Professor Jason Corburn’s Cities for Life wins Place Book Award

Congratulations to Jason Corburn, professor of public health and city and regional planning, whose book Cities for Life: How Communities Can Recover from Trauma and Rebuild for Health has been awarded the 2022 Place Book Award by the Environmental Design Research Association.

Cities for Life looks at how three cities—Richmond, California; Medellín, Colombia; and Nairobi, Kenya—are working to help their communities by investing in peacemaking and parks and focusing on community decision-making. These cities are taking the lead in generating equitable outcomes for their community members.

“One of the biggest lessons I learned was that community members hold vast amounts of expertise in health and healing,” said Corburn about his experience writing the book. “In other words, they’re not just advisors but they’re experts in knowing stuff about their own experience, their communities, and what their communities may need.”

The Environmental Design Research Association was founded by design professionals, social scientists, students, educators, and facility managers in 1968. Its mission is “to advance and disseminate research, teaching, and practice toward improving an understanding of the relationships among people, their built environments, and natural ecosystems.”