The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS): Karilyn Crockett

Hacking the Archive: A quest for more just urban futures
This talk explores a Boston-based project that gamifies collective memory-driven social research and local knowledge sharing to anchor the intergenerational creation of future urban plans. Hacking the Archive (HTA) is a coalition of three dozen civic, faith-based and archival institutions advancing a novel data gathering and dissemination approach for populations underrepresented in the archive yet overrepresented in land-based battles for urban space. This talk focuses on HTA’s current work to examine past and present grassroots strategies for tackling economic justice.

Karilyn Crockett research focuses on large-scale land use changes in twentieth century American cities and examines the social and geographic implications of structural poverty, racial formations and memory. Karilyn’s book “People before Highways: Boston Activists, Urban Planners, and a New Movement for City Making” (UMASS Press 2018) investigates a 1960s era grassroots movement to halt urban extension of the U.S. interstate highway system and the geographic and political changes in Boston that resulted. In 2019 this book was named one of the “ten best books about Boston of the decade” by the Boston Public Library’s librarians. Karilyn holds a PhD from the American Studies program at Yale University, a Master of Science in Geography from the London School of Economics, and a Master of Arts and Religion from Yale Divinity School. She has served in a range of executive leadership roles in Boston city government; including Director of Economic Policy & Research in the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, Director of Small Business Development; and later as the City of Boston’s first Chief of Equity, a Cabinet-level position. She is a professor of urban history, public policy and planning in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. She is also the founder and lead PI for “Hacking the Archive,” a collaborative research and action project which explores past social movement histories, actions and resident memories to anchor multi-generational urban planning. She currently leads the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to assess the regional racial wealth gap.

The Lecture in Planning Series (LiPS) is co-organized by the MSUP Program and second-year PhD students in Urban Planning: Light refreshments will be served. This event is open to Columbia University affiliates with a valid university ID. Any questions on the events can be directed Rossella Asja Lucrezia Ferro, rf2930@columbia.edu and Daniela Perleche Ugas, dp3167@columbia.edu.