The PUBLIC SPACE RESEARCH GROUP welcomes, Vikas Mehta, PhD presenting, Unparalleled Prospect: the crises of public health and social injustice and the expansion of public space.

COVID-19 has forced an adaptation of urban space. This public health crises with all the disparities and inequities, has also brought a remarkable change — limited access to formal spaces has driven people to claim agency to appropriate space, particularly in neighborhoods. This is an unparalleled prospect, an unusual opportunity to rethink the making of public space.

Vikas Mehta, PhD, is a Professor of Urbanism, the Fruth/Gemini chair and Ohio Eminent Scholar of urban/environmental design at the University of Cincinnati. He is interested in various dimensions of urbanity through the exploration of place as a social and ecological setting and as a sensorial art. His research topics include public space, urban design pedagogy, urban streets, neighborhoods, retail, signage and visual identity, public space in the Global south and more. Dr. Mehta is the co-editor of Public Space Reader (Routledge, 2021) and Companion to Public Space (Routledge, 2020); editor of Public Space, a 4-volume anthology (Routledge, 2015); co-author of 101 Things I Learned in Urban Design School (Three Rivers Press/Penguin, 2018); and author of The Street: a quintessential social public space (Routledge, 2013) that received the 2014 Book Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA). Dr. Mehta holds degrees in architecture, urban design and city planning.

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