Peace and Planning

Category: Reflections

  • On paradoxes

    Even though being a PhD student in peace and conflict studies makes me a bit of an odd duck in planning spaces (a role I’m beginning to relish), planning will always be the field that feels like home. It’s the discipline that opened my eyes to the world, allowed me…

  • On traffic gardens

    It’s not often that you have a dream for something that you know will bring joy, play, and connection to your neighborhood and then have the opportunity to bring the vision to life. Last weekend I had the extraordinary opportunity to install a pop-up traffic garden on a closed-off street…

  • On nutshells and eggshells

    Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate to present my work at several conferences spanning various disciplines – planning (x2!), geography, political science, peace and conflict studies, international studies, and urban studies. While traveling to five in a 12-month period isn’t for the faint of heart (read: me), I…

  • A recommitment and an update

    It has been a good long while since I’ve posted and honestly I have been deliberating about whether or not I should return to blogging. There are several reasons why I am back at it (which I will get to shortly) but in the meantime, here’s a brief recap since…

  • Appreciation abounds 🙏🏻

    As we kick off a season of reflection and thanks, it’s hard not to be awestruck by all I have to be grateful for. I somehow landed in the exact PhD program I needed to offer me the perspective I was yearning for. I ended up with an incredible dissertation…

  • Can we have our car cake and eat it, too?

    I had the good fortune to travel to Spain this summer – the land of bike buses, superblocks, and Pontevedra’s pioneering approach to eliminating cars in the city center – and visit many of the places that had long been on my urban bucket list (sadly, Pontevedra will have to…