Policy Brief: The Role of Sanitation and Waste Management in Local Responses to Homelessness
Authors: Katherine Levine Einstein (Associate Professor of Political Science, Boston University), Charley E. Willison (Assistant Professor of Public and Ecosystem Health, Cornell University) In this brief, the Boston University Initiative on Cities, Cornell University, and Community Solutions investigate the involvement of sanitation agencies in response to homelessness in cities across the country. Unsheltered homelessness is highly visible and presents social, […]
Dan Li Publishes New Paper on Urban Heat and Will Become IOC’s New Urban-H Associate Director of Heat
Boston University Associate Professor of Earth & Environment Dan Li’s new publication, Persistent Urban Heat, with co-authors Linying Wang (Boston University), Weilin Liao (Sun Yat-sen University), Ting Sun (University College London), Gabriel Katul (Duke University), Elie Bou-Zeid (Princeton University), and Björn Maronga (Leibniz University Hannover), tackles the urban heat island effect and demonstrates that urban […]
New Brief: Political Lessons Learned from the Initial MBTA Communities Act Rollout
In partnership with the Initiative on Cities’ MetroBridge program and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Urban-H Associate Director Katherine Levine Einstein and students enrolled in the Inequality in American Politics (CAS PO 519) course during the Fall 2023 semester recently published their findings concerning the implementation of the 2021 MBTA Communities Act (MBTA-C) in Arlington, […]
New Publication: “Municipal finance shapes urban climate action and justice”
2022 Early Stage Urban Research award recipient Claudia V. Diezmartínez recently authored a publication in Nature Climate Change alongside Co-PI Anne G. Short Gianotti. Their research focuses on municipal finance and urban climate action. Read the full abstract here: “Implementing climate policies and programmes in cities requires substantial investments that inevitably entangle climate action with […]
IOC Seed Funding to Study Classroom Air Quality Featured on BU SPH
Patricia Fabian, an associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Associate Director at the Institute for Global Sustainability, was recently featured in a BU SPH article highlighting her work on air quality in Boston Public School (BPS) classrooms. During her 2022-2023 sabbatical, Professor Fabian created a research partnership with the Boston Public Schools. […]
New Publication: “Housing Movements and Care: Rethinking the Political Imaginaries of Housing”
The IOC’s Postdoctoral Research Associate Kenton Card recently authored a publication in Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography alongside UC Berkeley Associate Professor Desiree Fields and Western Sydney University Associate Professor Emma R. Power. Their work focuses on housing movements and housing as a form of care. Read the full abstract here: “Care is a […]
New Publication: “Water sources for street trees in mesic urban environments”
2021 Early Stage Urban Research award recipient Ian Smith recently published in Science of The Total Environment with Co-PIs Pamela Templer and Lucy Hutyra. Smith, Templer, and Hutyra examine urban trees’ water sources, factoring in moderate moisture environments and their impact on urban communities. Their research finds that trees contribute to cities’ overall climate resiliency […]
New Publication: “What Constitutes Engaged Dialogue in Urban Research? Thoughts From a Long Time ‘Outside-Insider'”
Initiative on Cities Director Loretta Lees recently published a plenary in Dialogues in Urban Research focusing on inclusionary dialogue in urban studies and what needs to change. Read the abstract below: “In this plenary for the new journal Dialogues in Urban Research, I discuss what constitutes (and should constitute going forward) engaged dialogue in urban […]
Policy Brief: Policing and the Punitive Politics of Local Homelessness Policy
Authors: Alisa Dewald (Research Assistant; Boston University Initiative on Cities), Dr. Katherine Levine Einstein (Boston University Initiative on Cities; Department of Political Science), and Dr. Charley Willison (Cornell University Public Health) In this brief, the Boston University Initiative on Cities, Cornell University, and Community Solutions investigate the involvement of the police in responses to homelessness in cities across the country. Advocates and researchers […]
Policy Brief: Cities, Zoning, and the Fragmented Response to Homelessness
Authors: Dr. Katherine Levine Einstein (Boston University Initiative on Cities; Department of Political Science) and Dr. Charley Willison (Cornell University Public Health) In this brief, the Boston University Initiative on Cities, Cornell University, and Community Solutions examine how local governments can better address and end homelessness through improved coordination of homelessness and zone/land use planning […]