{"id":910,"date":"2024-12-19T10:30:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-19T15:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/asha-best\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T06:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:36:27","slug":"asha-best","status":"publish","type":"cu_faculty","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/asha-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Asha Best"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span>Dr. Asha Best received her Ph.D. (2017) in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark. She is an urbanist whose research and teaching is interdisciplinary. Her work links mobilities studies, post-colonial and black studies, critical race theory and studies of urban informality. She is particularly interested in popular, improvised and often unofficial urban practices deployed by black and migrant groups, and her research looks at how those practices impact how cities are understood, planned and mapped. She is developing a comparative research project around black and migrant place-making, informality and mobilities in the context of Johannesburg.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":43633,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"cu_faculty_f180_userid":"C70247747","cu_faculty_first_name":"Asha","cu_faculty_last_name":"Best","cu_faculty_employment_status":"Full Time","cu_faculty_rank":"Assistant Professor","cu_faculty_position":"Assistant Professor","cu_faculty_phone":"","cu_faculty_email":"ABest@clarku.edu","cu_faculty_location":"","cu_faculty_about":"<p><span>Dr. Asha Best received her Ph.D. (2017) in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark. She is an urbanist whose research and teaching is interdisciplinary. Her work links mobilities studies, post-colonial and black studies, critical race theory and studies of urban informality. She is particularly interested in popular, improvised and often unofficial urban practices deployed by black and migrant groups, and her research looks at how those practices impact how cities are understood, planned and mapped. She is developing a comparative research project around black and migrant place-making, informality and mobilities in the context of Johannesburg.<\/span><\/p>","cu_faculty_degrees":"<span>Ph.D. in American Studies,<\/span> Rutgers University, 2017\n<span>M.A. in Pan African Studies,<\/span> Syracuse University, 2008\n<span>B.A. in ,<\/span> University of Southern California, 2005","cu_faculty_cv":"https:\/\/faculty180.interfolio.com\/public\/download.php?key=SDRwNCtxSUpsamxBQ213WS9ucHFuNnMwT0hzQU11b2RPQkJ2cWc3amxyUmNRdVVXTkF4MU1zT21qREtJZEdWZzFUQmdteVFWbUlodFVkQU9GL3NYQm1EYTMrNWxKcENVVFQxVmRKVnRiWXZEV0EvTmNuSEQ5bnl4VGZsNDNsdHE%3D","cu_faculty_links":"[]","cu_faculty_scholarly_interests":"","cu_faculty_scholarly_works":"[{\"activityid\":16009,\"fields\":{\"Type\":\"Exhibits, Shows, Performances &amp; Readings\",\"Title\":\"&lt;p&gt;Black Urbanities: Black Politics in the City&lt;\\\/p&gt;\",\"Year\":2026,\"Date\":\"2026-02-18\",\"Medium (for artworks)\":\"\",\"Venue \\\/ Institution\":\"Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona\",\"Location\":\"Barcelona, Spain\",\"Status\":\"Completed\",\"Co-contributor\":null,\"URL\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.macba.cat\\\/en\\\/activities\\\/black-urbanities-black-politics-in-the-city\\\/\",\"Description\":\"&lt;p&gt;Black Urbanities. Black Politics in the City, curated by AbdouMaliq Simone and Asha Best, is a three-day conference\\u00a0that aims to reflect collectively on the experiences of Black living in the city. This conference plays with the\\u00a0notion of &quot;black urbanism&quot; as a method for engaging the urban in a different key, a different modality -\\u00a0considering the singular and unparalleled ways in which Black folks continually prototype new and possible\\u00a0forms of being urban. Exploring everyday urban tactics, global struggles for autonomy, and the practice and\\u00a0potential of Black imagination, we ask what sorts of emergent futures are held in Black districts across the globe,\\u00a0especially in the face of unprecedented political and ecological instability.