Assistant professor of Regional + City Planning C. Aujean Lee (pictured, left) & RCPL affiliate faculty member Laura Harjo (pictured, right; associate professor of Native American Studies) are guest editors for an upcoming special issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association entitled “Anti-Racist Futures: Disrupting Racist Planning Practices in Workplaces, Institutions, and Communities.”
The special issue editorial team also includes April Jackson (FSU), Anaid Yerena (University of Washington, Tacoma), Ivis Garcia (University of Utah), Benjamin Chrisinger (Oxford University), and Stacy Harwood (University of Utah).
Excerpted from the call for papers:
We are in a critical moment in history as demonstrated by the Spring/Summer 2020 nationwide anti-racism protests, after George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks died in police custody. With increased public consciousness amidst racial reckoning, it is imperative to document any shifts in state, regional, or municipal planning and higher education that are occurring to provide practitioners with concrete strategies on ways to implement anti-racist and decolonial planning practices. The field of planning has the opportunity to be proactive in valuing diversity and centering racial justice now more than ever. This Special Issue seeks to push planning scholars, educators, and practitioners to think critically about the field of planning, contend
with the racist origins of the field and profession, disrupt racial inequality, and dismantle current racist, colonial, and discriminatory planning policies and practices to redress harm experienced by communities of color and move towards anti-racist futures.
Learn more and submit
The call for papers is available here, and abstracts of 1,000 words are due to guest editors, April Jackson, PhD (ajackson5@fsu.edu) and Anaid Yerena (yerena@uw.edu) by June 1, 2021.
The Gibbs Design in Action Awards (GDAA) program, led by Dr. Wanda Liebermann, has announced its 2026–2027 funded student projects. The initiative supports design and research work that addresses social, cultural, and economic issues in the built environment through collaboration with faculty and community partners.
The OU Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) 2024 collaboration with the Historic Threatt Filling Station has been recognized in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's newly released Byways Report: The Scenic Route to Rural Prosperity – a story-driven publication exploring how road trip culture and place-based tourism can fuel economic growth in rural communities.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Camille Germany, Chief of Staff, has been named the 2026 recipient of the university-wide Jennifer L. Wise Good Stewardship Award.