The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) held their Annual Conference in Toronto, Ontario from November 3-5, 2022. At the conference, Cornell University graduate students presented a posted that explored their intellectual journeys and reflections on planning theory.
The poster, titled “Shiny Objects, Galaxies, & Bodies of Planning Theory: Diagrams of Positionality and the Field by Emerging Scholars,” won the ACSP Conference’s Best Poster Award.
The poster creation was led by Yu Wang, and included contributions from co-authors Associate Professor Jennifer Minner, Courtney Bower, Natassia Bravo, Soojung Han, Laura Leddy, Yousuf Mahid, Antonio Moya-Latorre, Carlos Lopez Ortiz, Gina Yeonkyeong Park, Yating Ru, Andrea Urbina, and Zoe Zhuojun Wang.
The poster was a collaborative group project that grew out of CRP 8100: Seminar in Advanced Planning Theory. The graduate students, coming from the fields of City and Regional Planning, Regional Science, and Anthropology, developed the poster by creatively representing their own way of making sense of the universe of planning theories and their position within that body of theory.
Minner credits the diversity of interests and backgrounds for making in-class discussions a fascinating exchange of ideas and debates. Students engaged with what work planning theories do and how they give shape and depth to advanced social sciences-based scholarship in planning and its relevance to their own research directions.
The poster received overwhelming support and praise at the conference. Courtney Bower, a Regional Science Ph.D. student, was struck by how attendees responded to the poster.
“I think our work functioned as an invitation for several attendees to explore their positionality within planning or planning theory.”
A German professor has already expressed interest to use the diagram for their Ph.D. course this winter. Lead author, Yu Wang (M.S. RS ’23) hopes that the poster will continue to enlighten educators to think about more creative pedagogy.
The group has been working collaboratively on a follow up article and hopes to submit it over winter break.