Courtney Knapp

Courtney Knapp, Ph.D. AICP is a Professor of Urban and Community Planning in the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment at the Pratt Institute.   Their research focuses on decarceration, ‘just transition’ planning, critical placemaking, and the politics of social and spatial repair in multiracial communities.  Courtney teaches advanced studios as well as courses in planning methods, research design, participatory planning techniques, and abolitionist and decarceral planning.

Their first book, Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Urban Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee, (University of North Carolina Press 2018), examines the politics of racialized placemaking and urban development over the course of the city’s three century history.  The text received the 2019 Associated Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Paul Davidoff Award.

Courtney has published about abolitionism and supporting community decarceration, radical community planning in the South, anarchist approaches to planning education, collaboration with public libraries, and integrating critical autobiographical writing into education and community engagement processes.  A selection of their current research projects include:

• Working closely with the historic Latino-led environmental justice organization UPROSE to implement and update the Green Resilient Industrial District (GRID) Plan, a comprehensive ‘just transition’ energy and economy strategy for Sunset Park, Brooklyn. This included four years as a Faculty Research Lead for a “regenerative economies and industrial ecosystem” research team, which included staff from UPROSE, Pratt, and the NYC Economic Development Corporation.
• Courtney is currently collaborating with Canadian scholars (Carleton University and the University of Toronto), as well as members of the Canadian Black Planners Project, on a multiyear Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)- funded “Planning for Abolition” research project, which involves, among other things, updating and adapting a 2020 study of U.S. planners’ engagement with decarceration (Knapp 2020, “Planning in the Age of Mass Decarceration,” JPER) to a Canadian planning context.
• Their current book project examines four centuries of racial reckoning efforts in Richmond, Virginia, asking how Richmonders have simultaneously struggled to acknowledge and deny  their local histories of settler colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow-era white supremacy, and  environmental racism.

Courtney previously worked in Massachusetts, New York, and California as an affordable housing, economic development, and public space planner.  Prior to joining the Pratt faculty, Courtney was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (2014-2018). They are a former Board member of the Los Angeles section of the American Planning Association.

Courtney received their Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University, Master’s degrees in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (Tufts University) and Gender/ Cultural Studies (Simmons College), and bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Political Science (with minor concentrations in English and Animation/ Filmmaking).

Ph.D. City and Regional Planning, Cornell University
M.A. Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, Tufts University
M.A. Gender/ Cultural Studies, Simmons College
B.A. Philosophy and Political Science, Simmons College (minor concentrations in animation/filmmaking and English)

BOOKS

Knapp, C. E. (2018). Constructing the Dynamo of Dixie: Race, Urban Planning, and Cosmopolitanism in Chattanooga, Tennessee. University of North Carolina Press Books. 

JOURNAL ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS 

Kim, AJ, Knapp, Courtney, and Sarmiento, Carolina (2025, accepted and forthcoming).  “Abolitionist Planning: A Framework for Listening” in Journal of Planning Literature.  

Edited by Courtney Knapp, Jocelyn Poe & John Forester (2022) Repair and Healing in Planning, Planning Theory & Practice, DOI: 10.1080/14649357.2022.2082710

Knapp, C.  (2022). “Lessons for Planners from Richmond, Virginia’s, Marcus David Peters Circle” Planning Theory and Practice Interface.  

Knapp, C. E. (2020). Local Planning in the Age of Mass Decarceration.  Journal of Planning Education and Research; 40(2):169-185. doi:10.1177/0739456X20911704.

Knapp, C. E. (2018). Integrating Critical Autobiography to Foster Anti-Racism Learning in the Urban Studies Classroom: Interpreting the “Race and Place” Stories of Undergraduate Students. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X18817822 

Knapp, C. (2018). Unlocking the Democratic Potential of Urban Planner–Librarian Collaborations. Journal of Planning Education and Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X18810125 

Knapp, C. E. (2017). Experimenting with anarchistic approaches to collaborative planning: The Planning Free School of Chattanooga. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1-23.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2017.1305767 

Knapp, Courtney and Hollander, Justin (2012). “Assessing the Potential for Integrating Community Benefits Agreements into Brownfield Redevelopment Projects” in Hula, R., Reese, L., & Jackson-Elmoore, C. Reclaiming Brownfields: A comparative analysis of adaptive reuse of contaminated properties. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.