Oscar Oliver-Didier

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Oscar Oliver-Didier is an urban designer and researcher that—after 15 years as an educator and practitioner—became an urban doctoral fellow and PhD candidate in American Studies at New York University. He is also a member of the adjunct faculty at the Visual Arts Program at Fordham University and has taught at Parsons School of Design at The New School, and the School of Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR).

His current research studies the role of fiscal incentives for urban development—and the nonprofit financial institutions that broker them—in fostering police-community developer partnerships. He has previously researched on public housing in Puerto Rico, the politics of language in the South Bronx, and the performative nature of urban protests.

Oliver-Didier is a founding board member of the Shape of Cities to Come Institute (SCCI)—an initiative that brings together organizers, activists, thinkers, cultural workers, and artists to develop new theories and practices of urban life under a 15-month peer-to-peership program. He previously served as the Lead Urban Designer for the borough of the Bronx at the NYC Department of City Planning. In this role he was awarded the Michael Weil Award for Urban Design, a recognition of excellence in the pursuit of urban design in the public sector. He was also director of the research collective CIUDADLAB; the Laboratory for Housing, Planning and Urban Studies at the PUPR; and was an Auxiliary Adviser on urbanism to the Governor of Puerto Rico.

He has published articles inHousing Theory and Society, Truthout, Urban Omnibus, CounterPunch, Revista Cruce, Planning Perspectives, and a chapter that was included in The Routledge Handbook of Henri Lefebvre, The City and Urban Society. He has moderated or offered talks at The Shed, The New Museum, The Buell Center at Columbia University, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Puerto Rico, The Cooper Union, Penn Design, and The University of Puerto Rico. He has edited multiple journals such as ENTORNO, Polimorfo, and Planning Perspectives. He lives in the South Bronx.