"This channel is actually a river": Challenging green hegemonies through territorial environmental practice
The winner of the Best MUP Capstone Thesis for 2025 was Luisa Fernandes Vieira da Ponte’s thesis entitled “This channel is actually a river”: Challenging green hegemonies through territorial environmental practice. This thesis discusses green hegemonies, territorial knowledge, social movements, environmental policy and Fortaleza, Brazil. Her thesis, advised by Dr. Faranak Miraftab and Dr. Andrew Greenlee, can be found here.
UP 510-DA Plan Making-Urbana Comprehensive Plan (Fall 2024)
This workshop focused on helping the City of Urbana as they undertake a multi-year process of updating their comprehensive plan. The class worked on tasks such as:
- Researching developing opportunities and creating a graphic, which was actually included in the adopted plan
- Developing outreach and engagement activities and materials for the draft plan
- Refining the future land use map
- Developing place and development typology info sheets
- Developing street typologies to include maps and graphics
- Updating the plan’s mobility map
Comprehensive plans are critical planning documents that act as a statement of policy based on the future vision of a community. Traditionally this vision focused on land use and physical development, but newer iterations of these plans address a much broader range of topics. See here for examples of work this course completed in the fall semester of 2024.
Gendered Experiences on Chicago's Public Transit
Tushar Kokitkar and Erin Hernandez, both 2025 MUP graduates, created this capstone report, Gendered Experiences on Chicago’s Public Transit, and was awarded the best capstone project for 2025. Erin and Tushar’s capstone was advised by Dr. Magdalena Novoa and was created in collaboration with AIDS Foundation Chicago’s Pride Action Tank. The capstone report can be found here.
Routes to Equity: Evaluating the Application of Federal Geospatial Equity Tools in a Transportation Vulnerability Assessment
The 2024 winner of the Best MUP Capstone Project was Priyadarshini Satish. Her project, Routes to Equity: Evaluating the Application of Federal Geospatial Equity Tools in a Transportation Vulnerability Assessment, was advised by Dr. Andrew Greenlee and written for the client agency, Stantec. This project can be found here.
UP 510-MN: Plan Making - Community Engagement Plan
This workshop course focused on community engagement in planning and urban settings, using the neighborhood schools rezoning and changes to the elementary multilingual education program in the City of Urbana as a case study. The course introduced students to the process and strategies of supporting and working with specific communities at a local level while gaining applied knowledge about how to assess needs and issues surrounding decision-making, what methods of engagement are available, how to select and use such techniques, and how to develop a community engagement plan to foster community involvement and belonging in urban decision-making. The students engaged in researching similar cases around the country, conducted multiple interviews with parent affected by the rezoning changes, attended School Board District and Parents Teaching Association meetings, and conducted a participatory workshop with parents and students of the elementary multilingual program to understand their visions for future involvement in their children’s education. The class ended with a presentation of their findings and a proposal for an engagement plan for parents of the Urbana multilingual program. Read their plan here.