At East Carolina University, I teach courses on emergency management planning, sustainable cities and urban design. Previously, I have taught courses on Comparative Housing and Disaster Recovery Planning. My teaching approach focuses on building students' critical thinking, writing, and presentation skills that demonstrate a broad understanding of the key issues and challenges in the subject area. My courses are organized around lectures, readings, video presentations, written assignments, and individual and collaborative group work, each of which complement and reinforce each other in meeting the course's learning objectives. Required readings establish the overall theme for each class and introduce key concepts, theories, and knowledge in the field. Class lectures expand upon the readings, clarify key terms or issues, and present case study material to provide additional background. Blog responses and collaborative assignments provide students the opportunity to deepen knowledge and understanding of theories and concepts introduced in class readings and lectures.
Emergency Management Courses
Emergency Management Planning, Spring 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015; Fall 2016 (Undergraduate & Graduate)
Theory Policy and Practice in Disaster Recovery Planning, Fall 2009 (Graduate Seminar)
International Comparative Courses
Comparative Housing, Summer 2010 (Graduate Seminar)
Sustainable Cities, Fall 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015; Spring 2015, 2016 (Undergraduate)
Urban Design Courses
Urban Form and Design, Fall 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016; Spring 2013, 2014 (Undergraduate & Graduate)
Social and Cultural Basis of Design in Architecture and Urban Design, Spring 2002, 2003 (Undergraduate)
Computer Applications Courses
Introduction to Computing in Architecture, Fall 2001, 2002, 2003 (Undergraduate)
Please see below for course details and syllabus links.
2014 Student Blogs
2012 Collaborative Wikipedia Project Site
2011 Google Mash-Up Final Projects
Headlines in print and other news media have increasingly circled the globe over the past few decades, informing us about a new disaster and the corresponding loss of human lives, and the damage to housing and infrastructure. Yet, most of the work in emergency management planning (e.g. mitigation, response, preparedness, and recovery) happens outside of media and public scrutiny. This course gives an overview of the work that goes on behind the scenes by examining the policies and the corresponding practices that inform this work. In doing so, the course brings into focus some of the significant themes in emergency management planning, such as the effect of governance structures, funding practices, stakeholder interventions, and socio-economic arrangements on emergency management.Through readings, video presentations, guest talks, and class discussion, the couse investigates and debates topics such as:
At the end of this course, students are expected to be able to independently evaluate, assess, and synthesize the dynamic processes associated with emergency management planning.
Headlines in print and other news media have increasingly circled the globe over the past thirty years, informing us about a new disaster and the corresponding loss of human lives, and the damage to housing and infrastructure. But what happens after the cameras leave? Recovery in devastated areas usually begins long after the news and media crews have left, and most of the work happens outside of public or media scrutiny. So how does urban reconstruction and recovery really happen after a disaster? Along with the physical aspects of recovery planning, what are the social, economic, and political dynamics that weave through post-disaster recovery planning efforts and shape recovery policies? Using these questions as a launching pad, this course embarks upon a transnational examination of post-disaster urban reconstruction and recovery planning processes.
As the consequences of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown and its impact on the housing market in the United States unfolds around us, we are able to witness the heated debates that have long played out in the housing arena, particularly those around the role of the State and that of private markets. This course dives into the current conversations on housing by examining the theoretical and policy debates in the field, such as the historical debates between, and the experiences of, state-led versus market-led housing models. Through discussions, readings, and video presentations, the course focuses on some of the significant themes in housing, such as public policy, financing structures, housing markets, and socio-economic arrangements, that have long shaped and continue to impact housing and patterns of urban communities in the United States. While doing so, the course brings in a comparative international and global perspective of housing in the developing world as a way to learn from and inform our own views of housing. The course concludes with a critical assessment of some of the policies and practices that are at the root of the current crises in the housing market in the United States.
This course provides a comprehensive overview of critical current issues and trends that are impacting the urban environments and its relationship to the natural environment at global and local scales. The purpose of the course is to craft a global and broad understanding of issues in planning for sustainable urban environments. Specifically the course objectives and outcomes are:
As the consequences of the economic meltdown and its impact on urban regions in the United States and on cities around the world unfolds around us, we are able to witness more acutely the difficult decisions that urban areas face with regard to their future development and growth. Yet, challenges around the direction and patterns of urban growth have long played out among communities, and it is within this context that urban design is often located. Urban design concepts and principles are tools that guide planners, architects, and designers to create urban living environments. At the same time, the debates, processes, and decisions over urban growth shape urban form as communities decide how, where, and in what form development will occur. In this regard, urban form and design is the spatial consequence and reflection of the social, economic, political, and environmental concerns that exist within communities.
This course explores the current conversations around urban design by examining the theoretical and conceptual debates in the field, such as the debates between, and the experiences of, Suburban versus New Urbanism forms of urban growth models. Through lectures, discussions, readings, and video presentations, the course focuses on some of the significant themes in urban form and design, such as the historical roots of urban design, criticisms of modern planning and design, concepts of space and place, typology and morphology in urban design, and urban design practice. While doing so, the course brings into the classroom, an international perspective through global examples of urban design, as a way to learn from and inform our own views on this subject. The course concludes with a critical assessment of urban design practices in the United States.
In spite of the rising costs from floods caused by heavy rains, storm surges, or hurricanes, currently, except for Florida, no other state requires their local or regional governments to include flood mitigation into their comprehensive plans. Economic development usually takes precedence over all other concerns. Yet, there remains an acute need for appropriate planning and management of land use in the vast floodplains and coastal regions where the majority of the population concentrates in the United States. Land use planning can be described as a systematic assessment of physical, social, and economic factors to inform and assist people on how they can utilize land in ways that are sustainable and at the same time meets human and community needs. Planners deploy tools such as zoning, sub-division regulations, planned development, land allocation systems, and comprehensive plans to meet their land use planning goals.
This course on Sustainable Landuse explores critical challenges, conflicts, and issues due to development in floodplains and low-lying coastal zones. The objective of this course is to understand how applications of land use planning for flood mitigation can help communities achieve sustainability: economically – by reducing recurring property loss, damage, and lost revenues from multiple occurring hazards; and environmentally – by protecting fragile areas such as wetlands, coastal sand dunes, and floodplains. The course investigates and debates topics such as:
At the end of this course, students will be able to independently analyze, assess, and evaluate the dynamic processes that are associated with sustainable land use planning.
This course is particularly designed for an action-oriented field like urban planning, and explores some of the theoretical and practical dimensions of conducting qualitative research in the social sciences. The course allows students to develop relevant hypotheses, models of explanations, and appropriate methods of intervention for topics of their choice in urban planning and policy.
This course commences with an overview of development theories and models that began with the launch of the development project, an international, multilateral initiative after World War II, and evolved from State led centralized models of development into the structural adjustment policies and neo-liberal approach in the current era. Given the diversity of countries in the developing world and their unique development paths, the course uses case-studies to examine the implications of these changing paradigms in development on planning, urbanization, and housing in developing countries.