Magdalena Novoa

Magdalena Novoa is affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where her work bridges historic preservation and social justice, focusing on the politics of cultural heritage and memory in the Americas. She is also affiliated with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Woman and Gender in Global Perspectives Program at Illinois.

Her research explores the intersections of gender, deindustrialization, and grassroots organizing in urban contexts, emphasizing the tensions between formal heritage practices and local knowledge systems. Key themes include:

• Mobilization of heritage for inclusion or exclusion of marginalized groups
• Cultural heritage and citizenship construction
• Arts-based and participatory methodologies
• Urban festival curation (e.g., OH! Stgo in Santiago)

Her recent work, presented at the Thirteenth International Conference of Young Researchers in Heritage (2019), examines how marginalized communities in Chile produce alternative heritage discourses through participatory preservation practices. This aligns with her broader focus on insurgent planning and democratizing urban policy.

She has collaborated with organizations like Aldea (Chile) and co-led initiatives such as OH! Stgo to showcase urban best practices via public engagement with heritage sites.