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Penn IUR Scholar

Sai Balakrishnan

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Assistant Professor of Global Urban Inequalities, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley

About

Sai Balakrishnan is an Assistant Professor of Global Urban Inequalities at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Professor in International Development at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, and served as a Postdoctoral Scholar at Columbia Law School’s Center on Global Legal Transformations. She has also worked as an urban planner in the United States, India, and the United Arab Emirates, and as a consultant to the UN-HABITAT in Nairobi.

Through her research and teaching, Balakrishnan focuses on processes of urbanization and planning institutions in the global south, and on the spatial politics of land-use and property. Her work has been published in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Affairs, Pacific Affairs, Economic and Political Weekly, and in edited book chapters. Her book Shareholder Cities: Land Transformations along Urban Corridors in India was published in 2019 by the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Balakrishnan holds a Master’s Degree in City Planning from MIT, a Master’s Degree in Urban Design from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Urban Planning from Harvard University. Her doctoral dissertation was awarded the 2014 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Gill Chin Lim Award for Best Dissertation on International Planning.

Fellow

Chandan Deuskar

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Urban Development Specialist, The World Bank

About

Chandan Deuskar is an Urban Development Specialist at The World Bank. His book Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics was published by Penn Press in 2022.  Previously, he received his PhD in city and regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020. His dissertation, titled “Planning and the Politics of Informal Urbanization,” used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the impact of informal local politics on urban planning and on spatial patterns of urban growth in developing democracies. At Penn he also co-developed and co-taught an undergraduate urban studies course on global urbanization for two semesters. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked for five years as an urban development consultant at the World Bank, working in several countries across the East Asia and Pacific region and elsewhere. He holds a Master’s degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in architecture from Columbia University.

Selected Publications

Deuskar, C. (2019). Informal Urbanisation and Clientelism: Measuring the Global Relationship. Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019878334

Deuskar, C. Urban Planning in a World of Informal Politics. Penn Press, 2022. https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823066/urban-planning-in-a-world-of-informal-politics/ 

Deuskar, C. (2019). Clientelism and Planning in the Informal Settlements of Developing Democracies. Journal of Planning Literature, 34(4), 395–407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0885412219842520  

Roberts, M., Blankespoor, B., Deuskar, C., & Stewart, B. P. (2017). Urbanization and Development: Is Latin America and the Caribbean Different from the Rest of the World? (No. WPS8019; Policy Research Working Paper Series). World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/164251490903580662/Urbanization-and-development-is-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean-different-from-the-rest-of-the-world

World Bank (2015). East Asia’s Changing Urban Landscape: Measuring a Decade of Spatial Growthhttps://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/21159  

Sanyal, B., & Deuskar, C. (2012). A Better Way to Grow?: Town Planning Schemes as a Hybrid Land Readjustment Process in Ahmedabad, India. In G. K. Ingram & Y.-H. Hong (Eds.), Value Capture and Land Policies: Value Capture and Land Policies (pp. 149–182). Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

Faculty Fellow

John DiIulio, Jr.

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Frederic Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society

Faculty Director, Fox Leadership International

About

John DiIulio is the Frederic Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society in the Department of Political Science and Faculty Director of Penn’s Robert A. Fox Leadership Program for undergraduates. Over the last quarter-century, he has won several major academic and teaching awards including the 2010 Ira Abrams Memorial Award and the 2010 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. He has also chaired his academic association’s standing committee on professional ethics. Outside academic life, he has developed programs to mentor the children of prisoners, provide literacy training in low-income communities, reduce homicides in high-crime police districts, and support inner-city Catholic schools that serve low-income children. He has been a Research Center Director at the Brookings Institution, the Manhattan Institute, and Public/Private Ventures. During his academic leave in 2001-2002, he served as first Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He is the author, co-author, and editor of over a dozen books and several hundred articles.

Selected Publications

DiIulio, John. 2014. Bring Back the Bureaucrats. Templeton Press. 

DiIulio, John, James Q. Wilson, and Meena Bose. American Government: Institutions and Policies, 14th edition. Wadsworth-Cengage.

DiIulio, John. 2007. Godly Republic: A Centrist Blueprint for America’s Faith-Based Future. University of California Press.

