The GSD is pleased to announce the appointment of Diane Davis as Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design as of July 1, 2015. Davis is currently the Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism at the GSD.
Davis teaches courses and options studios that examine the role of politics in planning and design, relations between urbanization and development, and socio-spatial practice at the scale of the city. Her research focuses on urban transformations in the global south, particularly the urban social, spatial, and political conflicts that have emerged in response to globalization, informality, and political and economic violence. In her capacity as codirector of the Risk and Resilience track in the Master in Design Studies (MDes) program, Davis explores overlapping vulnerabilities in the built and natural environment and assesses their significance for planning theory and design practice.
Davis is a prior recipient of research fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heinz Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the United States Institute for Peace, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Currently, she directs a project funded by the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation titled “Transforming Urban Transport—The Role of Political Leadership.”
Davis was named the Charles Dyer Norton Professor of Regional Planning and Urbanism at the GSD in November 2014 and had served as professor of urbanism and development at the GSD since 2012.