An Pham: Reflecting on my 2022–2023 NLC Menino Fellowship
I had a fantastic experience being the 2022–2023 National League of Cities Menino Fellow. I went in with a summer’s experience from another IOC Fellowship, half of an economics degree, and scattered convictions about cities. I’m leaving as a staunch urbanist after exploring those convictions and finding names for the ones that made sense by […]
Zoning for Change: Insights from the MBTA Communities Act Implementation
When: March 4, 2024 | 3 PM – 5 PM ET Where: Kenmore Room, 9th Floor, 1 Silber Way, Boston MA, 02215 In response to the region’s escalating housing crisis, Massachusetts passed the MBTA Communities Act in 2021. The law faced its first significant test in 2023 as rapid transit communities worked to pass zoning […]
National League of Cities Menino Fellowship Showcase & Info Session
When: February 21, 2024 | 12 PM – 1 PM ET Where: Initiative on Cities Seminar Room, 75 Bay State Road Lunch will be provided Join us for a featured presentation by An Pham (CAS ‘24), our 2022-2023 National League of Cities (NLC) Menino Fellow. He will present his NLC research on how city fines/fees […]
Call for Papers: Rethinking the Media-Gentrification Nexus
Workshop & Special Issue This Call for Papers (CFP) encourages contributions that rethink the interface between gentrification, displacement, and the proliferation of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media practices. We hope to draw an inter- or trans-disciplinary set of contributions from sociology, geography, political science, media studies, gender and sexualities studies, Black studies, film studies, journalism, literature, […]
Initiative on Cities 10-Year Celebration
Date: Monday, April 1, 2024 Time: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM Location: Center for Computing & Data Sciences, 17th Floor, 665 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215 Please RSVP for the Event We’re turning 10! The Initiative on Cities cordially invites you to celebrate this milestone with us. This special occasion marks a decade of urban […]
Destiny Perkins: My Summer with the Boston Equity & Inclusion Cabinet
Destiny Perkins (Pardee’25) was our summer 2023 Boston Equity & Inclusion Cabinet Intern. Interested in this internship? Click here to learn more about our summer internship & fellowship offerings. I spent this past summer in the City of Boston’s Office for Equity and Inclusion as a Racial Justice Fellow with Lori Nelson’s Racial Justice Office. […]
Multiplied Displacement: Governance, Profit, and Solidarity in Urban Migration Regimes in the U.S. and Germany
Where: Initiative on Cities, 75 Bay State Road When: Tuesday, January 23, 2024, 6:30 – 8:00 PM ET Join us for our first Boston Urban Salon speaker event featuring Dr. René Kreichauf, an Assistant Professor of Urban Studies & Planning at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels). Professor Kreichauf will analyze how international and […]
Annual Cities Talk Lecture: Comparative and Engaged Research in Urban Politics: Productive Tensions?
Where: Initiative on Cities, 75 Bay State Road When: Monday, November 20, 2023, 4:00 – 5:30 PM ET Comparative analysis of the politics of community mobilization has a long history in urban studies, revealing much about the role of urban movements in wider transformation processes in different times and places. At the same time, many […]
Results: Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done
Date: Thursday, November 2, 2023 Time: 5:30 pm-7:00 pm ET Location: Innovate@BU BUild Lab 730 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston “Wedge issues may be great for making headlines but they do not move us forward. Success is measured by what we accomplish together. Our obligation to the people we serve is too important to place politics and […]
IOC Releases 2023 Annual Report
The Boston University Initiative on Cities (IOC) is proud to release our 2023 Annual Report. While it has been an exciting year of change and transition, our pillars of Research, Learning, and Practice continue to guide our activities towards sustainable, just, and inclusive urban transformation. Over the past year, the IOC: Continued to lead the […]