Spring 2022 CITIES@TUFTS COLLOQUIUM SERIES
Zoom Webinars 12:00-1:00 pm ET
Recordings will be made available after the presentation.
February 9, 2022
Sara Meerow presents: Urban heat resilience: Governing an invisible hazard
Extreme heat is already the deadliest climate and weather-related hazard in the United States and cities are getting hotter because of climate change and the urban heat island effect. Communities everywhere need to proactively address inequitable heat risks, but compared with other more visible hazards like flooding, heat governance is underdeveloped. In this talk I will synthesize the current state of extreme heat governance research and practice and outline a framework for urban heat resilience.
Dr. Sara Meerow is an assistant professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar working at the intersection of urban geography and planning to tackle the challenge of making cities more resilient in the face of climate change and other social and environmental hazards, while at the same time more sustainable and just. Her research, which has been published in a wide range of academic journals, includes more conceptual studies of urban resilience as well as empirical research on city governance of resilience, green infrastructure, and climate change adaptation in a range of cities. Sara leads the Planning for Urban Resilience Lab at ASU and some of her research group’s current projects focus on planning for extreme heat, flooding, and multifunctional green infrastructure. She holds a PhD from the School of Natural Resources and Environment (now the School for Environment and Sustainability) at the University of Michigan and an MS in international development studies from the University of Amsterdam.
February 23, 2022
Linda Shi presents: Collective Land Governance for a Changing Climate
Human civilization is headed towards a collision between rapidly changing conditions of land under climate change and static institutions governing land and property. Contemporary development models are predicated on Western European land ethics, property rights regimes, and land policies that evolved during a period of relative climatological and geological stability on Earth. Nevertheless, much as there are “varieties of capitalism”, a variety of land governance systems exist around the world. This talk shares examples of collective land governance that have enabled communities to adapt to economic and environmental shocks. It raises the possibilities of expanding collective land ownership to respond to the climate challenge.
Linda Shi is Assistant Professor at Cornell University’s Department of City and Regional Planning. Her research concerns how to plan for urban climate adaptation in ways that improve environmental sustainability and social justice. She studies how aspects of urban land governance – including the fiscalization of land use, property rights regimes, and metropolitan regional institutions – shape climate vulnerability and adaptation responses. She comes at these issues having worked on watershed restoration, water and sanitation, and development planning all over the world for AECOM, the World Bank, the Institute for International Urban Development, and Rocky Mountain Institute. She has a PhD in urban and regional planning from MIT.
The City of Chicago’s automated traffic enforcement fines and fees are disproportionately borne by Black, Latinx, and low-income residents. Simultaneously, Chicago is on the precipice of implementing one of the largest community wealth building initiatives in the country, defined by the city as “an approach to economic development that promotes the local, democratic, and shared ownership and control of community assets in order to transform our economy to be more sustainable and just.” I will discuss these distinctive areas of research in Chicago (and beyond) by drawing on my Punitive Cities and Cooperative Cities frameworks.
Stacey Sutton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Policy and the Director of Applied Research and Strategic Partnerships at UIC’s Social Justice Initiative. She is the recipient of the 2021 Edward Blakely Award given by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Planners of Color Interest Group, in recognition of a scholar’s dedication to the cause of social justice, particularly for communities of color. Stacey’s research and teaching are broadly within the area of community economic development, with a central focus on economic democracy and worker-owned cooperatives; the solidarity economy movement; gentrification and dispossession; neighborhood small business dynamics; and disparate effects of place-based city policy. Her frameworks for research and community engagement entail advancing “Cooperative Cities” and the solidarity economy and critiquing “Punitive Cities.” She recently completed a study of the distribution, efficacy, and equity effects of Chicago’s automated enforcement red-light and speed camera and ticket fines and fees for Black, Latinx and low-income residents. In Stacey’s newest research project, titled Real Black Utopias, she explores infrastructures, ideologies, and practices of Black-led cooperatives and solidarity economy ecosystems.
March 30, 2022
Tamika Butler presents: Transportation Inequities: What's Data Got to Do with It?
