Heat waves (HWs) are amongst the deadliest natural disasters and are one of the most important causes of weather-related mortality. Urban residents, which now account for more than 50% of the global population, are arguably more vulnerable to HWs due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect wherein cities are usually hotter than the surrounding […]
Media accounts and political organizations have increasingly highlighted a surge of state preemption laws that restrict the autonomy of cities. Political Science Ph.D. candidate Luisa Godinez Puig will investigate the validity of said surge to prove if preemption laws have increased over time and, if so, which cities within the United States have been most […]
Community Archeology on the Urban Periphery: The Tlajinga District at the Nexus of Ancient Teotihuacan and Modern Mexico City Associate Professor David Carballo, who holds a joint appointment in Anthropology and Latin American Studies, will pioneer a new initiative of community-based archaeology at Teotihuacan, Mexico. Teotihuacan is an ancient Mesoamerican city and UNESCO World Heritage […]
Sociology Assistant Professor Jessica Simes seeks to bridge the gap in sociological research between the political and economic causes of the prison boom and the neighborhood-level impacts of mass incarceration to help explain a phenomenon found in small cities and suburbs: a disproportionately high rate of imprisonment, compared to larger cities. For example, in 1973, […]
Under the direction of Boston University Associate Professor Lucy Hutyra, Earth & Environment PhD candidate Sarah Garvey will examine water use efficiency among urban street trees in order to determine their climate sensitivity in relation to non-urban trees. Her research question is based on her lab’s recent work that suggests Boston’s street tree growth rates […]
Earth & Environment Associate Professor Anne Short seeks to examine climate action plans in 24 cities across the United States to determine if and how they integrate environmental justice into their goals. Professor Short undertakes this project in order to add to empirical evidence—of which there is little—examining justice in the context of urban climate […]
On April 23, 2018 in New York City, the Boston University Initiative on Cities, with support from Citi Community Development and The Rockefeller Foundation, released “Cities Joining Ranks—Policy Networks on the Rise”. This newest report, which draws on data from the 2017 Menino Survey of Mayors as well as new research, offers the first systematic […]
On Wednesday, April 4th, 2018 Peter Bucchianeri, a Ph.D Candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, joined the Initiative on Cities to share research in progress on Conflict and Cleavages Under Democratic One-Party Rule. If two debating sides normally shape how policy is being made, what happens when one of those sides is absent? How does […]
Join us live today as we partner with the Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI) to host their Spring Conference, Confronting Inequality and Economic Mobility: Data-Driven Lessons From Boston, For Boston on Friday, April 27, 2018. Select portions of the day will be live-streamed. All sessions will be recorded and available on BARI’s conference web page […]
The Boston University Initiative on Cities, with support from Citi and The Rockefeller Foundation, is proud to release “Cities Joining Ranks—Policy Networks on the Rise”. Catch up with our AP press release. Peruse our Key Findings: Cities Joining Ranks Key Findings Read our full report: Cities Joining Ranks Final Report Watch the launch of the […]