M.S. in Urban Planning Theses
Listed and linked below are selected master’s theses advised by Leah at Columbia GSAPP’s Urban Planning program since 2016.
*Recipients of thesis awards are noted with an asterisk.
2020-2021
Regina Joy Alcazar. “Sandbox: Evaluating Smart City Technologies.”
Justin Barton. “Municipal Annexation, Race, and Local Power: Evidence from Four US Cities.”
Tihana Bulut. “Resilience Planning as a Means for Disaster Risk Reduction, Recovery, and Preparedness in the Rockaways: Insights from Hurricane Sandy and COVID-19”
Riley Burchell. “Between Essentialisms: An Exploration of Non-Binary Racial Identity and Placemaking.
Lanier Hagerty. “Small Town, Global City: The Changing Landscape in Muscatine, Iowa, from 2010 to 2020.”
Hui Lu. “The Collaboration Models of Practices of Aging in Community in Different Contexts.”
Xifan Wang. “The Two Tales of a New Retail Ecosystem: Analyzing how E-Commerce Reshapes the Urban Retail Landscape through a Case Study in Shanghai, China.”
2018-2019
Suprima Bhele. “Privatization and Decentralization of a Public Service: Solid Waste Management in Kathmandu.”
Pauline Claramunt Torche. “Resource Extraction, Urban Infrastructure, and Resilient Planning: Addressing the Impact of the LNG Industry in Soyo, Angola.”
Madeline Entrikin. “Bordered: Land Use Development in El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.”
Ethan Hudgins. “Urban Planning in Remote, Extreme Environments.”
Danting Luo. “Changing Roles of Planners in Smart Neighborhood Practice: A Case Study of Sidewalk Toronto Project.”
*Glòria Serra Coch. “Neighborhood Mapping and Neighborhood Planning: Revealing the Relationship in New York City, 1970-2015”
Qianyu Xiang. “Impacts of Organizational Structure on the Effectiveness of Emergency Response System.”
2017-2018
Eri Furusawa. “Subsidizing the Resilience Commons : A Study on the Community Rating System and CRS Research.”
Xin Guo. “Parcel Delivery and Urban Form: A Case Study of Greater London.”
Yi Jiang. “Signs in Urban Spaces in Ethnic Enclaves: A Case Study of Manhattan Chinatown.”
Ángel Felix López Zamora. “Picturing Poverty: Developing Best Practices in Poverty Research and Mapmaking.”
Carsten Rodin. “Broadcasting Exclusion: The Representation of “Illegal Housing” in Rockland County, NY.”
*Laura Semeraro. “Approaches to Transit Oriented Development: How Existing Infrastructure can lend itself to implementation of Transit Oriented Development Techniques.”
Kaiqi Zhang. “The Limitation of Multi-criteria Feasibility Evaluations in High-speed Rail Projects in the US.”
2016-2017
Jahnavi Aluri. “Shifting from Driving to Riding: a Study of the Impacts of On-Demand Cab Services on Public Transit Ridership and Vehicle Ownership in Hyderabad, India.”
Elizabeth Leah Cohn-Martin. "Situating Urban Agriculture: What, Where, and Why in New York City."
Ubaldo Escalante. “There Goes the Barrio: Measuring Gentefication in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles.”
Patrick Li. "Residential Development and Its Impact on School Access in New York City."
*Dorothy MacAusland. "Exporting Expertise? Rotterdam’s Planners and the Flood Adaptation Industry."
Madeleine McGrory. "Riot: Community Organizations and Public Communication Following Crown Heights and Tompkins Square."
Sahra Mirbabaee. "Vying for Fiber: A Comparative Analysis on Local Government Decision-Making for Fiber Internet."