Caroline Filice Smith
Caroline Filice Smith is a doctoral candidate in Urban Planning interested in the political economy of urban design, racialized histories of urban planning across the US and its empire, and histories of activist planners and architects. Their project explores the emergence of “participatory planning” in the mid-twentieth century. Through a focus on federally funded—yet activist led—community action programs in the US, Caroline’s research examines how the Black Power movement, the War on Poverty, and models of community development originally designed to quell insurgency abroad, intersected to form the foundation of a now central paradigm of US urban planning practice. This work touches on issues of democratic social engineering, cold war imperialism, 20th century anti-racist urban uprisings, and continued struggles for self-determination across the US.
In addition to their dissertation, Caroline teaches and conducts research as part of the GSD’s Urban Design and the Color Line project and has recently completed an opensource anti-racist planning toolkit with the Highline Newtork and Urban Institute, and a report for the Architectural League of NY on landscape and community-led, post-coal futures for Appalachia. They previously served as an Irving Innovation Fellow, Mexican Cities Initiative Fellow, and research associate for the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative. Caroline holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design with Distinction from the GSD, where they were awarded both the Thesis Prize and Academic Excellence Award in Urban Design – additionally, Caroline holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech. Prior to coming to Harvard, Caroline spent five years in professional architectural practice – most of which was spent working for UNStudio in their Shanghai office, and less of which was spent practicing in Los Angeles where they were actively involved in the Occupy movement.