Joshua Cantong (they/he) is a Data Analyst for the Othering & Belonging Institute. In this role, Josh works within the Equity Metrics Program to conduct data-driven analysis related to racial geography, economic inequality, and the impacts of place on opportunity.
In the past, Josh has worked as a Research Assistant at the USC Sol Price Center for Social Innovation, specifically within the Neighborhood Data for Social Change platform. In the NDSC platform, Josh cleaned data, generated visualizations, and worked with community advocates to track housing injustice, neighborhood change, eviction, and affectual-physical violence of tenants by landlords. They have also worked as a researcher and tenant counselor at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy, a community-based organization in South LA that focuses on tenant’s rights and equitable development through organizing, outreach+education, and policy advocacy.
Prior to OBI, Josh studied at the University of Southern California, receiving their Master of Public Policy with a concentration in Urban Spatial Analysis. In Josh’s practicum, utilizing a mixed-methods spatial analytics frame, they analyzed law enforcement traffic stops across the Bay Area and Los Angeles, specifically tracking the economic sanctions and debt-related processes subjected on Black & Latinx drivers, as a result of a broader assemblage of racial violence that constitutes the project of policing.
