Dr. Claudia Gastrow (Anthropology, North Carolina State University) on her new book, The Aesthetics of Belonging: Indigenous Urbanism and City Building in Oil-Boom Luanda (University of North Carolina Press, 2024). Dr. Gastrow reflects on her winding path from South Africa to Switzerland, Angola, and the United States. The conversation then delves into the main thrust of the book, doing research in Portuguese in Luanda, and the role of the Angolan state, and China, in housing provision. The interview concludes with a brief discussion of Gastrow’s new project on Cuba and Angola.