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@mitdusp

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We are the Department of Urban Studies + Planning at MIT's School of Architecture and Planning (@mitsap)

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In an op-ed for South China Morning Post, DUSP doctoral student Hung Vo analyses Indonesia’s recent financial sector reform law, arguing that it promises to improve the country’s shallow and volatile capital markets. However, he cautions that financial deepening does not automatically generate developmental gains and can create intermediaries and inflate asset prices while producing little growth in the productive economy.

🔗Click the link to learn more: https://www.scmp.com/special-reports/special-reports/topics/indonesia-finance/article/3360499/behind-indonesias-bond-controversy-ambitious-attempt-reshape-domestic-financial-marketst by @mitdusp

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2 days ago

What stories do the places around us still hold? These images feature the historic Sammons home and cemetery, Professor Erica Caple James, and transportation officials at the center of an ongoing preservation dispute. They remind us that preserving history isn’t only about protecting buildings—it’s about honoring the lives, memories, and communities connected to them.

Inspired by Professor James’s article “The Matter of Black Lives: Hauntology, Infrastructure, and...” in Public Culture, these photographs invite us to think about how the past continues to shape the present and what is at stake when places of Black history are threatened, remembered, or reclaimed.

🔗Click Here for Full Article: https://doi.org/10.1215/08992363-12530455 by @mitdusp

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3 days ago

Chris Zegras, professor of mobility and urban planning and outgoing head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (@mitdusp), has been appointed CEO and Director of the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), effective September 1.

Established in 2007 in collaboration with Singapore's National Research Foundation, SMART is MIT's only research center outside the United States, bringing together leading experts from the U.S., Singapore, and the broader region across six interdisciplinary research groups spanning antimicrobial resistance, AI and emerging technologies, agricultural innovation, and more.

Zegras brings deep familiarity with SMART's mission. From 2010 to 2020, he served as a principal investigator and later lead principal investigator on SMART's Future Urban Mobility interdisciplinary research group, which spearheaded Singapore's first public autonomous vehicle trials and developed large-scale urban simulation and visualization systems that evolved into spinoff companies.

"Having experienced firsthand what this distinctive model can achieve," Zegras says, "I look forward to building on this strong foundation to deepen collaboration, strengthen our innovation ecosystem, and accelerate the translation of research into meaningful real-world impact."

🔗 More at the link in bio.

@mit @mitsap @mitdusp Chris Zegras stands in a protected bike lane on a city street lined with modern buildings, parked cars, and bicycle infrastructure. A cyclist rides past in the background as Zegras faces the camera, highlighting an urban environment designed to accommodate multiple modes of transportation. by @mitdusp

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4 days ago

📚 Summer reading, SA+P edition.

Each year, MIT invites its community to share what they are reading and writing. Here is a look at recent & forthcoming work from SA+P faculty, researchers, & staff.

📘 Henry Lieberman (CSAIL, formerly Media Lab) contributed a chapter to Usability for the World: Sustainable Cities, exploring user-centered design principles for urban planning

📘 Karrie G. Karahalios, Prof. of Media Arts & Sciences at the ML, is among the authors of Auditing AI, a roadmap for auditing AI systems in healthcare, policing, & employment

📘 Alex Pentland, Prof. at the ML, authored Shared Wisdom: Cultural Evolution in the Age of AI, exploring how AI can support human deliberation

📘 Jason Jackson, Associate Prof. of Political Economy & Urban Planning at DUSP, has 2 new books: Traders, Speculators, & Captains of Industry + Constructing Economic Nationalisms in Brazil and India, examining foreign investment and economic policy

📘 Brent D. Ryan, MIT Vice Provost & Prof. of Urban Design and Public Policy, co-edited Small-Town Renaissance, on digital transformation in rural regions

📘 Elisabeth Reynolds, Prof. of the Practice at DUSP, edited Priority Technologies, presenting a roadmap for US leadership in emerging technologies

