Katherine Foo
Assistant Teaching Professor
Interdisciplinary & Global Studies
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
United States of America
Biography
Education: BA Poverty Studies Williams College 2002 MLA Landscape Architecture University of Michigan 2008 MS Sustainable Systems University of Michigan 2008 PhD Geography Clark University 2015 Dr. Katherine Foo is a geographer and landscape planner who studies urban ecology, environmental governance, landscape design, and the visualization of society-nature relationships, with a special emphasis on social and environmental justice. Her research examines the ways in which urban governance influence urban trees, asking questions such as: how do the political and economic conditions of cities influence the volume and distribution of urban trees? Which political and economic conditions are conducive to building a healthy, robust urban tree canopy? Dr. Foo also examines the visualization of society-nature relationships, asking questions such as: how do different social contexts envision or picture society and nature differently? How do different visual media influence what can be portrayed? Dr. Foo is passionate about teaching and the ability for engaged, experiential learning to teach students about complex, wicked problems; connect them with real world efforts to address these problems; and give students an opportunity to engage meaningfully with them. Her experience with place-based learning and projects includes both international (Thailand, Cambodia, Bolivia, Guatemala) and domestic (Boston, Worcester, New York City) localities.
Research Interest
Urban Ecology; Environmental Governance; Landscape Design; Visualization; Environmental Justice
Publications
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Foo, K., Martin, D., Wool, C., & Polsky, C. (2014). “The production of urban vacant land: Relational placemaking in Boston, MA neighborhoodsâ€. Cities, 40, 175-182.
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Foo, K., Martin, D., Polsky, C., Wool, C., & Ziemer, M. (2015). Social wellâ€being and environmental governance in urban neighbourhoods in Boston, MA. The Geographical Journal, 181(2), 138-146.
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Foo, Katherine, Emily Gallagher, Annette Kim, and Ian Bishop. (2015) Critical Landscape Visualization. Landscape and Urban Planning. Special Issue: Critical Approaches to Landscape Visualization. 184:80-84. (Lead editor for special issue. 13 research papers and 4 commentaries)
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Foo, Katherine. Forthcoming (2017) Visualizing empathy, memory, and identity: a study of visual methods that challenge dominant scopic regimes in Boston, Raleigh, and Los Angeles. Visual Methodologies. Special Issue.
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Foo, K. (2017). Institutionalizing Urban Possibility: Urban Greening and Vacant Land Governance in Three American Cities. Transience and Permanence in Urban Development, 117-130.
