UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality & Democracy

We invite you to join us in-person on Friday, November 14th for a convening to discuss our newest publication, BEYOND SANCTUARY, and its relevance to the moment at hand. RSVP>> beyondsanctuary.eventbrite.com

Tenants around the country are being taken advantage of by giant corporate landlords — but we have the power to fight back. Join @debtcollective.bsky.social on Oct. 1st @ 5pm PT/8pm ET to learn more & shift tenant power for the better: debtcollective.org/event/debt-s...

Debt Strike! Abolish Corporate Landlords & Build Tenant Power The rent is too damn high — and corporate landlords are to blame! Join the Debt Collective as we make a huge announcement: we’re launching a national Back-Rent Debt Strike against the fifth largest…

Tenants around the nation are being deceived, taken advantage of and abused by their giant, profit-driven corporate landlords.

We've had enough.

Join us on October 1st as we announce a new legal-tech tool that could shift tenant power for the better.
debtcollective.org/event/debt-s...

Activist-in-Residence | Challenge Inequality

📣Announcing the 2026 #UCLA Activist-in-Residence CALL FOR APPLICATIONS in partnership w/the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Spread the word to LA-based community organizers, movement leaders & artists. Deadline is Oct. 29>> Learn more & apply 👇 challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/activist-in-...

Tenants say it’s time for landlords to cancel back rent debt Tenants are going on strike against their landlords.

"The rental debt strike borrows from the successful student debt playbook: small groups generating national media attention, moral framing that shifts blame from individuals to institutions, and strategic targeting of powerful actors’ alleged misconduct."
www.vox.com/policy/46235...

New: We're sparking a coordinated form of economic resistance that has never been done in the housing space.

We're organizing a debt-strike.

Rental debtors around the country will refuse to pay their back-rent debt to a giant corporate landlord.

And we're going to win.

Beyond Sanctuary: The Humanism of a World in Motion The contributors to Beyond Sanctuary examine how the liberal democracies of the West recognize and include racial others through technologies of state powe

I had the pleasure of reading the manuscript of Beyond Sanctuary for @dukepress.bsky.social months ago, and I am now thrilled to see it in print.

Edited by Ananya Roy and Veronika Zablotsky. Read it, share it, it is really worth it.

Free access: read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/3...

As we gear up for the academic year, we're looking back at the 2025 capstone research projects supported by @challengeineq.bsky.social. We're endlessly impressed by the research questions our grad students take on & develop. Read the full reports👇 challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/student-rese...

Beyond Sanctuary: The Humanism of a World in Motion | Challenge Inequality Book via Duke University Press co-edited by Ananya Roy and Veronika Zablotsky

📖Just out from @dukepress.bsky.social>> Thinking across the U.S. and Europe BEYOND SANCTUARY critically examines liberal democratic policies of sanctuary and asylum and foregrounds migrant movements, those that demand a world beyond borders>> challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/08/20/b...

Joel Montano (@challengeineq.bsky.social) shares best practices for following capital through land, how to connect firms to individuals, and how to map out real estate empires. 🏠📊

🕊️Rest in Power Benito Flores

Brilliant organizers & artists make for brilliant discussions. Shoutouts to #UCLA Activists-in-Residence Lupita Limón Corrales & @jaisuazo.bsky.social for bringing light💫 to struggle @uclaftvarchive.bsky.social. The "(Dis)placement" 📽️series continues thru August>> cinema.ucla.edu/events/displ...

📽️Looking forward to this on Friday, July 18 @ 7:30pm 👇

REMINDER: This Sunday @ 7pm>> "Fluctuations of Home: Short Films From LA to DC" feat. #UCLA Activists-in-Residence @jaisuazo.bsky.social & Lupita Limon Corrales. Proud to co-sponsor this @uclaftvarchive.bsky.social film series, "(Dis)Placement: Fluctuations of Home." cinema.ucla.edu/events/fluct...

If you missed this fascinating talk organized by @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social, tune in at your convenience👇

Featuring our very own Associate Faculty Director Hannah Appel, this brilliant trio explore how the legacies of imperialism & debt continue to shape the world order.

‘Wall you can't get over’: When corporate landlord denies relief payments Some Black tenants are disproportionately being evicted by Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in LA, a new UCLA study finds. KCRW hears from two sisters who’ve experienced this.

📻Interview w/@challengeineq.bsky.social researcher, Alex Ferrer>> Data from the #TenantPowerToolkit along with interviews reveal significantly disproportionate evictions of Black tenants in LA by REITs which have long-lasting effects on tenants' credit & housing access. www.kcrw.com/news/shows/p...

Thx to @reporterliz.bsky.social for this coverage. Meaningful relationships w/communities on the frontlines of struggle along w/public scholarship are key to abolishing structures of inequality. Full report co-published w/Venice Justice Committee👇 challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/06/25/k...

Demonstrators holding a sign that says "Comite de la Esperanza."

Two women sitting and talking in a living room.

A man teaching a boy to float in water.

Two women and a baby sitting on a balcony.

“(Dis)placement: Fluctuations of Home”
Jul 13–Aug 17

The films in this series examine the fragile, shifting meaning of home — not just as shelter, but as identity, belonging and collective memory — in Los Angeles and global contexts.

Free: ucla.in/43Pmv0H
Co-presented by @challengeineq.bsky.social

A photo of downtown LA. A winding dirt path in the foreground. The LA skyline in the background.

INSURGENT GROUND: LAND, HOUSING, PROPERTY The Liberatory Politics of Land: From Los Angeles to Palestine Jessi Quizar, Mpho Raboeane, Kareem Rabie

INSURGENT GROUND: LAND, HOUSING, PROPERTY UCLA LUSKIN INSTITUTE ON INEQUALITY AND DEMOCRACY ORGANIZED 2016 INSURGENT GROUND: LAND, HOUSING, PROPERTY Edited by Ananya Roy, Terra Graziani, Annie Powers PUBLISHED BY UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy DESIGNED BY Em Dash PUBLICATION MANAGEMENT BY Marisa Lemorande PUBLICATION DATE May 5, 2025 ISBN 978-1-7351062-8-1 Photo credit (cover): Anthony Orendorff

I got (a photo) published in an academic publication. A picture I took on my Olympus XA2 film camera during a bike ride accompanies a wonderful piece about LA and Palestine. @challengeineq.bsky.social pub Insurgent Ground can be found here:

escholarship.org/uc/item/6mf8...

LA laws criminalize Westside vehicle dwellers, plunging them into parking ticket debt A UCLA survey of nearly 100 people living in their vehicles found many also report harassment from housed neighbors, businesses, and police.

"If some ppl prefer living in rundown RVs to the sorts of housing pgms offered, if any are offered to begin with, then govt officials ought to critically question the efficacy of their pgms rather than...destroying residents' vehicles & leaving them on the streets.” lapublicpress.org/2025/06/ucla...

“Keep Moving”: West LA Vehicle Residents Survey A Venice Justice Committee Report via UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy

REPORT RELEASE: "Keep Moving" by the Venice Justice Committee & co-published by the Institute. Developed in collaboration w/organizers, community members w/lived experience of vehicle residency & university-based researchers. Report+virtual launch👇 challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/2025/06/25/k...

Earlier this month we celebrated our phenomenal 2025 cohort of #UCLA Activists-in-Residence: Kari Okubo, Romarilyn Ralston, Kaya Dantzler, @jaisuazo.bsky.social & Lupita Limón Corrales! "Turning the university inside out,” they shared invaluable community-rooted knowledge & pedagogy with our campus.

A Retrospective on the Directorship of Professor Grace Hong Professor Grace Kyungwon Hong concludes her five-year tenure as Director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center.

"Through her leadership, CSW not only expanded its institutional impact, but also reaffirmed its commitments to being a refuge for research in social justice and community collaboration." Congrats to our colleague, comrade, and friend, Prof. Grace Hong🔥 csw.ucla.edu/2025/06/11/a...

👇Read this thread and then go read @rahimk.bsky.social's newest publication, "Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing." We've added it to our summer reading list 📚

Can't pay, won't pay.

Excited to partner with @uclaftvarchive.bsky.social on the upcoming film series "(Dis)Placement: Fluctuations of Home." Join us for opening night on July 13th with #UCLA Activists-in-Residence @jaisuazo.bsky.social, Lupita Limon Corrales & filmmaker Diego Robles>> cinema.ucla.edu/events/displ...

"Corporate landlords are systematically attracting Black residents into white, upmarket neighborhoods, stripping their wealth, and then kicking them out again." The Institute's own graduate researcher, Alex Ferrer, reveals striking findings with unprecedented data from the #TenantPowerToolkit.

The rise of end times fascism The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

THE RISE OF END TIMES FASCISM

My first major piece of the new Trump era, co-written with @astra.bsky.social.

The governing ideology of the far right has become a
monstrous, supremacist survivalism.

Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Naomi Klein | Challenge Inequality

What an honor it was to have @naomiaklein.bsky.social give the Institute's Third Annual Distinguished Lecture in Ideas and Organizing. "Climate justice is not a luxury policy for better days. It is how we fight fascism." View her full lecture here>> challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/naomi-klein/

So excited for this!! Naomi Klein at @challengeineq.bsky.social