Assistant/Associate Professor of Urban Planning

The Harvard Graduate School of Design seeks to appoint candidates as an assistant or associate professor on its tenure track in urban planning. Candidates must exhibit excellence in scholarship and teaching as they relate to planning and the built environment. Experience in planning practice is a plus. While we are open to a broad range of interests related to urban planning, we are particularly interested in individuals with expertise in urban analytics, international and comparative planning, planning history and theory, planning law, and/or climate change. The successful candidate will be expected to teach required and distributionally required courses in the Master in Urban Planning degree’s curriculum, in addition to elective courses related to their research.

Information about the GSD and Department of Urban Planning and Design:

In the pursuit of a more productive, equitable, sustainable, and appealing built and natural environment, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design offers a dynamic setting for the exchange of ideas across the fields of urban planning, urban design, real estate, architecture, landscape architecture, design studies, and design engineering.

Composed of internationally experienced scholars and practitioners, the Urban Planning and Design Department’s faculty explores the built environment from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and points of view. The Department offers graduate degrees in urban planning, urban design, and real estate, and features a pedagogically diverse array of interdisciplinary studios, lecture courses, seminars, and independent study that consider practical and theoretical issues affecting cities and metropolitan areas around the world. Roughly 175 students drawn from around the world engage with faculty and fellow students to create an intimate, stimulating, educational atmosphere in which students thrive and learn.

The Department’s embrace of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is built on the firm conviction that both classroom and community experiences are enriched by creating space for multiple perspectives to be surfaced, understood, and valued. Such conditions produce optimal learning environments and healthy interpersonal relationships. The Department is committed to translating these values into its programmatic policies, practices, pedagogies, and methods of engagement in and out of classroom settings. We believe that if we insist on a diversity of voices among ourselves, our students will insist on a diversity of voices in the processes and outcomes of their professional work.

The position of assistant professor is intended for individuals pursuing full-time academic careers who have some teaching experience and whose creative work in scholarship, design/research work, or professional practice, or a combination thereof, indicates that they have a promising future in their academic career and may someday be viable candidates for tenure.

The position of associate professor is intended for individuals pursuing full-time academic careers who are highly effective teachers and whose creative work in scholarship, design/research work, or professional practice, or a combination thereof, indicates they are making excellent progress in their academic careers and that they will likely be viable candidates for tenure in the future.

The school seeks to attract and retain individuals who possess a quality of mind demonstrating high levels of intelligence, clarity of expression, analytical ability, critical judgment, imagination, creativity, initiative, and industry, and a quality that enables individuals to support free inquiry and expression by others and to interact and work in constructive, collegial collaboration with faculty, staff, and students. In the school’s evaluation of candidates, desirable individual qualities and high potential are not substitutes for a record of creative and productive achievement. Creative contributions to the field through scholarship and/or design are essential to effective teaching over time. Continued study and investigation with public exposition of research and professional accomplishments are normal obligations of faculty at Harvard.

Candidates must have a Ph.D. or comparable terminal degree in a field concerned with urban planning and urbanization.

Applications will be reviewed beginning September 8, 2023.

Applicants should submit:
Cover letter

Curriculum vitae

Three publications

Short-listed candidates will be asked to submit additional materials.

Emmy Ly, Faculty Affairs Coordinator

Harvard University is an equal opportunity employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions or any other characteristic protected by law. Additionally, as underscored by our school’s Community Values Statement, the GSD is committed to diversity and inclusion within our community, which is representative of individuals of varied abilities, backgrounds, beliefs, cultures, identities, races, lived experiences, and perspectives.

We especially welcome applications from members of historically underrepresented groups and candidates with experience teaching and working with diverse communities and students.