Susanna Schaller is an Associate Professor in Urban Studies, Administration and Planning at the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the Center for Worker Education, The City College of New York Downtown.

She earned her PhD in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. Her most recent work focuses on business improvement districts (BIDs) in Washington, DC.  Her book Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking: BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C. was recently published by the University of Georgia Press. (www.ugapress.org.)

Schaller's research examines how public-private partnerships restructure urban governance and redevelopment regimes. Her book specifically examines and historically contextualizes the work of business improvement districts in Washington, DC. Schaller's work unpacks how a new BID-public private partnership regime emerged in the 1990s to implant place making strategies.  Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Urban Studies, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Geography, the Journal of Planning Education and Research as well as the Journal of Education Policy.  

Her professional practice has focused on urban governance and economic development as well as small business development and microfinance.  She has served as Senior Planner to the Municipal Art Society in New York and has worked with community groups to evaluate rezoning plans for New York City neighborhoods. She has also worked with community-based organizations, including community development finance institutions and community development corporations, to develop microenterprise and small business lending and training programs and to conduct community visioning and strategic planning workshops.  

PhD, City and Regional Planning, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

MA and MCRP, Latin American Studies and Community and Regional Planning, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

BA, English Literature, Barnard College, New York, NY

Professor Schaller teaches undergraduate courses in the Urban Studies Planning and Administration concentration and graduate courses in the MA in the Studies of the Americas program.

Undergraduate Courses:

• IAS 31317 Urban Sustainability (In-person / Online / Hybrid)
• IAS 31409 Gentrification Globalized
• IAS 31167 Gated Cities, Gated Communities, Gated Minds (In-Person / Hybrid)
• IAS 31132 Housing: The Right to the City (Online)
• IAS 27404 Urban Politics and Policy
• IAS 22200 Introduction to Urban Studies and Planning
• IAS 22300 Introduction to Public Administration
• IAS 21800 Modern Management and Non-Profit Management
• IAS 24200 Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (“The Right to the City Lecture Series”)
• IAS 10800 Doing Social Research

Graduate Courses:

• IAS A6080 Gated City, Gated Communities, Gated Minds
• IAS A5010 Graduate Research Methodology
• IAS A5090 Urban Sustainability (Hybrid)

Public private governance regimes, regulation regimes, urban restructuring processes, urban design and placemaking, commercial district revitalization, redevelopment politics, business improvement districts, rezoning, sustainability, small and independently owned businesses, urban parks

Peer and Critically Reviewed Work 

Book

Schaller, Susanna. 2019. Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking: BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. 

Peer-Reviewed Journal articles

Schaller, Susanna, Howe, Aaron, McKinney, Coy, and Shoenfeld, Sarah. 2024. "Making Power Visible: Business Improvement Districts and Creative Placemaking in Washington, DC." Urban Studies, Special Issue on Private Urban Governance, Volume 61 Issue 14, November 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231174991

Modan, Gabriella. & Schaller, Susanna. 2023. "Semiotics of a Covid Landscape: Tactical Urbanism in a Pandemic." Linguistic Landscapes. Volume 9, Issue 3, Sept 2023, p. 226 - 246. https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/ll.22038.mod

Nisbet, Elizabeth and Susanna Schaller. 2019. "Philanthropic Partnerships in the Just City: Parks and Schools." Urban Affairs Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087419843186

Schaller, Susanna and Elizabeth Nisbet. 2019. “Regulating Private Support for Public Goods: De-clubbing Public Schools.” Journal of Education Policy. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2018.1547423  

Schaller Susanna. 2018. “Public–private Synergies: Reconceiving Urban Redevelopment in Tübingen, Germany.” Journal of Urban Affairs. (Published online May 16, 2018). https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2018.1465345

Schaller, Susanna and Guinand, Sandra. 2018. Pop-up Landscapes: A New Trigger to Push Up Land Value? Urban Geography, 39(1), 54–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1276719

Schaller, Susanna and Gabriella Modan. 2005. “Contesting Public Space And Citizenship: Implications for Neighborhood Business Improvement Districts." Journal of Planning Education and Research, 24, no. 4 (2005): 394-407. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X04270124

Beneria Lourdes and Susanna Schaller. Labor market informalization and the changing landscape of cities.  Monopolis: Globalisierung und Stadtforschung,Sinn-haft, 14/15 (2003). 