📘 Delia Wendel, Associate Prof. of Urban Studies & International Development at DUSP, authored Rwanda's Genocide Heritage, exploring preservation, memory, & reparative historiography

📘 Rosalyn Shieh, Assistant Prof. in Architecture, co-authored Blanking, translating studio exchanges into written form across architecture and urbanism

📘 Miho Mazereeuw, Associate Prof. of Architecture and Urban Studies & Planning, authored Design Before Disaster, a framework for disaster preparedness based on lessons from Japan

And 2 works of fiction & poetry:

📘 Sarah C. Beckmann, Comms & Marketing Associate at MIT, published The Race for Daphne, a poetry collection exploring girlhood, womanhood, & motherhood

📘 Scott Austin Tirrell, Director of Administration & Finance at ACT, published Jezelle: Thief of Forks, a fantasy novel

🔗 in bio

@mit @mitsap @mitarchitecture @mitdusp @mitmedialab @mit_lcau @actmit Text tile with books and bright colors and geometrical shapes stating: "Looking for your next summer read? Explore a selection of books published over the past year by MIT faculty and staff." by @mitdusp

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7 days ago

As MIT's Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) approaches its 60th year, its leaders are reshaping the curriculum to meet the moment.

SPURS, housed in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (@mitdusp), has brought more than 800 mid-career professionals from 130 countries to MIT over nearly six decades, each spending a year studying, researching, and building connections across the U.S. urban planning and policy ecosystem. The program is now leaning further into MIT's core strength, refocusing its curriculum around technology policy and how emerging technologies are reshaping urban planning and development worldwide.

This year's cohort reflects that breadth. Fellows include an electrical engineer helping shape Angola's national space strategy for the next decade, a Moroccan architect working on the planning and governance of a 300,000-resident eco-city currently under construction outside Casablanca, and a former fellow from Argentina who now travels with MIT D-Lab students to implement building weatherization technologies in low-income communities across Latin America.

"Programs like SPURS play a vital role in connecting the resources of a world-class university with talent from around the world," says SPURS Director Bish Sanyal. "We attract and cultivate the kind of leaders that we need in the world today."

As the program looks toward its next 60 years, it is also building a more diverse base of philanthropic and institutional support to strengthen its global partnerships and alumni network.

🔗 More at the link in bio.

@mit @mitsap @mitdusp Group portrait of the 2025–26 MIT SPURS cohort and program leaders standing on the steps outside an MIT building with large stone columns. The group of fellows, representing a range of countries and backgrounds, are dressed in both professional and traditional attire, with three participants seated in the front row and the others standing behind them, smiling toward the camera. by @mitdusp

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11 days ago

A new design can provoke resistance before it changes what comes next.

In a new opinion piece for The New York Times (@nytimes), Carlo Ratti (@carlorattiassociati) — Professor of Practice of Urban Technologies and Planning at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (@mitdusp) and director of the Senseable City Lab (@senseable_city_lab) — reflects on the debate surrounding Ferrari’s first electric vehicle, the Luce.

Ratti argues that moments of disruption have long shaped the history of design. Chrysler’s aerodynamic 1934 Airflow was initially criticized before influencing automotive engineering; other experiments, from the minivan to the Fiat VSS, challenged expectations about what vehicles could become.

For Ratti, the Luce arrives at a transformative moment for mobility. Electrification and autonomy could reshape not only how cars are powered, but how they are designed — from weight distribution and cabin layouts to the assumptions behind why cars look the way they do.

“All design is a quarrel between two impulses: the wild idea and the cold edit,” Ratti writes. “Let Ferrari thrive despite its Luce moment, a nod to the messy, glorious struggle of human innovation.”

📰 Read the full op-ed in The New York Times.
📸 Image credit: Ferrari Press Office, via Agence France-Presse

@mit Text tile "Building the cars of the future demands that we expand our imagination," attributed to MIT Professor Carlo Ratti. Shows a collage featuring light blue Ferrari Luce concept car with a black roof parked on a concrete driveway outside a modern building, surrounded by trees. by @mitdusp

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16 days ago

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the 2026 MITdesignX Demo + Pitch Day! 🎉

The annual showcase highlighted innovative ventures tackling today’s biggest challenges in cities, communities, and the built environment, and we’re especially proud to celebrate DUSP’s connection to one of this year’s winners.

