The John Reps Prize is awarded to the best doctoral dissertation ($1,000) and best master’s thesis ($500) in American (United States and Canada) city and regional planning history. Transnational or comparative histories that include the United States or Canada are also eligible. Reps (1921-2020), known as the father of American city planning history, was professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.
For the current awards cycle, projects must have a final submission date between August 1, 2023 and December 31, 2025.
To nominate a doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis, email a PDF of it, or an open-access link to a PDF of it, with the subject line “John Reps Prize” to each of the three committee members.
Committee: Todd M. Michney (chair; todd.michney@hsoc.gatech.edu), Kathe Newman (knewman@rutgers.edu), and David Freund (dmfreund@umd.edu)
Past Winners
DISSERTATIONS
2023 co-winner: Daniel Graham Cumming, “Health Is Wealth: The Rise of a Medical Metropolis and the Remaking of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-century Baltimore,” New York University, 2021
2023 co-winner: Kristian Taketomo, “City Mutable: The United States Census Bureau’s Quest to Define the City,” University of Pennsylvania, 2022
2021 co-winner: Michael Glass, “Schooling Suburbia: The Politics of School Finance in Postwar Long Island,” Princeton University, 2020
2021 co-winner: Angela S. Stiefbold, “Farming Scenery: Growing Support for Agricultural Land Preservation, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1930-1990,” University of Cincinnati, 2020
2019: Rebecca Summer, “The Urban Alley: A Hidden Landscape of Social Change in Washington, D.C.,” University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2019
2017 co-winner: Garrett Dash Nelson, “A Place Altogether: Planning and the Search for Unit Landscapes, 1816-1956,” University of Wisconsin, 2016
2017 co-winner: Patrick Nugent, “The Urban Environmental Order: Planning and Politics on Staten Island, 1945-1984,” George Washington University, 2016
2015 co-winner: Chloe Taft Kang, “From Steel to Slots: Landscapes of Economic Change in Postindustrial Bethlehem, PA, Yale University, 2014
2015 co-winner: Emily Remus, “The Making of the Consumer City: Gender, Space, and Class in Chicago, 1871-1914,” University of Chicago, 2014
2013 co-winner: Francesca Russello Ammon, “Culture of Clearance: Waging War on the Landscape in Postwar America,” Yale University, 2012
2013 co-winner: Brian David Goldstein, “A City Within a City: Community Development and the Struggle Over Harlem, 1961-2001,” Harvard University, 2013
2011: Emily Lieb, “Row House City: Unbuilding Residential Baltimore, 1940-1980,” Columbia University, 2010
2009: Andrew Highsmith, “Demolition Means Progress: Race, Class, and the Deconstruction of the American Dream in Flint, Michigan,” University of Michigan, 2009
2007: Kelly Anne Quinn, “Making Modern Homes: A History of Langston Terrace Dwellings, A New Deal Housing Program in Washington, D.C.,” University of Maryland, 2007
2005: Roberta S. Gold, “City of Tenants: New York’s Housing Struggles and the Challenge to Postwar America, 1945-1970,” University of Washington, 2004
2003: Zachary Schrag, “The Washington Metro as Vision and Vehicle, 1955-2001,” Columbia University, 2002
2001: James Buckley, “Building the Redwood Region: The Redwood Lumber Industry and the Landscape of Northern California, 1850-1929,” University of California, Berkeley, 2000
1999 co-winner: Thomas Campanella, “Republic of Shade: The Emergence of the American Elm as a Cultural and Urban Design Element in Nineteenth-Century New England,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999
1999 co-winner: Owen Gutfreund, “Twentieth Century Sprawl: Accommodating the Automobile and the Decentralization of the United States,” Columbia University, 1998
1997: Robin Bachin, “Cultural Boundaries: Constructing Urban Space and Civic Culture on Chicago’s South Side, 1890-1919,” University of Michigan, 1996
1995: Alison Isenberg, “Downtown Democracy: Rebuilding Main Street Ideals in the Twentieth Century American City,” University of Pennsylvania, 1995
1993: Greg Hise, “The Roots of the Postwar Urban Region: Mass-housing and Community Planning in California, 1920-1950,” University of California, Berkeley, 1992
MASTER’S THESES
2023-24: Calvin Tran Nguyen, “Mini Malls and Fish Sauce: Cultural Landscapes, Heritage, and Identity-making in Philadelphia’s Little Saigon,” University of Pennsylvania, 2023
2007: Marie Ray Warsh, “‘The Truest Reform Work’: The Children’s School Farm, New York City, 1902-1931,” Bard College, 2007
2005: Francesca Russello Ammon, “Little City, Big Plans: Stories of Asbury Park, New Jersey,” Yale University, 2005
2001: Barbara Hahn, “Businessmen, Railroads, and City Planning in Cincinnati, 1869-1933,” University of Cincinnati, 2000
1999: Monica Abeita, “Historical Community Development in North Central New Mexico,” University of New Mexico, 1999 1995: Sean O’Donnell, “Toward Urban Frameworks: Accommodating Change in Urban Cultural Landscapes,” University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee