval Lecture

Gerardo Sandoval, an Assistant Professor of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, visited the University of Iowa campus on April 26th to discuss the transnational effects of the 2008 meatpacking facility raid in Postville, Iowa, and its impact on the economic fortunes of Postville and El Rosario, Guatemala.

His study considered mechanisms that support Shadow Transnationalism through employment recruitment, smuggling networks and remittance transfers, and it provides planners and other policy makers with a better understanding of the vulnerability and interdependence of shadow economic mechanisms.

Sandoval holds a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in City and Regional Planning. He formally taught planning at Iowa State. Dr. Sandoval’s research and teaching focus on the intersection of economic and community development in both rural small towns and inner-city neighborhoods in large metropolitan areas. Specifically, he studies the revitalization of low-income marginal communities. He has conducted research in California, the Midwest, the Pacific Northwest and Latin America, focusing on community impacts of urban infrastructure projects, how immigrants revitalize urban and rural communities, and co-adaptation of immigrant and host communities.

The event was free and open to the public. It was sponsored by, the UI's Obermann Center, International Programs, the Public Policy Center, and the School of Urban & Regional Planning.