Book chapters

Schaller, Susanna and Elizabeth Nisbet. 2020. “Events on Our Urban Parkland: Scrutinizing Public Private Partnerships in Parks Governance Regimes.” In Companion to Public Space, edited by Vikas Mehta, Danilo Palazzo, chapter 36. Routledge Press. 

Schaller, Susanna and Guinand Sandra. 2019. “Pop-Up Landscape Design and the Disruption of the Ordinary.” In Public Space Design and Social Cohesionedited by Patricia Aelbrecht and Steven Quentin. Routledge Press.

Schaller, Susanna and Gabriella Modan. 2017. “Business Improvement District.” In The Arsenal of Exclusion & Inclusionedited by T. Armborst, D. D’Oca, G. Theodore, & R. Gold, 74–80. New York; Barcelona: Actar Publishers.

Schaller, Susanna, KC Wagner, and Mildred Warner. 2017. “Creating a City for Workers: Union Strategies on Child Care in NYC.” In Unions and the City: Negotiating Urban Change, edited by Ian McDonald, Chapter 7. Ithaca, NY: Cornell ILR Press. 

Schaller, Susanna. 2015. “Situating Entrepreneurial Place-making in DC: Business Improvement Districts and Urban (Re)development in Washington, DC.” In Capital Dilemma:  Growth and Inequality Washington, DC, edited by Derek Hyra and Sabiyha Prince, 139-158. New York: Routledge Press. 

Schaller, Susanna and Johannes Novy. 2011. “New York City’s Waterfronts as Strategic Sites for Analyzing Neoliberalism and Its Contestations.” In Transforming Urban Waterfronts: Fixity and Flow,edited Gene Desfor, Jenefer Laidley, Dirk Schubert, and Quentin Stevens, 166-190. New York: Routledge. 

Schaller, Susanna and Gabriella Modan. 2008. “Contesting Public Space and Citizenship: Implications for Neighborhood Business Improvement Districts.  In Business Improvement Districts: Research, Theories, and Controversies, edited by Göktuğ Morçöl, Lorlene Hoyt, Jack W. Meek, and Ulf Zimmermann, 373-399. New York: CRC Press (Taylor and Francis). 

Novy, Johannes and Susanna Schaller. 2005. Gemeinwesenorientierte Stadtteilerneuerung in Washington, DC. (Community-based Neighborhood Revitalization in Washington, DC) In Handbuch Sozialraum, edited by Fabian Kessel, Christian Reutlinger, Susanne Maurer, und Oliver Frey, 577 – 597. Wiesbaden: VS, Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. 

Other Scholarly Work 

Conference Presentations, Lectures and Reports

2024    Conference paper presentation with Elizabeth Nisbet. “Creative Resistance to BID Placemaking.” Panel Planning Equitable Cities: Urban Design, Land Use, Public Space, Growth Management, Services: Creative Placemaking, Urban Affairs Association Conference, New York, NY, April 26, 20024.

2023    “Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking: BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C., Online Guest Lecture / Book Talk, Universität Klagenfurt, Austria, May 11, 2023.

2022    “Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking: BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C., Online Guest Lecture / Book Talk, Ecole Supérieure de Promotion Immobilière (ESPI), Master Program Manager in Real Estate Financing (Manager en Ingénierie de la Finance Immobilière), Urbanisme et Aménagement du Territoire (Urbanism and Urban Planning), France, December 7, 2022.

2021 Paper presentation with Gabriella Modan, Ohio State University “Semiotics of a Covid Landscape: Tactical Urbanism in a Pandemic,”Linguistic Landscape Online Workshop 12, 1-3 September 2021 University of Gothenburg, Sweden via Zoom 

2020 Book Talk: Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking: BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C.  Webinar and Workshop titled “BIDs in the Nordic Countries” sponsored by Malmö University, Sweden. Presented October 2, 2020, via Zoom.

2020 Paper presentation with Gabriella Modan, Ohio State University: “COVID Aesthetics: BID Governance in a Time of Crisis” in workshop titled “Governing Urban Aesthetics / the Aesthetics of Urban Governance: A Discussion of Business Improvement Districts (BID) in Different Geographic and Political-economic Settings.” December 2020, 17.00 – 19.00 (GMT+1), via Zoom. 

2019 Invited to lecture as part of “A Right To The City Author Talk Series” sponsored by the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in partnership with the American University, Metropolitan Center and D.C. Public Library, Washington, DC, November 16. 

