About Dr. Andrea Roberts

WPPB Image Addons    Dr. Andrea Roberts is an Associate Professor of Urban + Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture and has been appointed Co-Director of the School’s  Center for Cultural Landscapes. She is a scholar-activist who brings 12 years of experience in community development, nonprofit administration, and advocacy to her

PUB: African American Planning, Cooperative Economics, & Community Building Minus the Respectability Politics.

Looking for examples of anti-banking system, anti-respectability, pro-cooperative Black planning &community building? Try 19th Century Texas History. I recently published an article on race gender, planning, and mutual aid called “The Farmers’ Improvement Society and the Women’s Barnyard Auxiliary of Texas: African American Community Building in the Progressive Era,” in the Journal of Planning History.

Dead Assets: Endangered Cemeteries, Sacred Spaces of African America

By Andrea Roberts* I spoke yesterday with Jeremy Nelloms, descendant of Nancy Bradshaw. Nancy Bradshaw was a former slave who attained an impressive 300 acres of land after emancipation located in today’s northeast Houston, Texas.  The land is located a few blocks off I-10 East. Her family still owns the land, and the historic African

Paul Deen Part II:The White-Black Workplace Relationship in Social Memory

As much as I would love to let sleeping dogs lie, I had to post this to reiterate what i see as the significances of the Paula Deen case. This is indeed not a matter of deciding whether what a celebrity says matters or not, or whether we should forgive. This must be lifted from

Sensing Peace: Social Justice, Sacred Space, & Spiritual Renewal in Philly

My husband asked me to accompany him to Philly for work this past week. Though I’m a bit busy, I am so glad I took the time to return to the city I called home for four years. While there, I was able to walk about my old neighborhood, eat at our favorite restaurants, and

Extending our useful lives: Being honest about sustainability and mortality

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy This is a “Before I die…” board. Another ingenious project from Ted Fellow Candy Chang. It is a wonderful, sublime, yet sobering attempt to jolt people from the mundanity of their everyday lives and alienation from place to address a core question, what mark