Penn IUR Scholar

Devesh Kapur

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Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor

Director of Asia Programs, Johns Hopkins University

About

Devesh Kapur is Starr Foundation South Asia Studies Professor and Director of Asia Programs for Johns Hopkins University. He is formerly the Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India and Professor of Political Science in the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to arriving at Penn, Kapur was Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, and before that the Frederick Danziger Associate Professor of Government at Harvard. His research focuses on human capital, national and international public institutions, and the ways in which local-global linkages, especially international migration and international institutions, affect political and economic change in developing countries, especially India. 

Selected Publications

Kapur, Devesh, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, and Milan Vaishnav, eds. 2017. Rethinking Public Institutions in India. Oxford University Press.

Kapur, Devesh, and Pratap Bhanu Mehta, eds. 2017. Navigating the Labyrinth: Perspectives on India’s Higher Education. Orient BlackSwan.

Chakravorty, Sanjoy, Devesh Kapur, Nirvikar Singh. 2016. The Other One Percent: Indians in America. Oxford University Press.

Kapur, Devesh, D. Shyam Babu, and Chandra Bhan Prasad. 2014. Defying the Odds: The Rise of Dalit Entrepreneurs.  Random House India. 

Kapur, Devesh. 2010. Diaspora, Development, and Democracy: The Domestic Impact of International Migration from India. Princeton University Press.

Affiliated PhD Student

Diana Patricia Negron

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Doctoral Candidate, City and Regional Planning

About

Diana Patricia Negron is a doctoral candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Her research interests include urban economics, economic development, and the study of algorithms as they further gender and racial bias. The American Society of Public Administration has recognized her scholarly work due to the utility of the research to the study and practice of public administration. She has served as a Policy Advisor for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority. She is leading policy work on a brand-new tax credit structure for entrepreneurship and economic development initiatives. Diana has worked primarily in the public sector for the City of Newark and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has experience creating and implementing economic development policies to improve equitable access to capital further and increase the local economy in cities. Additionally, Diana holds a B.A. and Master of Public Administration from Rutgers University – Newark. 

Fellow

Michael A. Nutter

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Former Mayor, City of Philadelphia

David N. Dinkins Professor of Professional Practice in Urban and Public Affairs, Columbia University

Areas of Interest

    About

    Michael A. Nutter is David N. Dinkins Professor of Professional Practice in Urban and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He served as the 98th mayor of Philadelphia—the nation’s fifth largest city—from January 2008 to January 2016, and as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 2012 to 2013. During his time in office, he was widely recognized as a reformer, leading changes in policing, economic development, taxation, sustainability policy, and other areas. In 2014, Nutter was named as one of Governing magazine’s Public Officials of the Year; in 2011, Esquire magazine cited him among its Americans of the Year. During Nutter’s mayoralty, Philadelphia’s city government received more than 150 awards for innovative programs, good government practices, and general excellence. Before winning election as the city’s chief executive, Nutter served on the Philadelphia City Council for almost 15 years, from 1992 to 2006. He was also the chairman of the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority Board from 2003 to 2007. He now serves as a distinguished faculty member at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). 

    Faculty Fellow

    Wendell Pritchett

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    James S. Riepe Presidential Professor of Law and Education

    School/Department

    Areas of Interest

      About

      Wendell Pritchett is a Presidential Professor in the Law School and the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. An award-winning scholar, author, lawyer, professor, and civic and academic leader, he first joined the Penn Law faculty in 2002, serving as Interim Dean from 2014-15 and as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2006-07. He served from 2009-14 as Chancellor of Rutgers University-Camden, leading unprecedented growth that included graduating classes of record sizes, the first campus doctoral programs, and new health education and science facilities. In the City of Philadelphia, he has been Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy for Mayor Michael Nutter, Chair of the Redevelopment Authority, member of the School Reform Commission, President of the Philadelphia Housing Development Corporation, Board Chair of the Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and Executive Director of the district offices of Congressman Thomas Foglietta, among many other board and leadership positions. He has served as President of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, a board member of the Campaign for Black Male Achievement, Co-Chair of Mayor Nutter’s Transition Committee, and Co-Chair of Barack Obama’s Urban Policy Task Force. His research examines the development of post-war urban policy, in particular urban renewal, housing finance, and housing discrimination. 

      Selected Publications

      Pritchett, Wendell, Jessie Brown, and Martin Kurzweil. 2017. “Quality Assurance in U.S. Higher Education: The Current Landscape and Principles for Reform” Ithaka S+R and Penn Program on Regulation.

      Petrilla, John, Barbara Cohn, Wendell Pritchett, Paul Stiles, Victoria Stodden, Jeffrey Vagle, Mark Humowiecki, and Nastassia Rosario. 2017. “Legal Issues for IDS Use: Finding a Way Forward.” Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy.

