Jose Carlos Fernandez

Jose Carlos is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban History at the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Science. He studies the legal practices of different ethnic groups (Andean, Asian and Afro-Peruvian) occupying land and developing neighborhoods in the peripheries of Peruvian cities in the 19th and early 20th century. Using the framework of legal pluralism, he focuses on the diversity of legal arrangements behind collective forms of land tenure such as confraternities, mutual aid societies and housing cooperatives. His project builds on his previous experience as a lawyer in Lima where he worked in a law firm and also as a public official at the Ministry of Housing of Peru. He also holds a M.A. in History and a Master in Urban Planning, both from Harvard University.   Project: The everyday life of the laws of the cities