Meiduo Ji, MPL 2018

Dr. Ajay Agarwal recently received the 2016 Queen’s University International Educational Innovation Award. In alignment with the Comprehensive International Plan (QUCIP) of the Queens University (located in Ontario, Canada), this award was created in 2015 to honor the outstanding individual or collaborative efforts in courses planning on international learning.  Agarwal created the School of Urban and Regional Planning’s (SURP) course 827 - International Planning Project, a  course that exposes students to various aspects of planning in India, including both research and practice.

In today’s international context, Agarwal explained, students are expected to learn how to think about what is happening beyond their own nation’s borders, and in this course, they will learn about global collaboration between universities, community groups, and non-governmental organizations. “The immersive, experiential learning opportunity had been transformative for students and had left a lasting impact on the host communities as well," he shared.

Agarwal now teaches Physical Planning, Community Design, Healthy Communities, and Employment Analysis at Queen’s University. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (USC) in 2009 and during his studies, taught courses on urban and regional economics, and on the urban context of planning. Before coming to USC, Agarwal was a professional architect in India.

While at USC, Agarwal earned several research grants and fellowship awards, including the USC Urban Initiative Research Grant, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Dissertation Fellowship, and the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate Research Grant. He also worked as a planning assistant at USC Center for Economic Development, participated in METRANS research projects, and was a planning assistant at Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Agarwal joined the School of Urban and Regional Planning at Queen’s University in 2009 as an Assistant Professor, and in 2015 was promoted to Associate Professor.

For more information about the award click here.

For more information about Dr. Ajay Agarwal, click here.

Meiduo Ji

Meiduo Ji is a first-year graduate student majoring Urban Planning at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Her concentration is transportation planning and real estate. She also has a GIS and Map Design background. She can be reached at [email protected].