The Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to share our 2026 Annual Report, highlighting another year of work to connect urban research, learning, and practice.
For more than a decade, the IOC has brought together scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners to better understand and address the challenges facing cities. This year, we expanded opportunities for students to engage in real-world urban work, advanced research on critical issues including housing and displacement, and strengthened partnerships across Boston and beyond.
Here are a few highlights from the year:
People
- Director Loretta Lees was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s 2026 Patron’s Gold Medal, one of the Society’s two highest honors, recognizing her groundbreaking contributions to urban geography and the study of gentrification.
- Associate Director of Heat Dan Li received the American Meteorological Society’s Henry G. Houghton Award for his contributions to understanding interactions between urbanization and climate systems.
- Associate Director Danielle Mulligan completed the Rennie Center’s Massachusetts Education Policy Fellowship, which provides education leaders with a deeper understanding of education policy and public decision-making in Massachusetts.
- Communications Manager & Administrator Ting Wei Li was elected President of BU’s Urban Planning Association after helping to restart the student organization.
Research
- The 2025 Menino Survey of Mayors, supported by Arnold Ventures, examined how mayors understand the politics of housing supply and the barriers to building more housing.
- We launched the Gentrification & Urban Displacement Lab, creating a new platform for collaboration between urban researchers and practitioners. The Lab awarded three seed grants supporting projects in Cambridge, Boston, and Lowell, with lead organizations representing three different stakeholder sectors.
- Through our Early Stage Urban Research Awards, we continued to support faculty and graduate student research across BU. In 2026, we awarded four grants to projects spanning disciplines and schools across the University, bringing total catalyzed funding through the program since 2015 to $17,642,877.
- We continued our partnership with The Boston Foundation on the Greater Boston Housing Report Card, including its 2025 focus on community responses to MBTA Communities.
- We published two new briefs: one examining short-term rental regulation in Boston, in partnership with Makarand Mody (SHA), and another examining climate action in small and midsized U.S. cities, in partnership with Anne Short Gianotti (CAS Earth & Environment).
Learning
- Through MetroBridge, 410 BU undergraduate and graduate students in 25 classes worked with municipal and community partners on 20 projects – our largest year yet in both the number of projects and courses participating in the program.
- Our summer fellowship and internship program continued to connect BU students with opportunities in local government. This year, students worked with the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, the Equity and Inclusion Cabinet, and the City of Boston Planning Advisory Council, as well as new partners including the City of Boston Streets Cabinet and the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library.
- Eleanor Nakasone-Amaguin (CAS ‘26), an architectural studies major, received the 2026 Initiative on Cities Student Prize. This year, 29 students graduated with a minor in Urban Studies, bringing the total number of BU graduates with the minor to 82 since the minor’s launch.
- We marked the eighth year of the Urban Inequalities Workshop, in partnership with the Department of Sociology, bringing eight faculty members, graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars from BU and beyond together to share research in progress.
- We continued to build opportunities for urbanism at BU through the launch of the Third Spaces Zine, support for the BU Urbanist Club, and renewed activity through the Urban Planning Association.
Practice
- The IOC hosted 32 events and conversations on campus and beyond, bringing together researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners. Highlights included the inaugural BU City Hall Day, conversations on Jeju Island, civic plazas and citizenship, Boston as a global city, and the future of climate policy in America, as well as a conversation on leadership with San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones (Pardee ’03).
- We opened the Right to the City art exhibition with support from the Office of the President and BU Art Galleries, exploring housing, displacement, and belonging through art and public dialogue.
- For the third year, we continued our partnership with Metropolitan College’s City Planning & Urban Affairs program on the Transportation & the City series, which featured Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation and MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, transit map historian Mark Ovenden, MBTA map designer Ken Dumas, and senior officials at our popular Careers in Transportation event. This successful series is co-organized by Terry Regan, former Principal Technical Advisor for Planning and Innovative Finance, U.S. DOT’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, and Rob DiAdamo, former MBTA Chief of Staff / Deputy General Manager and Executive Director of the MBTA Commuter Rail.
Read the full 2026 Annual Report to learn more about the people, research, students, partnerships, and conversations that shaped the IOC this year.
2026 Annual Report