Karen S. Christensen, M.C.P., Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Chair

Fall 2009

Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody. — Jane Jacobs

Social inclusion and community involvement have a proud history here at Berkeley, and our profession lies at the heart of issues that touch every citizen, every day. It is in this spirit, one for which our department plays an important role in creating progressive knowledge and applying it to today’s challenges, that I welcome you to the nation’s preeminent thought-leader in urban planning. This is an exciting time at Berkeley, as the nation has turned to its top educational and research institutions for guidance about economic, environmental, and social paradigm shifts.

The Department of City & Regional Planning (DCRP), one of the nation’s top-rated graduate planning programs according to Planetizen, is internationally recognized not only for its first-rate educational programs but also for its cutting-edge research, informed through rigorous scholarship conducted by internationally esteemed faculty and a stable of curious, eager students. Complementing our vast array of courses in a variety of specialties are real-world, hands-on practicums that cut across fields, including recent international studios on pressing urban issues in China, Thailand, and India. Professor Peter Bosselmann’s China studio, held this spring, is but one of the many that place students at the leading edge of inquiry and practice.

This fall, we are invigorated by the arrival of four new, luminary faculty members: our new college dean, Professor Jennifer Wolch; Professor Michael Dear who will be teaching a new course, CY PLAN 190 The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: Planning for Diversity or Division; Professor Daniel Chatman, who will be teaching CY PLAN 213 Transportation and Land Use Planning and co-teaching CY PLAN 204 Methods of Planning Data Analysis with Professor Chapple; and Professor Paul Waddell, a pre-eminent urban simulator, who will be visiting in the fall as he transitions his major research projects to Berkeley.

As we add new faculty we offer our congratulations and best wishes to Professors Frederick Collignon and Stephen Cohen as they embark on retirement. Fortunately, they will continue to contribute to the department, as Professor Collignon is returning to teach CY PLAN 110 Introduction to City Planning and Professor Cohen is now a Professor of the Graduate School conducting research projects.

Congratulations to Jason Corburn, who has been awarded promotion to Associate Professor with tenure. We will be celebrating the College of Environmental Design’s 50th anniversary. The celebrations begin in September with a three-day tribute to the CED’s traditions of design activism, including a lecture by Sir Peter Hall (a former member of our faculty) on planning 20th century cities.

While there are many exciting changes this fall, our commitment to excellence remains as strong as ever, and those efforts have not gone unrecognized. The 2009 Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs has ranked DCRP number two in overall Best Graduate Urban Planning Programs and included each of our areas of specialization in its list of Best Graduate Urban Planning Programs by Specialty. DCRP also ranked number two in scholarly citations per faculty member based on the Institute for Science Information database. While these accolades are gratifying, the true rewards can be seen at the individual level; the story of a graduate making an impact in her community, a faculty member presenting path-breaking research at an international conference, a new student uncovering a latent passion. Communities are the creations of everybody, as Jane Jacobs noted, a bricolage of individual ideas, priorities, and values that are elegantly synthesized to form a dynamic, sustainable society. DCRP is creating those communities, both within Wurster Hall and around the world. 

I have only scratched the surface of who we are and where we’re heading. To learn more, read DCRP Essentials, check out our faculty and student web pages, and follow the links to the many exciting research projects presently underway.

Welcome, everyone, to a wonderful new year!

Karen