Rand Makarem

Rand is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan with a research focus on urban governance practices in cities that have experienced decline due to neglect, abandonment, or de-industrialization. She is interested in understanding how urban space is shaped and governed by non-state actors and how that affects the livelihoods of disenfranchised communities.

Her research explores how the major institutional shift in governance and the erosion of state authority signals a fundamental transformation in the role of public institutions—from regulatory entities with centralized control to facilitators that enable non-state actors to lead in public sector urban development.

Her current dissertation research takes Detroit as a case study and looks at how this shift in governance challenges traditional understandings of public authority by revealing how the state now operates less as a director of urban development and more as a broker or coordinator of externally driven initiatives. In doing so, it positions the state as an enabler, rather than a driver, of urban change.

Prior to embarking on her Ph.D., Rand worked as a researcher at the American University of Beirut, questioning how the urban dimensions of cities affect refugee’s livelihood and the subsequent meaning of work to them. Specifically, she explored how cities are shaped, and how the different policies implemented at the national level hinder or expedite the chances of refugees, especially women, to participate in the workforce.

Rand completed her undergraduate degree in Architecture at the Lebanese American University (2018) and a Master in Community and Regional Planning with a focus on post-disaster recovery at The University of Texas at Austin (2022).