Abraham Alzoubi, M.Arch ‘25 was awarded a summer research grant by the U-M National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) to investigate the various land uses in Detroit and Palestine. It was one of 19 grants given to graduate students and teams at the University of Michigan through the provost-funded Anti-Racism Collaborative.
Alzoubi is in the final year of his master’s program and is required to complete a master’s thesis. He is focusing his research on the commodification of land, which is the process by which land is bought and sold as an economic resource.
“In the society we live in now, our view on land is that it must be cultivated and improved through extracting resources,” Alzoubi said. “I’m wondering how we can have a non-extractive relationship with land, where we’re not destroying it for cultivation or improving it.”
Alzoubi said his interest in land ownership is motivated by his parents’ experience as Palestinian refugees and growing up in the Detroit Metropolitan Area.
“It starts off being Palestinian, that my family was dispossessed of their land and displaced,” Alzoubi said. “They moved to different Arab countries and they never really were able to find a permanent home … and that’s been my interest in architectural studies. I was really interested in urban planning and I really started to dive into the research of urban renewal, redlining, and highways being constructed that destroyed black communities and immigrant communities.”
NCID Director Elizabeth Cole, who’s also a U-M professor of psychology and women’s and gender studies, said the research grants are “an important way that we fulfill our mission of building intergenerational networks of scholars. Because emerging scholars are leading some of the most innovative, forward-thinking research about racial justice, they bring vitality to the conversations within the NCID’s scholarly community.”
Alzoubi plans to use the grant to fund field expeditions to Detroit and Palestine and learn more about the ongoing efforts of activists to fight against land commodification.
“I’m traveling to Freedom Dreams Farm in Detroit, where they’re stewards of the land and reclaim land for Detroiters,” Alzoubi said. “I’m going to Jordan and Palestine in October. Part of the research grant will be funding my travels there, and I’ll be going on a tour of the West Bank where people are fighting to reclaim land and hold onto their property.”
Although Alzoubi is still figuring out his plans post-graduation, he said he is motivated to continue making a difference through research.
“I would love to try to work at research-based architecture/design firms with the goal of eventually ending up in academia,” Alzoubi said. “But I am also interested in working towards receiving my architectural license. I am all over the place currently.”
