KRISTIN LARSEN

PROFESSOR

klarsen@ufl.edu
(352) 294-1482

AFFILIATIONS

American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP)
Secretary, Executive Governing Committee, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP)

EDUCATION

Cornell University, Ph.D., May 2001
University of Florida, Urban and Regional Planning, MA, May 1990
University of Florida, Business Administration, BS, May 1986

TEACHING

URP 6100: Planning Theory and History

RESEARCH

The primary focus of my research is the exploration of federal, state and regional policies and programs dealing with housing and their influence on communities. My expertise in housing policy and programs, planning history, historic preservation, social justice, and neighborhood revitalization contributes to research on the shaping of cities from theoretical and practical perspectives. The evolution, interaction, and tensions endemic in the public sector role, especially as played out in defined geographic areas such as neighborhoods or proposed new towns, are at the core of my research.

BIO

Kristin Larsen, AICP, Ph.D. (Cornell), MAURP (Florida), BSBA (Florida) is Professor and Director of the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning.  Among the projects she focused on when she worked as a land use and housing planner for the City of Orlando during the 1990s was a neighborhood revitalization project within the historic African American community of Parramore.  This professional planning experience inspired her to earn her doctoral degree focused on city and regional planning, planning history, cultural geography, and historic preservation.  At UF she has developed new courses in housing policy, historic preservation, and interdisciplinary studies in planning and landscape architecture.  

In addition to her responsibilities as a professor, Dr. Larsen has served in various leadership positions in the college for the past 10 years including directing the urban and regional planning graduate online degree program, chairing the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (URP), and directing the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning.  Notably, she spearheaded development of the nation’s first fully online graduate degree in urban and regional planning and shepherded the department through two accreditation reviews, both securing the maximum 7-year period with the most recent review accrediting the online delivery of the URP graduate degree.  

Dr. Larsen’s expertise in housing policy, neighborhood planning, community engagement, social justice, and planning history has resulted in numerous publications including her biography of noted community architect Clarence S. Stein.  Her peer reviewed research has also appeared in Housing Policy Debate, Journal of Planning History, Housing Studies, Planning Perspectives, and Urban Studies.   She has secured over $1 million in internal and external grants awarded as either Principal or Co-Principal Investigator, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Urban Scholars Fellowship and a State of Florida Division of Historical Resources Grant.  Her examination of the intellectual history of the Regional Planning Association of America continues with her upcoming biography of landscape architect and housing advocate Henry Wright.

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