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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Project Themes

Year Awarded

724 result(s) found.

  • How Mayors are Tackling the Racial Wealth Gap

    April 8, 2022
    Thursday, April 14, 2022 12pm ET Virtual Event The racial wealth gap is wider for Black and Latinx families compared to White families than for any other racial identifications. Nationwide, this problem persists across a variety of assets, including housing, businesses, and retirement accounts. The Boston University Initiative on Cities’ 2021 Menino Survey of Mayors report on […]

  • How Transit Enriches a City

    February 12, 2026
    When: Thursday, March 5, 2026 | 5:00–6:30 PM ET Where: Rajen Kilachand Center Eichenbaum Colloquium Room, 1st Floor, 610 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 The Boston University Initiative on Cities, City Planning & Urban Affairs Program, and the Urban Planning Association are delighted to welcome the General Manager of the MBTA and interim Massachusetts Secretary […]

  • Hyperresolution large-eddy simulations for assessing the local impacts of heat mitigation strategies

    April 13, 2023
    Principal Investigator: Co-Principal Investigator: Cities are emerging as the nexus of the energy, water, health, and climate challenges in the 21st century. More than 50% of the world’s population lives in cities, and the urban population continues growing. Urban areas are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Urbanization also modifies the Earth’s surface properties, resulting […]

  • Imagining a More Playful Boston

    September 5, 2018
    “Wanna come over and play?” five-year-old me asked my best friend on the phone. What, exactly, we were going to “play” wasn’t defined—at that age, everything had the potential to be playful, from toys and games to cardboard boxes to sticks. As we grow older, and as we become more scheduled, some of that openness […]
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    Immigration, Cities, and President Trump

    February 23, 2017
    Immigration has emerged as arguably the dominant story of 2017. Mayors nationwide have been outspoken in their criticism of the Trump administration's policies thus far. How are cities in Massachusetts, and around the country, navigating the complex issue of immigration? And what might be at stake for cities moving forward? Event recap to be posted soon. 

  • Impact of Air Pollution and Climate on Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes

    July 17, 2017
    Principal Investigator School of Public Health Ph.D. candidate Lindsey Butler will investigate the the impacts of maternal exposure to traffic related air pollution (TRAP) and extreme ambient temperatures on the risk of structural birth defects and stillbirth, particularly those resulting from placental dysfunction. Lindsey will serve as the project’s PI in collaboration with four co-PIs […]

  • Impact of Natural Disasters on City Integrity

    July 18, 2018
    Principal Investigator Economics PhD candidate Giovanna Marcolongo aims to use statistical analysis to examine the relationship between emergencies—defined as municipalities’ declaration of a “state of emergency”—and corruption in local government, particularly focusing on public procurement outcomes. In order to determine this correlation, Marcolongo will investigate whether municipalities in a "state of emergency" are more likely […]
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    Improving Local Civic Engagement during COVID-19 and Beyond: Reflecting on my 2020 Fellowship with the Boston Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics

    September 12, 2020
    By Meghann Lucy (PhD student, Sociology) This has been an unexpected and unprecedented year. The first wave of a global pandemic, which at the time of writing has been responsible for the deaths of nearly 800,000 people, has disrupted life as we knew it. Countries and cities shuttered, economies slowed, scientists scrambled to learn the […]

  • In the News: Professor Rotjan’s Urban Coral Project

    November 28, 2017
    Congratulations to Professor Randi Rotjan for receiving media coverage by WPRI 12 and ecoRI News on her urban coral project. Rotjan received an IOC Urban Research Award in 2017 to support her project, which analyzes the impact of microplastics and microbial films on urban coral. Concerned about the 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of […]
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    Incoming IOC Faculty Director Loretta Lees honored with membership in Academia Europaea

    June 14, 2022
    Incoming IOC Faculty Director Loretta Lees has been honored with a membership in Academia Europaea. Academia Europaea is a European, non-governmental association acting as an academy. Membership in the academy demonstrates "sustained academic excellence," with an invitation-only peer-review selection process. The academy includes 72 Nobel Prize Laureates among its members.  Congratulations Professor Lees!