      Pritchett, Wendell. 2008. Robert Clifton Weaver and the American City: The Life and Times of an Urban Reformer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

      Pritchett, Wendell and Mark Rose, guest editors. 2008. “Politics and the American City, 1940-1990.” Journal of Urban History 34.

      Pritchett, Wendell. 2002. Brownsville, Brooklyn: Blacks, Jews and the Changing Face of the Ghetto. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

      Faculty Fellow

      Akira Drake Rodriguez

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      Assistant Professor

      About

      Akira Drake Rodriguez's research examines the politics of urban planning, or the ways that disenfranchised groups re-appropriate their marginalized spaces in the city to gain access to and sustain urban political power. Using an interdisciplinary and multiple method approach, her research engages scholarship in urban studies, political science, urban history, black feminist studies, community development, urban policy, and critical geography using both qualitative and quantitative data and methods. This research agenda is particularly relevant in these politically unstable times, where cities continue to marginalize underrepresented minority groups by defunding public institutions, promoting urban policies that subsidize their displacement while limiting affordable housing options, and continuing the funding and support of a militarized police force. Prior to her fellowship, Dr. Rodriguez taught in the Planning department at Temple University and the Political Science department at Rutgers University–Newark. Dr. Rodriguez is currently working on her manuscript, Deviants in Divergent Spaces: The Radical Politics of Atlanta’s Public Housing, which is under contract with the University of Georgia Press. The book explores how the politics of public housing planning and race in Atlanta created a politics of resistance within its public housing developments. This research offers the alternative benefits of public housing, outside of shelter provision, to challenge the overwhelming narrative of public housing as a dysfunctional relic of the welfare state.   

      Selected Publications

      “Remaking Black Political Spaces for Black Liberation.” Metropolitiques. 1 December 2016.

      Affiliated PhD Student

      Shashank Saini

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      About

      Shashank Saini is a doctoral student of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on understanding violence in the face of rapid  transformations in the political economy of  urban India. Shashank’s dissertation research uses the optic of gendered embodiment, particularly masculinity,  to understand the subject making processes of male youth residing in peri-urban settings in Delhi.

      Affiliated PhD Student

      Rachael Stephens

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      PhD Candidate in the Anthropology Department

      About

      My main interests are U.S. political economic inequity, social change (in relation to politicization, ideology, discourse, etc.), and social ethics. l am committed to trying to better understand—and more effectively transgress—the ways we learn to continually re-make our inequitable realities. I examine how many of us—particularly those who identify as “liberal”—learn to construct the “causes” of various social dynamics in ways that disavow our complicity in and responsibility for its “solutions.”  I also consider how normative social scientific knowledge production is itself grounded in analytical paradigms that make it frighteningly easy to reproduce inequity.  

      My dissertation explores these dynamics as they are manifested in the concrete interactions that sustain the so-called “real estate market,” property relations (including valuation and taxation), public finance (especially school finance), and perhaps most especially, the public discourses that narrate such phenomena. This focus also allows me to consider contemporary technologies of social differentiation (particularly race-making and related taxonomies of citizenship) as they relate to the late liberal mode of production and to the social ethics with which it is enmeshed. 

      Fellow

      David Thornburgh

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      Senior Advisor & Former President and CEO, Committee of Seventy

      Areas of Interest

        About

        David Thornburgh is a Senior Advisor and the former President and CEO of Committee of Seventy. As CEO, Thornburgh oversees the operation of the 110-year-old non-profit, non-partisan good government group as it fights for ethical and transparent government, honest public officials, effective use of taxpayer dollars, honest elections and increased access to voting, limits on the influence of money in elections, better informed citizens and more citizen participation in public life. Thornburgh has served as Executive Director of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania since 2008. Prior to that he was President and CEO of the Alliance for Regional Stewardship and Executive Director of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia where, under his leadership, the League became one of the nation’s best regional “think and do tanks.” From 1988 to 1994 he served as Director of the Wharton Small Business Development Center, the consulting and training arm of The Wharton School’s Entrepreneurial Center. Right after graduate school, he served as Director of Civic Affairs at the CIGNA Corporation in Philadelphia. Throughout his career, Thornburgh has received a number of awards for his professional and civic leadership. He is a frequent commentator on public policy and regional development issues, and has been quoted often in the Philadelphia newspapers and also in the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Inc., and Fortune. 

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