SACRPH is a one-of-a-kind community that brings together scholars and practitioners. We are excited to showcase our members’ work and what SACRPH means to them.
Joseph Heathcott
Professor of Urban Studies, The New School
Incoming Professor of Architecture and Planning, Associate Dean for Research at University of Cincinnati
What are you currently working on?
The work that occupies the majority of my time right now is preparing to move to a new job after 19 years at The New School. I am joining the University of Cincinnati, where I will be Professor of Architecture and Planning, and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. My wife Ashley and I are really looking forward to the adventure, even if it means spending a couple months living with boxes! That said, I do hope to wrap up a few projects this summer. I am following through on my book Global Queens: An Urban Mosaic with a similar photography-driven book on Mexico City. I am also working on a “slim volume” on the topic of urban imaginaries for the wonderful Forerunners series at University of Minnesota Press. My longer term project is a study of planning and heritage conservation around historic urban landscapes in a global context.
Why did you originally join SACRPH?
As a doctoral student I was very fortunate to receive a visiting fellowship at the Missouri Historical Society, where I encountered the brilliant Eric Sandweiss, who became a true mentor. He quickly sussed that SACRPH would be the perfect community for my work—and he was absolutely right! I attended my first biennial meeting in Washington, D.C., in 1999, and gave my first presentation at Philly in 2001. The organization is so unpretentious and welcoming, which meant so much to me as a graduate student. I loved the organization so much I even served as President (2013-2015)!
Where would you like to see SACRPH and the field go next?
I am excited to discuss this and think about it with everyone in Cincinnati. It is such a crazy coincidence that I am moving to Cincinnati the very year that SACRPH is meeting there. For SACRPH this is a kind of homecoming, since the organization met there in 1989, and of course was founded in Ohio. Given all of this, we might spend some time thinking not so much about where the field will go, but where it has been. What is the history of planning history, and how has SACRPH shaped the story over its 40-year existence?
