News Release
Urban Affairs Association
Dr. Bernadette Hanlon appointed 
new Editor of the Journal of Urban Affairs

After a year-long international search, the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Bernadette Hanlon, of the City and Regional Planning Program at The Ohio State University, as the new Editor of the Journal of Urban Affairs. Dr. Hanlon will become the sixth editor in the journal’s 42-year history. Her official five-year term will begin on July 1, 2021. The journal is published by Routledge | Taylor & Francis Group, the leading publisher of urban studies research.

Publications Committee Assessment

Over a six-month period, the UAA Publications Committee and Executive Office issued a Request for Proposals, collected letters of intent, conducted informational interviews, and reviewed subsequent proposals from an international group of candidates. In their final review, they unanimously concluded that Dr. Hanlon was the most qualified candidate. The committee cited her proposal as one that would bring creative strategies for enhancing the interdisciplinary nature of the Journal of Urban Affairs, extending its  geographical coverage, and encouraging different epistemological and methodological approaches. Equally impressive was Dr. Hanlon’s commitment to identifying timely themes and recruiting the work of  leading scholars, as well as early career researchers. As several committee members noted, Dr. Hanlon’s own well-regarded scholarship within urban studies will serve as an intellectual and experiential foundation for her leadership of the journal.

Publications Committee

Hélène Bélanger, Committee Chair (Université du Québec à Montréal), Susan Clarke (University of Colorado Boulder), Jonathan Davies (De Montfort Univ, UK), Clarissa Freitas (Federal University of Ceará, Brazil), Gregory Squires (George Washington University)

About Dr. Bernadette Hanlon

Dr. Bernadette Hanlon is Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning Program at the Knowlton School at The Ohio State University (OSU). She specializes in the political economy of metropolitan regions, focusing on issues of suburban transformation, housing conditions and community development. Dr. Hanlon is the author of three books, Once the American Dream: Inner-ring Suburbs in the Metropolitan United States, Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan Realities in the US (with John Rennie Short and Thomas J. Vicino) and Global Migration: The Basics (with Thomas J. Vicino) and co-editor (with Thomas J. Vicino) of The Routledge Companion to the Suburbs. She is also author of numerous articles in some of the leading journals in urban studies.

Dr. Hanlon teaches courses in urban planning theory, housing policy and planning, and research design. She is currently the Chair of the Bachelor of Science City and Regional Planning Section at OSU. She has been an active member of UAA, serving on multiple committees, as well as organizing sessions and making presentations at annual conferences. In 2016, she was elected to the UAA Governing Board and will complete a term as Vice Chair before assuming the editorship of the Journal of Urban Affairs. She is also an active member of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning. She has a PhD. in Public Policy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She currently lives in Columbus, Ohio.

The Urban Affairs Association

The Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public/nonprofit service providers. UAA is dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life. Through theoretical, empirical, and action-oriented research, the UAA fosters diverse activities to understand and shape a more just and equitable urban world. UAA sponsors the Journal of Urban Affairs, a refereed journal, that publishes manuscripts related to urban research and policy analysis of interest to both scholars and practitioners. In 2020, UAA launched a new refereed publication, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, designed to create a discourse on issues of race, ethnicity and identity within and around urban spaces. UAA also sponsors Upsilon Sigma –The Urban Studies Honor Society, an international, multidisciplinary honor society dedicated to recognizing and encouraging excellence in scholarship, leadership, and engagement in urban studies and related fields.