Rayna Rusenko was part of the ERC Inhabiting Radical Housing project (PI: Lancione) from January 2022 to February 2023.

Rayna’s work focuses on the transhistorical role of public policy in producing and maintaining structural inequalities across developmental contexts, particularly as relates to Asia. They employ historical and ethnographic methods to investigate the development, implementation, and street-level impacts of policies across multiple fields including housing, employment, welfare, policing, identification, urban planning, and property rights.

Rayna has 20 years’ experience in policy research and advocacy pertaining to homelessness in Japan and Malaysia. Across all endeavors, they work closely with persons with experience of homelessness.

They completed their PhD at Florida International University with funding from the Japan Foundation and the National Science Foundation and earned a Master of Public Policy from the University of Malaya. Their interdisciplinary work incorporates concepts and methods from global historical sociology; legal geography; critical race, gender, and disability studies; postcolonial and decolonial thinking; international relations; and critical policy ethnography.