Skye Dobson: Urban Development
Skye Dobson (MA International Affairs ’11) has spent the past decade working on community-driven slum upgrading and urban development in African cities. After earning a bachelor's degree in African studies at Hunter College, Dobson knew she wanted to work in Africa’s development sector, so she applied to The New School’s graduate programs in International Affairs.
“In the International Affairs program at The New School, my peers and professors inspired me to focus on urban issues,” Dobson says. “Critically, they exposed me to research and experience that helped me understand that community organizing and social movements would be central to the social transformation required to address the scale and depth of urban poverty and inequality.”
While at The New School, Dobson was able to apply her knowledge in the International Fieldwork Program (IFP). In 2010, she traveled with IFP to Uganda, where she worked as an intern with Slum Dwellers International (SDI), a network that brings together slum dweller social movements in more than 30 countries. Dobson’s experience in Uganda influenced her thesis, which focused on housing projects organized by slum dwellers in East Africa.
Dobson’s research and volunteer work with SDI during her time with the IFP led to a job offer upon graduation, and she’s been with the organization ever since. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, Dobson serves as SDI’s director of Learning, Monitoring and Evaluation, a position in which she coordinates data and knowledge management systems for the network and manages program and strategy development as well as donor and partner engagement. Dobson specializes in monitoring and evaluation for social movements and the use of community-gathered data for inclusive, collaborative urban planning.
For the past six years, Dobson has also worked with IFP to enable International Affairs students to intern with SDI in Uganda and South Africa.
