How is the Initiative on Cities Making a Difference in Urban Scholarship?

We catalyze early-stage research that deepens understanding of cities and urban populations. Today, with over half the world’s population living in urban areas, it is more crucial than ever for scholars and practitioners to address the complex challenges facing 21st-century cities – and to shape the policies and practices that will shape their future. If you are a member of the BU community and interested in submitting a proposal, we encourage you to review our annual requests for proposals, which typically open in December or January.  
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    Event Recap: When Cities Lobby Book Talk & Panel (3/29)

    May 1, 2023
    Event recap by Dhruv Kapadia Watch the full recording here! On Wednesday, March 29th, the Initiative on Cities (IOC) and the American Politics Seminar Series hosted a discussion titled “Cities, Lobbyists, and Power” that investigated why mayors rely on professional lobbyists to amplify their voices and represent their city’s interests in state politics. More generally, […]

  • Event Recap: When Tokyo Went Electric

    January 30, 2018
    On December 6th, the Boston University Initiative on Cities co-sponsored the lecture “When Tokyo Went Electric: Electricity Theft and the Materiality of Modern Life” with Professor Ian Miller of Harvard University. Miller describes Japan’s journey to become one of the most “electrified” places on Earth through fossil fuels and the debate of energy as property. […]

  • Evictions and Substandard Housing in Boston: The Unfulfilled Promises of the Public Health and Legal System

    May 19, 2019
    Principal Investigator Co-Principal Investigator Collaborator Boston is one of the least affordable housing markets in the country. Policymakers have focused largely on new housing supply, but existing housing - much of which is substandard and located in low-income neighborhoods and in communities of color - is often overlooked. As neighborhoods are squeezed by new, unaffordable […]

  • Examining Dually-Involved Black, Indigenous, and Youth of Color’s Reentry Experiences in Massachusetts

    May 23, 2021
    Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Youth involved with child welfare system (CWS) are entering the juvenile justice system (JJS) at rates far higher than their peers, and Black, Indigenous, and Youth of Color (BIYOC) represent a disproportionate percentage of youth with dual-involvement. Scholarship on dual-involvement focuses on youth demographics and their experiences within the CWS and […]

  • Examining experiences of gentrification, local policy awareness and the effects on social networks in Detroit, MI

    May 1, 2022
    Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Gentrification is a widely discussed and examined phenomenon. The effects of gentrification on residents who stay in gentrifying and “revitalizing” areas, rather than moving and/or being pushed out, is an underdeveloped area of study. The qualitative experiences of Black residents are also less represented within gentrification-based scholarship. The present study seeks […]

  • Examining the Role of Crime, Race, & Politics in City‐Level Crime Control Outputs

    July 17, 2017
    Principal Investigator Assistant Professor Shea Cronin will construct a cross‐sectional dataset of large cities which can be used to test questions about crime concentration, segregation and crime control outputs. Professor Cronin will address the following research questions: To what extent are measures of the geographic concentration of crime (compared to the absolute levels of crime) […]

  • Executive Director Katharine Lusk Co-Authors Paper On Youth-led Participatory Budgeting

    November 22, 2017
    Katharine Lusk, Executive Director of the Initiative on Cities, co-authored a paper published last week by the Journal of Youth Studies. Lusk collaborated with Associate Dean Mary Elizabeth Collins, Professor Astraea Augsberger, and PhD Candidate Whitney Gecker, all from the Boston University School of Social Work, to explore youth-led participatory budgeting. The team worked with […]
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    Executive Director Katharine Lusk Leads Panel at SXSW

    March 27, 2018
    Initiative on Cities Executive Director Katharine Lusk led a panel at SXSW earlier this month focused on mayors' initiatives to advance racial equity in their cities. The panel, America’s Mayors: Fighting for Racial Equity, featured Initiative partners Leon Andrews, the Director of the Race, Equity And Leadership (REAL) at the National League of Cities; Dr. […]

  • Experiential Learning for Social Impact Summit

    April 20, 2022
    Thursday, May 26, 2022 9:00am–3:30pm 1 Silber Way, 9th Floor, Metcalf Trustee Center Ballroom Open to current members of the BU community Experiential learning continues to grow as a hallmark of a Boston University education, via both new and longstanding programs across our many schools, colleges, and centers. This day-long summit will bring together BU […]

  • Exploring Data & Cities

    February 29, 2024
    Where: BU Center for Computing & Data Sciences, Second Floor SPARK! Space, 665 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215 When: Friday, March 22, 2024, 5:00-6:30 PM EST As complex data analysis techniques become more salient in government, there is enormous potential for quantitative analysis to improve public policy outcomes. Data tools are essential for assessing effectiveness, […]