&lt;\\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;This conference is presented within the framework of MACBA\\u2019s exhibition &lt;span&gt;Project a Black Planet. The Art and &lt;\\\/span&gt;Culture of Panafrica&lt;span&gt;, as well as the Barcelona 2026 &lt;\\\/span&gt;World Capital of Architecture&lt;span&gt; programme.&lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;\\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;Participants: Saiba Bayo, Asha Best, Teresa Caldeira, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Youssef El Maimouni, Natalia\\u00a0Figueredo, Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Jovan Scott Lewis, Thandi Loewenson, Mpho Matsipa, Alana Osbourne,\\u00a0Cristina Maria Rold\\u00e3o Pinto, Tania Safura Adam, Lamine Sarr (Popular Union of Street Vendors), Mamadou\\u00a0Seydi, AbdouMaliq Simone, Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams.&lt;\\\/p&gt;\",\"Include description in output citation\":0,\"Origin\":\"Manual\"},\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"status\":[{\"id\":16009,\"status\":\"Completed\\\/Published\",\"term\":\"Spring\",\"year\":2026,\"termid\":\"2025\\\/03\",\"listingorder\":6,\"completionorder\":6}],\"userid\":\"C70247747\",\"attachments\":[],\"coauthors_list\":[\"Asha S Best\",\"AbdouMaliq Simone\"],\"sort_date\":\"2026-1-01\"},{\"activityid\":16010,\"fields\":{\"Type\":\"Presentations\",\"Title of Presentation\":\"&lt;p&gt;IAE In the Field (Teaching IAE in Geography Classrooms)&lt;\\\/p&gt;\",\"Conference \\\/ Meeting Name\":\"20 Questions\\\/Design Studio 4 Social Intervention\",\"Location of Conference \\\/ Meeting\":\"\",\"Month \\\/ Season\":\"October\",\"Year\":2025,\"Sponsoring Organization\":\"Design Studio 4 Social Intervention\",\"CoAuthor\":null,\"URL\":\"\",\"Description\":\"\",\"Include description in output citation\":0,\"Origin\":\"Manual\"},\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"status\":[{\"id\":16010,\"status\":\"Completed\\\/Published\",\"term\":\"Fall\",\"year\":2026,\"termid\":\"2026\\\/01\",\"listingorder\":6,\"completionorder\":6}],\"userid\":\"C70247747\",\"attachments\":[],\"coauthors_list\":[\"Asha S Best\"],\"sort_date\":\"2025-10-01\"},{\"activityid\":13832,\"fields\":{\"Type\":\"Exhibits, Shows, Performances &amp; 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Public Culture, Urban Institute Workshop\",\"Location of Conference \\\/ Meeting\":\"\",\"Month \\\/ Season\":\"\",\"Year\":2021,\"Sponsoring Organization\":\"Public Culture Journal, The Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield\",\"CoAuthor\":null,\"URL\":\"\",\"Description\":\"\",\"Include description in output citation\":0,\"Origin\":\"Manual\"},\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"status\":[{\"id\":3937,\"status\":\"Completed\\\/Published\",\"term\":\"Spring\",\"year\":2021,\"termid\":\"2020\\\/03\",\"listingorder\":6,\"completionorder\":6}],\"userid\":\"C70247747\",\"attachments\":[],\"coauthors_list\":[\"Asha S Best\"],\"sort_date\":\"2021-1-01\"}]","cu_faculty_awards_and_grants":"[{\"activityid\":5254,\"fields\":{\"Title\":\"Reimagining Narratives of Race and Belonging: Counter-mapping the Boston Metro\",\"Sponsor\":\"The Institute of Human Geography \",\"Grant ID \\\/ Contract ID\":\"\",\"Award Date\":null,\"Start Date\":\"2024-09-01\",\"End Date\":null,\"Period Length\":1,\"Period Unit\":\"Year\",\"Indirect Funding\":0,\"Indirect Cost Rate\":null,\"Total Funding\":\"0\",\"Total Direct Funding\":null,\"Currency Type\":\"USD\",\"Description\":\"\",\"Abstract\":\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Through a series of participatory, community-driven mapping activities, this project asks how we might reimagine the landscape of the Boston area from the perspective of Indigenous, Black, Latine, and East Asian American residents\\u2014to name just a few groups whose presence is typically minimized. This research asks, instead of perfunctory land acknowledgements and assertions that \\u201cBlack lives matter,\\u201d how might resident-driven mapping serve as an anticolonial practice? Further, how might the dissemination of Black and Brown counter-maps help shift the wider understanding