Dr. John Harris, Director of the OU Division of Regional + City Planning, and Dr. Firat Demir, professor of Economics at the University of Oklahoma, recently received a renewed grant from the Carnegie Corporation to continue the work of the Center for Peace and Development (CPD) and the Security in Context Network (SIC) through 2024.
The Carnegie Corporation had previously provided funding for the CPD and SIC Network from 2020 through 2022, and the renewed award of $275,000 will continue to fund the work of the Center for Peace and Development, including basic research on grassroots peacebuilding, applied community engagement, the CPD fellowship program, and facilitates discussions of global concern with partners across the world.
The University of Oklahoma’s Center for Peace and Development is a part of the Security in Context Network, which is an interdisciplinary network of university nodes promoting collaborative research, policy analysis and outreach on key questions regarding peace and conflict, the political economy of security and insecurity, and international norms. The CPD builds on the University of Oklahoma’s longtime work with communities in northern Uganda, bringing together OU faculty and students from across disciplines to build collaborative partnerships with communities affected by conflict.
Dr. Demir is one of the CPD’s co-directors, and Dr. Harris serves on the Center’s Executive Committee. To learn more about the Center’s work, visit their website.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture professor and Institute for Quality Communities Director Dr. Amber N. Wiley’s book, Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital, has received two major honors from the Urban History Association.
Research initiated by Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumna Naila Hasan during her master’s studies at the University of Oklahoma has continued through faculty collaboration and resulted in a peer-reviewed publication in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce Esther Thorp, Tyler Boydstun and Chukwuma Nwokoye as the winners of the 2026 Construction Innovation Translation Hub (CIThub) Student Ideas Competition.
