ENROLLMENT CLOSED

Course title: Socialists and Housing: The Struggle to Take on Real Estate Elite
Instructors: Samuel Stein, Andrea Shapiro, Marnie Brady, Gianpaolo Baiocchi, Joshua Freeman
Dates: Alt. Mondays, 7–9pm • Mar. 10, Mar. 24, Apr. 7, Apr. 21, 2025
Location: TBA (Course is in-person only)
Course cost: $35 DSA members / $45 nonmembers

Course description:

For a century and a half, socialists have thought about housing and experimented with different ways to provide decent, affordable shelter for working people (sometimes with distinctly utopian elements). This course will consider how, locally and internationally, socialists have grappled with housing and how that might inform housing struggles today.

Instructor biographies:

Samuel Stein is a housing policy analyst and advocate who researches and writes about housing and urban planning politics in New York City and beyond. He is the author of the book Capital City: Gentrification and the Real Estate State.

Andrea Shapiro is a lifelong Brooklynite, who is passionate about building strong and stable communities. She is a longtime member of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ). Andrea is currently the director of advocacy and programs at Met Council on Housing.

Marnie Brady is a higher education worker whose applied research focuses on the power of renters in the context of financialization. She is a wholehearted participant-supporter of the House the Future campaign and is co-anchor of the U.S.- based Right to the City Alliance’s policy and research committee. Before moving to Brooklyn, Marnie worked for ten years as a community organizer in D.C. where she co-led various housing justice campaigns.

Gianpaolo Baiocchi is a Brazilian-born, New York City–based scholar and activist. He directs the Urban Democracy Lab at NYU and has a forthcoming book, with Jake Carlson, called “Housing is a Social Good.” He has supported various policy efforts on Social Housing in the United States.

Joshua Freeman is a historian of labor and of New York City. He is the author of a number of books, including Working-Class New York: Life and Labor Since World War II and a forthcoming history of garden apartments.

About the NYC DSA Academy for Socialist Education:
Education, broadly defined, is and always has been a vital function of revolutionary socialist movements. The NYC DSA Academy aims to enhance the ongoing political education efforts of the New York chapter of DSA. Designed to connect the history and theory of socialist struggles with the work of today’s activists, the Academy aims to offer a rigorous but accessible curriculum for working adults to develop their understanding and strategy.