Join national transportation expert, Tamika Butler, to talk about transportation inequities and how data exacerbates those inequities. Tamika will lead us through a conversation focused on the way that white supremacy and structural racism have shaped transportation and the built environment throughout the history of the United States. She will touch on the ways that engagement, data, and policy have added to these disparities and challenge us all to think about data differently.
Tamika L. Butler is a national expert and speaker on issues related to the built environment, equity, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, organizational behavior, and change management. As the Principal + Founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting she focuses on shining a light on inequality, inequity, and social justice. Most recently, she was the Director of Planning, California and the Director of Equity and Inclusion at Toole Design. Previously, Tamika served as the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, a non-profit organization that addresses social and racial equity, and wellness, by building parks and gardens in park-poor communities across Greater Los Angeles. Tamika has a diverse background in law, community organizing and nonprofit leadership. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Tamika received her J.D. from Stanford Law School, and received her B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Sociology at Creighton University in her hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. She lives in Los Angeles with her wife, son, and daughter.
The Energy Equity Project is working to create a framework for measuring equity across energy efficiency and clean energy programs among utilities, state regulatory agencies, and other practitioners, while engaging and centering Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and frontline communities. An equity measurement framework, set to launch in beta form in 2022, will serve environmental and climate justice advocates, practitioners, regulatory agencies, and utilities to drive more equitable investments and outcomes in energy efficiency, distributed generation and storage (i.e. solar + batteries), demand response, electrification, and electric vehicle infrastructure. The presentation will offer an overview of EEP's work, including the energy equity issues it addresses in urban contexts, and an update on the framework being developed and the stakeholder engagement process.
Kyle Whyte is George Willis Pack Professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability, teaching in the SEAS environmental justice specialization. He is Affiliate Professor of Native American Studies and Philosophy. His research addresses environmental justice, focusing on moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organizations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Kyle currently serves on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the Management Committee of the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, and the Board of Directors of the Pesticide Action Network North America. He has served as an author for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, including on the National Climate Assessment, and for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II. He is a former member of the Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science in the U.S. Department of Interior and of two environmental justice work groups convened by past state governors of Michigan.
Justin Schott serves as Project Manager of the Energy Equity Project. Prior to coming to EEP, Schott was Executive Director of EcoWorks, a Detroit non-profit, from 2015-2020. He is an avid social entrepreneur and a recognized sustainability leader in Detroit. Prior to becoming Executive Director, Schott designed and managed the launch and operations of numerous community programs, including the Youth Energy Squad (founder), which grew from a summer pilot employing four students in 2009 to a city‐wide partnership with Detroit Public Schools Community District. Schott has also worked closely on the creation of utility programs, including the Home Energy Consultation Program, which provided in‐home energy efficient installations and education to 10,500 households in its first 7 months. Schott has chaired the Coalition to Keep Michigan Warm and is a member of steering committees of the Detroit Environmental Agenda; Housing, Health and Heatwaves project; and Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition. Most recently, he is project manager of the Detroit Climate Strategy and architect of Net Zero For All, Starting Today (F.A.S.T.), an initiative to eliminate climate pollution in SE MI while keeping equity and justice front and center.
April 27, 2022
Quilian Riano presents: Gaming the System: role-playing spatial and political change
A review of work that looks at how spatial games -- defined as processes with loose rules for others to interpret and execute as they see fit -- can become design tools to broaden the socio-spatial imagination and conversation.
Quilian Riano is the Assistant Dean of the Pratt Institute School of Architecture in Brooklyn, New York. In that role, Quilian works across all four of the school’s departments to help develop and amplify the research-driven, spatial outcomes with real-world impact. Quilian is also the founder and lead designer of DSGN AGNC, a design studio exploring new forms of political design, processes and engagements through architecture, urbanism, landscapes and art. Quilian/DSGN AGNC’s design work has been featured at the Venice Biennale, Queens Museum of Art, Harvard University, The Storefront for Art and Architecture, The New Museum, the Center for Architecture, the Architectural League of New York, among others. Quilian has over a decade of teaching experience and is an initiator and core member of Dark Matter University. Quilian holds a Bachelors of Design in Architecture (BDes) from the University of Florida’s School of Architecture and a Masters of Architecture (MArch) from the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).