Additional Resources
Visit the program website to learn more about the current Urban Planning doctoral students and their research at Columbia GSAPP. Scroll down for summaries of recent dissertations.
Application Link
The Urban Planning Ph.D. Program is administered by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). All application instructions, deadlines and procedures are available on the GSAS website
This series of talks, organized by the UP PhD students throughout the year, brings together leading experts across the field to discuss today’s most pressing topics.
See the full Fall 2023 Lectures in Planning Series calendar, and visit the GSAPP YouTube channel for the archived Spring 2022 LiPS playlist.
Below are dissertations completed since 2020. For a complete list, please visit the UP Phd Program website.
Immigrant Placemaking and Urban Space: Southeast Asian American San Francisco
Advisor: Malo Hutson
Missed Opportunity: Three Baseline Evaluations of Federal Opportunity Zones Policy
Advisor: Lance Freeman
The spatial politics of urban character: Analyzing the roles of historic districts in neighborhood land use activism to resist displacement, New York City and Los Angeles, 2000-2020
Advisor: Lance Freeman
Cycles of (Dis)-Investment: Federal Intervention and the Long-term Impacts of Heterogeneous Development
Advisor: Lance Freeman
Team Rules: How City Officials Tweak Urban Futures through ‘Gray Institutions’ of Daily Practice in Land Use Permitting and Enforcement
Advisor: Elliott Sclar
The Better Way: Transit Service and Demand in Metropolitan Toronto, 1953-1990
Advisor: Elliott Sclar
Racial and Spatial Disparities in Fintech Mortgage Lending in the United States
Advisor: Lance Freeman
Urbanisme in Ayiti: Diffusion, Decentralization & Disaster
Advisor: Clara Irazabal
Mixité de Façade: How Historically Disinvested Neighborhoods Negotiate Inclusionary Zoning in Paris and New York
Advisor: Lance Freeman
Cost Overruns and Schedule Delays of Major Projects: Why We Need Reference Class Forecasting
Advisor: Lance Freeman
Housing Publics: Contested Approaches to Public Housing Redevelopment in New York City
Advisor: Lance Freeman
An Analysis of the Community Participation Process in New York City – Focusing on its Effectiveness, Representativeness, and Inclusiveness
Advisor: Lance Freeman
State Public Authorities, Local Politics, and Democratic Planning: New York’s Empire State Development Corporation
Advisor: Robert Beauregard
The Political Economy of Value Capture: How the Financialization of Hudson Yards Created a Private Rail Line for the Rich
Advisor: Elliott Sclar
Multi-Scalar Deliberative Transportation Planning: How London and Paris Made Way for Buses
Advisor: Elliott Sclar
Building on Local Successes: The Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant Program and Its Lessons for Federal Climate Policy
Advisor: Elliott Sclar