of whose lives and cultures are of value and how might this provide a counter-narrative to the political project of whiteness in Boston? &lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;\\\/p&gt;\",\"Number of Periods\":1,\"URL\":\"\"},\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"funding\":{\"8860\":{\"id\":8860,\"grantid\":5254,\"fundedamount\":\"0\",\"yearfunded\":1,\"fundedtype\":\"Total\",\"currencytype\":\"USD\",\"startdate\":\"2024-09-01\",\"enddate\":\"2025-09-01\"}},\"coauthors\":{\"8197\":{\"authorid\":8197,\"grantid\":5254,\"firstname\":\"Asha\",\"middleinitial\":\"S\",\"lastname\":\"Best\",\"authortype\":\"CoInvestigator\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":1,\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"primaryunitid\":14},\"8198\":{\"authorid\":8198,\"grantid\":5254,\"firstname\":\"Jenny\",\"middleinitial\":\"\",\"lastname\":\"LaFleur\",\"authortype\":\"PI\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":0,\"facultyid\":null,\"primaryunitid\":null},\"8199\":{\"authorid\":8199,\"grantid\":5254,\"firstname\":\"Imani\",\"middleinitial\":\"\",\"lastname\":\"Paris-Jeffries\",\"authortype\":\"CoPI\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":0,\"facultyid\":null,\"primaryunitid\":null}},\"status\":[{\"grantid\":5254,\"status\":\"Submitted - Not Funded\",\"statuslabel\":\"Submitted - Not Funded\",\"term\":\"Fall\",\"year\":2024,\"termid\":\"2024\\\/01\",\"listingorder\":5,\"completionorder\":3}],\"userid\":\"C70247747\",\"attachments\":[],\"sort_date\":\"2024-09-01\"},{\"activityid\":1854,\"fields\":{\"Title\":\"Mapping for Just Cities: Towards a Geospatial Analysis of Race, Place and Policing\",\"Sponsor\":\"Clark University- Academic Innovation Fund\",\"Grant ID \\\/ Contract ID\":\"\",\"Award Date\":null,\"Start Date\":\"2022-01-17\",\"End Date\":null,\"Period Length\":1,\"Period Unit\":\"Year\",\"Indirect Funding\":0,\"Indirect Cost Rate\":null,\"Total Funding\":\"19971\",\"Total Direct Funding\":null,\"Currency Type\":\"USD\",\"Description\":\"\",\"Abstract\":\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The widely publicized killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Elijah McClain, alongside those of many others, have drawn global attention to the hyper-policing of communities of color in the U.S. These tragic incidents, and the groundswell of protests that rippled from their deaths, reshaped public discourse on policing from the local to the national levels, spurring calls for social justice, accountability, and reform. This project aims to help scholars and activists support these calls by making more transparent the complex relationship between race, place and policing.&lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;\\\/p&gt;\\n&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;A wealth of literature has highlighted racial bias in policing, while a small number of data visualization projects have documented where fatal police encounters have occurred in the U.S. Very few studies have used geospatial analysis to conceptualize or analyze how broader spatial change informs policing. But, place matters. Both racial stratification and policing have unique spatial patterns. By demonstrating how these patterns intersect and interact with one another, we can better understand how and why certain communities are made vulnerable to hyper-policing and better identify sites for policy intervention. Therefore, &lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;this project addresses a gap in current research by mapping the relationship between urban change and contemporary practices of policing&lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;.&lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;\\\/p&gt;\",\"Number of Periods\":1,\"URL\":\"\"},\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"funding\":{\"8867\":{\"id\":8867,\"grantid\":1854,\"fundedamount\":\"19971\",\"yearfunded\":1,\"fundedtype\":\"Total\",\"currencytype\":\"USD\",\"startdate\":\"2022-01-17\",\"enddate\":\"2023-01-17\"}},\"coauthors\":{\"8211\":{\"authorid\":8211,\"grantid\":1854,\"firstname\":\"Asha\",\"middleinitial\":\"S\",\"lastname\":\"Best\",\"authortype\":\"PI\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":1,\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"primaryunitid\":14},\"8212\":{\"authorid\":8212,\"grantid\":1854,\"firstname\":\"Lyndon\",\"middleinitial\":\"D.