UMass Boston

Elizabeth Sweet

Department:
School for the Environment Dean's Office
Title:
Associate Dean
Graduate Program Director, Urban Planning and Community Development, MS

Degrees

PhD, Public Policy Analysis-Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago

MUPP, Master of Urban Planning and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago

BA, Soviet and East European Studies, Boston University

Professional Publications & Contributions

Additional Information

An expert in planning theory and qualitative research methodologies, Elizabeth L. Sweet teaches in the Urban Planning and Community Development Program and the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Professor Sweet engages in collaborative community economic development with a focus on the links between economies, violence, and identities. Using feminist, anti-racist and decolonial frameworks, her work in U.S. Native, Black, Latino and Latin American communities has led to long term collaborations and inclusive projects that both push the boundaries of planning theory and methods while at the same time provides practical planning interventions. In recent publications she has proposed the use of body map storytelling and community mapping as innovative ways to co-create data and strategies with communities on a wide range of issues and urban problems. Theoretically, these methods create awareness that enables planners and communities to re-envision their relationships with environments and see their visceral, historical, and spiritual bonds. These new understandings promote new practices. Her most recent project is focused on Afromexicans and Native erasure and the ways that Anti Black/Native narratives impact Mexicans/Chicanos in U.S. cities. Professor Sweet has also been very active in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within university settings through organizing events, student recruitment, and publishing both research and teaching articles on the same.