Professor of Urban Planning

The Department of Urban Planning and Design and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) invites applications for a faculty position at the rank of Professor of Urban Planning with tenure. The position of senior tenured professor is intended for individuals pursuing full-time academic careers whose record in scholarship and teaching is recognized by peers as a preeminent and enduring intellectual contribution to the field. We are seeking an internationally recognized planning scholar whose work engages with the built environment through a variety of disciplinary approaches. Experience with planning practice is a plus, as is a history of innovative teaching that addresses the designed environment. We are not specifying areas of expertise within the field, but we are especially interested in candidates who are committed to interdisciplinary engagement within the department and across the school and university.

Information about the Graduate School of Design (GSD) and Department of Urban Planning and Design: In the pursuit of more productive, equitable, sustainable, and beautiful built and natural environments, Harvard University’s GSD offers a dynamic setting for the exchange of ideas across the fields of urban planning, urban design, real estate, architecture, landscape architecture, design studies, and design engineering.

Composed of internationally experienced scholars and practitioners, the faculty of the Department of Urban Planning and Design explores the designed environment from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and points of view. The Department offers graduate degrees in urban planning, urban design, and real estate and features a pedagogically diverse array of interdisciplinary studios, lecture courses, seminars, and independent research that consider practical and theoretical issues affecting cities and metropolitan areas globally. Roughly 200 students drawn from around the world work together and with the faculty to create an intimate, engaged educational atmosphere in which students thrive and learn.

The Department is built on the firm conviction that both classroom and community experiences are enriched by creating inclusive spaces for multiple perspectives to be surfaced, understood, and debated. The Department is committed to translating these values into its programmatic policies, practices, pedagogy, and methods of engagement in classroom settings, with one another, and the world outside the GSD.

The school seeks to attract and retain individuals who possess a quality of mind demonstrating high levels of intelligence, clarity of expression, analytical ability, critical judgment, creativity, and initiative. We also value individuals who support free inquiry and expression by others and constructive, collegial collaborations with faculty, staff, and students. In the school’s evaluation of candidates, desirable individual qualities and high potential are not substitutes for a record of academic and creative achievement. Accomplished contributions to the field through scholarship and/or design are essential to effective teaching over time. Continued study and investigation with public exposition of research and professional accomplishments are normal obligations for Harvard faculty members.

Candidates should demonstrate evidence of research productivity appropriate to their advanced career stage, including a sizeable record of refereed publications, invited talks, and national and international conference presentations. They should demonstrate the ability to secure external grant funds and the ability to lead research teams of graduate students and postdoctoral associates. Individuals in this position will employ their time teaching, conducting creative work in scholarship or practice, and fulfilling their responsibilities for academic service.

Appointments are made with tenure on a full-time basis with a requirement for residency in the Greater Boston area.

Candidates must have a Ph.D. or comparable terminal degree appropriate to support an appointment to one of the GSD’s senior positions in planning. Professional experience is welcomed as is experience in academic leadership.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning in September 2026.

Applicants should submit:

Subsequent Submission: Candidates advancing in the selection process will be asked to provide additional material at a later date.

If visa sponsorship is needed, Harvard retains the discretion to determine which visa status is appropriate and whether a visa sponsorship application will ultimately be submitted, including payment of any applicable fees.

Emmy Ly, Senior Coordinator, Faculty Affairs

Professor (full-time, tenured) hiring range: $185,000+