All Equity Courses
Public Speaking, Communication, and Influence for Planners
New
Planners regularly present complex information to decision-makers, community members and project teams, yet many early-career planners receive little training in how to communicate ideas clearly, persuasively and confidently. This course helps planners strengthen their professional voice by developing skills in storytelling, public speaking and persuasive communication.
Generative AI, Ethics, and the Future of Urban Planning
Explore the ethical and equity implications of using generative AI in urban planning. This course addresses bias, transparency, public trust, emerging tools like digital twins, and offers practical guidance for responsible adoption.
Enhancing Public Participation with Generative AI
This tutorial shows how generative AI can enhance inclusive and responsive public participation in urban planning by summarizing feedback, tailoring outreach, and visualizing scenarios using real-world tools and examples.
Design for Peace and Democracy
Explore how our designed environments can promote and support peace and democracy using historic examples of how the built environment – including parks, squares and streets – can be an instrument of oppression and serve as forums for both tyranny and uprising. We’ll return to the U.S. for stories closer to home, and frame the future in hope and optimism.
Navigating the Ethical Landscape for AI in Urban Planning
Uncover some of the largest ethical issues related to using AI in urban planning and the steps cities around the world are taking to ensure fairness, honesty, and accountability as this revolutionary technology becomes more embedded in the modern world.
Planning the Plan: How to Develop the Scope for a Planning Study
Learn the basic steps involved in developing general planning processes, scope structure, and implementable outcomes.
Roadways for People, Part 2
Home in on the Community Solutions Based Approach through the example of a recent project in Baltimore, Maryland to re-reroute and update an Amtrak tunnel that would affect the predominantly Black neighborhood of Reservoir Hill.
Roadways for People, Part 1
Using Portland's I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project as a central case study, Lynn Peterson and co-instructor Elizabeth Doerr explore why and how we need a more inclusive, people-centered transportation planning process.
The 21st Century Comprehensive Plan
Uncover the emerging and valuable qualities of the 21st century comprehensive plan that can be used to define visions for the future, including robust community engagement, crosscutting themes, and an accountable implementation program.
Landscape Design for Social Sustainability, Part 1
Discover how and why the built environment succeeds or fails at supporting thriving, diverse communities, and how designers can create mechanisms that allow communities to enjoy and improve their environments to suit their needs and desires.
Connecting Households to Sewer Systems
Delve into these intricate systems, where numerous components must work harmoniously to ensure smooth operation. This course outlines a proven process that can promote enhanced connectivity to sewerage infrastructure and systems.
Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design
This course discusses crime as an environmental justice issue and reviews techniques that successfully reduce crime and make communities safer and healthier through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) theory.
Placemaking for Community-Based Organizations
Learn how community organizations can enhance or expand their impact on their beloved neighborhoods through placemaking practices.
Interpreting Places and Spaces
Interpretive media can dramatically enhance people's experience of place. Learn how to develop and execute a plan that brings the stories tied to places to life.
Just Suburbs: The New Frontier for Equity and Inclusion
Poverty is being displaced from central cities to suburbs. As a response, planners should look to strategies that create mixed-income neighborhoods—a place that everyone can call home.
The Theory and Practice of Culture and Placemaking
Learn about the complex issues at play in the interaction between culture and place: the urbanization process, the historical significance of tools used by urban planners, early American urban theories, and the power of social movements.
Introduction to Culture and Placemaking
Explore the urban theories that have prepared urbanists and planners alike to recognize culture and embrace of diversity as significant mechanisms for shaping the city and the fate of urban landscapes.
Methods for Neighborhood Scale Revitalization
This course presents a rigorous but adaptable methodology that builds on the strengths of neighborhoods to develop customized approaches for addressing challenges that directly respond to the needs and vision of each neighborhood.
Women and Cities 5: The Feminist Future City
This final chapter speculates on what a feminist city could look like, recalling case studies and ancient examples that include contemporary contexts but also consider future needs for a more heart-centered city designed for everyone.
Women and Cities 4: Gender Equity in the Public Sphere
This course will outline the way in which women have occupied public spaces and the transition into a greater level of visibility for women in cities.