\",\"lastname\":\"Estes\",\"authortype\":\"CoPI\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":1,\"facultyid\":\"C70245777\",\"primaryunitid\":14}},\"status\":[{\"grantid\":1854,\"status\":\"Completed\",\"statuslabel\":\"Completed\",\"term\":\"Spring\",\"year\":2023,\"termid\":\"2022\\\/03\",\"listingorder\":4,\"completionorder\":6}],\"userid\":\"C70247747\",\"attachments\":[],\"sort_date\":\"2022-01-17\"},{\"activityid\":1000,\"fields\":{\"Title\":\"Methodologies for just urban futures: Using geospatial tools to address police violence\",\"Sponsor\":\"Urban Studies Foundation\",\"Grant ID \\\/ Contract ID\":\"24628\",\"Award Date\":null,\"Start Date\":\"2021-08-09\",\"End Date\":null,\"Period Length\":1,\"Period Unit\":\"Year\",\"Indirect Funding\":0,\"Indirect Cost Rate\":null,\"Total Funding\":\"32633\",\"Total Direct Funding\":null,\"Currency Type\":\"USD\",\"Description\":\"\",\"Abstract\":\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;This seminar series brings together early-career researchers, public scholars, and community-based actors to advance novel methods through which urban studies might identify, interpret and address the problem of state violence. In particular, we aim to operationalize the tools of geospatial analysis and data visualization to analyze and work against contemporary practices of urban policing.\\u00a0&lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;span&gt;Through an inquiry into state violence, this series bridges the gulf between carceral geographies, urban studies, and critical geospatial analysis in order to reimagine not only urban scholarship but just urban futures.&lt;\\\/span&gt;&lt;\\\/p&gt;\",\"Number of Periods\":1,\"URL\":\"https:\\\/\\\/urbanstudiesfoundation.org\\\/funding\\\/grantees\\\/methodologies-for-just-urban-futures-using-geospatial-tools-to-address-police-violence\\\/\"},\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"funding\":{\"8866\":{\"id\":8866,\"grantid\":1000,\"fundedamount\":\"32633\",\"yearfunded\":1,\"fundedtype\":\"Total\",\"currencytype\":\"USD\",\"startdate\":\"2021-08-09\",\"enddate\":\"2022-08-09\"}},\"coauthors\":{\"8209\":{\"authorid\":8209,\"grantid\":1000,\"firstname\":\"Asha\",\"middleinitial\":\"S\",\"lastname\":\"Best\",\"authortype\":\"PI\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":1,\"facultyid\":\"C70247747\",\"primaryunitid\":14},\"8210\":{\"authorid\":8210,\"grantid\":1000,\"firstname\":\"Lyndon\",\"middleinitial\":\"D.\",\"lastname\":\"Estes\",\"authortype\":\"CoPI\",\"percenteffort\":null,\"sameschoolflag\":1,\"facultyid\":\"C70245777\",\"primaryunitid\":14}},\"status\":[{\"grantid\":1000,\"status\":\"Completed\",\"statuslabel\":\"Completed\",\"term\":\"Spring\",\"year\":2023,\"termid\":\"2022\\\/03\",\"listingorder\":4,\"completionorder\":6}],\"userid\":\"C70247747\",\"attachments\":[],\"sort_date\":\"2021-08-09\"}]","cu_faculty_title":"Assistant Professor, Geography","cu_faculty_department":"Geography","cu_faculty_affiliated_departments":"Geography","footnotes":""},"cu_faculty_group":[55,46],"cu_faculty_department":[12],"cu_faculty_position":[],"class_list":["post-910","cu_faculty","type-cu_faculty","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_faculty_group-africana-studies","cu_faculty_group-ces-geography","cu_faculty_department-geography"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.5 (Yoast SEO v27.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Asha Best | Faculty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/faculty\/profiles\/asha-best\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Asha Best\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Asha Best received her Ph.D. (2017) in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark. She is an urbanist whose research and teaching is interdisciplinary. Her work links mobilities studies, post-colonial and black studies, critical race theory and studies of urban informality. 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