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.
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning, has been selected to serve as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) for the 2025–2027 term.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Tahsin Tabassum, a recent graduate of the college’s Master of Regional and City Planning program and current doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, for receiving the prestigious 2024–2025 American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student Award.