Author: David Gross

Living in the Future City: Migration, Class, and Placemaking in a Chinese “New Area”

PI: Xuyi Zhao, PhD Student, Department of Anthropology, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Co-PI: Robert Weller, Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences How is urban life made meaningful in a city recently planned and built up from scratch? Xuyi’s research investigates migration and homemaking in a “National New Area” in Southwest […]

Folded Speech: An Ethics of Comings-and-Goings in an Accra Zongo

PI: Emily Williamson, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Co-PI: Joanna Davidson, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences; Associate Director, Kilachand Honors College “It is not impossible for a lizard to ride on a housefly!,” artist Nicolas Wayo remarked, directing Williamson’s attention to his wall painting […]

Where do urban trees get their water?

PI: Ian Smith, PhD student, Department of Earth and Environment, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; BU URBAN Program Co-PIs: Lucy Hutyra, Professor, Department of Earth and Environment, College of Arts & Sciences; Pamela Templer, Professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences Read a Q&A with Ian Smith and watch a spotlight video. […]

The Impact of Racism on Urban Belowground Biodiversity

PI: Kathryn Atherton, PhD Student, Bioinformatics; BU URBAN Program Co-PI: Jennifer M. Bhatnagar, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences Read a Q&A with Kathryn Atherton and watch a spotlight video. Healthy soils are a key measure of urban green space quality. In particular, soil microbial diversity is a crucial ecosystem […]

Stress in the City: Examining metabolic consequences of toxicological exposures in resilient urban corals under global change stressors

PI: Caroline Fleming, PhD Student, Department of Biology, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences; BU URBAN Program Co-PIs: Randi Rotjan, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biology, College of Arts & Sciences; Wendy Heiger-Bernays, Clinical Professor, Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health Read a Q&A with Caroline Fleming and watch a spotlight video. […]

Reentry, Employment and Persisting Inequality: Understanding the experiences of formerly incarcerated jobseekers with employment reentry programs

PI: Audrey Holm, PhD candidate, Management & Organizations, Questrom School of Business Co-PI: Michel Anteby, Professor, Management & Organizations, Questrom School of Business Today in the United States, 50% of formerly incarcerated people remain unemployed in the year following their release. Over the past decades, prisoner reentry programs have increasingly provided formerly incarcerated jobseekers with […]

Meet Avi Nguyen, the summer 2021 MORRE Fellow

The Initiative on Cities (IOC) and the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground are proud to announce that Avi Nguyen has been selected as the summer 2021 MORRE Fellow. Avi will spend the summer working with the City of Boston’s Chief Resilience Officer, Ms. Lori Nelson, in the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity (MORRE). As Chief Resilience […]

Meet Kimberly Rhoten, JD, the summer 2021 MONUM Fellow

The Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to announce that Kimberly Rhoten (they/them) has been selected as the summer 2021 MONUM Fellow. Kimberly will spend the summer working with the City of Boston, within the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics(MONUM). MONUM is Boston’s civic innovation team, responsible for promoting participatory urbanism, along with smarter city infrastructure and […]