2025 Leeson Lecture: Dr. Julian Agyeman

Tuesday, June 10, 2025, 3:30 p.m.
Corless Auditorium, URI Bay Campus

Dr. Julian Agyeman is an author and professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University, whose research focuses on environmental and food justice as well as the nexus of food and immigration.

In his talk, “Just Sustainabilities in Policy, Planning and Practice,” Dr. Agyeman will outline the concept of just sustainabilities as a response to the “equity deficit” of much sustainability thinking and practice. He will explore his contention that who can belong in our cities will ultimately determine what our cities can become and will illustrate his ideas with examples from urban planning and design, food justice and the “Minneapolis Paradox.”

Details: The event will take place at the Corless Auditorium at the URI Graduate School of Oceanography. Parking is available at 218 South Ferry Road and 15 Pier Road, Narragansett. Map and directions here. Parking with maximum accessibility is available at the west end of the Watkins Building and in the lower lot of the Ocean Science and Exploration Center.

Julian Agyeman

Julian Agyeman is a critical urban planning and environmental social science scholar, currently a Professor in the Department Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University. In the early 2000s, he developed the increasingly influential concept of “just sustainabilities,” which explores the intersecting goals of social justice and environmental sustainability. 

With over 175 publications, he is the author, co-author or co-editor of 13 books and is in the top 10 most highly cited urban planning academics in the USA and Canada. In November 2021, he was invited by then-Boston Mayor-Elect Michelle Wu to be a Transition Advisor on her Transition Committee. On November 17, 2023, he became Hedersdoktorer (Honorary Doctor) at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and in March 2025, he was awarded the Tufts Distinguished Scholar Award by the Faculty Research Awards Committee.