Congratulations to VISIBLE, recipient of the Most Impactful award, whose team includes DUSP-affiliated members. We’re excited to see DUSP students and collaborators continuing to drive innovative, community-centered solutions with real-world impact. Congratulations to the entire MITdesignX cohort!

🔗Click Here to Read More: https://mad.mit.edu/events/mitdesignx-pitch-day-2026 by @mitdusp

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17 days ago

Jinhua Zhao MCP '04, SM '04, PhD '09 has been appointed head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (@mitdusp), effective July 1.

Zhao, the Class of 1941 Professor of Cities and Transportation, is a global authority on mobility whose research has shaped policy for Transport for London, the Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong, Japan Railways, and leading U.S. transit authorities including the MBTA, the Chicago Transit Authority, and Washington's Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. At MIT, he founded the MIT Mobility Initiative and directs the JTL Urban Mobility Lab, which unites behavioral science and transportation technology to shape travel behavior and improve transportation policy.

His work sits at the intersection of disciplines that rarely speak to each other directly: AI, behavioral science, public policy, and urban planning. That breadth, and his ability to move between research and real-world implementation, is precisely what makes him well suited to lead the department at this moment.

"Every city I've worked with faces the same tension," Zhao says. "The technology is moving faster than the institutions designed to govern it. My work has been about closing that gap."

Zhao succeeds Professor Christopher Zegras, who has served as department head since 2020.

🔗 More at the link in bio.

@mit @mitsap @mitdusp Portrait of Jinhua Zhao standing with arms crossed against a light gray wall. He wears glasses, a beige quarter-zip sweater over a white collared shirt, and looks toward the camera with a slight smile. by @mitdusp

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a month ago

Ezra Haber Glenn, lecturer at MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), recently authored a review for Planning Magazine examining “Drop Dead City”, a new documentary exploring New York City’s 1975 fiscal crisis and the lessons it still holds for cities today.

Through the lens of film and planning, Ezra reflects on how public finance, governance, and urban resilience continue to shape cities’ future.

🔗Click Here to Read Full Article: https://www.planning.org/planning/2026/jun/can-a-whole-city-be-too-big-to-fail/ by @mitdusp

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a month ago

When it comes to tackling climate change, the solutions are getting bigger—and so are the opportunities to help push them forward. Prof. David Hsu of @mitdusp says that, whatever your expertise or passion, there’s a way for you to get involved. 🌎💡

Host: Madison Goldberg
Video production: Jessie Barrett
Music: Blue Dot Sessions by @mitdusp

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a month ago

In a recent opinion piece for USA Today, DUSP Professor Amy Glasmeier challenges outdated definitions of the American middle class, arguing that rising costs for essentials like housing, food, healthcare, and education have fundamentally changed what economic security looks like. Her piece calls for a more realistic, needs-based understanding of middle-class life; one that better reflects the financial realities facing millions of households today.

🔗Click to read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2026/06/05/middle-class-inflation-food-healthcare/90275499007/ by @mitdusp

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2 months ago

This spring semester, the Clinic students continued to facilitate the process of seeking public input on a proposed geothermal energy network (GEN) project in Salem, Massachusetts.

The students conducted a comprehensive stakeholder assessment, engagement mapping, and governance research to better understand community priorities and concerns regarding GEN deployment.

This project was undertaken in conjunction with a range of public and private partners and serves as a model for the Clinic’s view of the public service assistance universities ought to provide to frontline communities seeking to engage in climate adaptation and energy transition.

🔗Read more: https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/st-peters-seeks-public-input-on-potential-geothermal-
project/article_68de17dd-39be-451a-bd39-
60a3de8ff220.htmlJ by @mitdusp

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2 months ago