2019 Participated in roundtable discussion “Planning, Race, and Development in Washington as a City of Capital” at the Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) conference in Arlington, VA, November 1, 2019.

2019 Book chapter presentation (“Pop-Up Landscape Design and the Disruption of the Ordinary”) and roundtable participant as part of book launch (Public Space Design and Social Cohesion) at the Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) Conference, Venice, Italy July 8-13. 

2018 Paper presentation with Elizabeth Nisbet, John Jay College, CUNY: “Narratives of Equity: PPP regimes for Urban Parks” on panel titled Discourse Analysis of Public Policy and Regulation at the Urban Affairs Association Conference, Toronto Canada, April 6. (Served as moderator of the panel). 

2018 “Inwood Rezoning Proposal Review and Report,” with Shawn L. Rickenbacker and John Krinsky, The City College of New York, released July 2018.

2018 Paper presentation with Elizabeth Nisbet, John Jay College, CUNY: “Narratives of Equity: PPP regimes for Urban Parks” on panel titled Discourse Analysis of Public Policy and Regulationat the Urban Affairs Association Conference, Toronto Canada, April 6. (Served as moderator of the panel).

2017 Individual paper presentation on co-organized panel with Sarah Schoenfeld and Neil Flanagan: “DC and the work of BIDs: 19th Century Imaginaries for the 21st Century" on panel titled, Shaping Urban Space for Private Gain: The Role of Private Citizens, Real Estate Officials, And Property Owners in DC’s Urban Planningat the 42nd Annual Conference on D.C. Historical Studies, November 3-5.

2017 Paper presentation with Elizabeth Nisbet, John Jay College, CUNY: “Private Non-Profit Support for Public Services: Policy Approaches for Improving Equity” at Symposium - Public Administration, Public Policy and Nonprofit Studies Research: Are We All Touching the Same Camel? at George Washington University, June 7.

2016 Individual paper presentation on co-organized panel with Sandra Guinand: “Public Private Synergies: Reconceiving Urban Redevelopment in Tuebingen, Germany to Produce a More Just City?” on Pre-Organized Session - Understanding Public Private Partnerships: Governance, Urban Development and Spatial Justice at the annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), Portland, OR, November 3.

2015 Paper presentation with Sandra Guinand: “Popups: A New Trigger To Push Up Land Values?” at the annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), Houston, TX, October 21-24.

2015 Individual paper presentation: “Reconceiving Urban (Re)Development in Tuebingen, Germany: Exploring The Potential of a Model to Draw Cross-National Lessons” at the annual conference of the Sociology of Urban and Regional Development of the International Sociological Association Conference (RC21 Research Committee), Urbino, Italy, August 27–29.

2014 Individual paper presentation: “Policy Mobility: Interrogating The Business Improvement District Model in The US And Germany” at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Special session: The Social Life of Exemplary: Everyday Realities of Model Urban Policies), Washington, DC, December 7.

2014 Individual paper presentation on co-organized panel with Susanna Rosenbaum and Alessandra Benedicty: “Repossessing Washington, DC: Urban Restructuring, Citizenship, and Planning in the Capital City” on panel A Multi-focal Lens on Cities and Belonging, Los Angeles, Port au Prince, Washington, DCat the European Urban Research Association-Urban Affairs Association (EURA-UAA) conference, Paris, June 18-20.  

2014 Individual paper presentation: “Policy Mobility: Interrogating The Business Improvement District Model in the US and Germany” at the annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association (UAA), San Antonio, Texas, March 19-22.

2013 Book chapter presentation with KC Wagner and Mildred Warner. “Creating A City for Workers: Union Strategies on Child Care in NYC” at Unions and Child Care: Expanding Access, Raising Standards, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations NYC Conference Center, December 18.

2013 Individual paper presentation: “Discourse of Neoliberal Urban Governance: A Cross-National, Comparative Look at the Role of Business Improvements in the US and Germany” at the joint conference of the Association of European Schools and Planning / Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (AESOP-ACSP), Dublin, July 15.

2011 Paper presentation with Gabriella Modan: “Safe And Clean”: Community Reactions to Neighborhood Business Improvement District (NBID) Marketing in a Multi-Ethnic Neighborhood” at annual conference of the RC21 Research Committee, Amsterdam, July 7-9.

2006 Individual paper presentation: “BIDding on Urbanity to Revitalize Urban Neighborhoods” at the annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Planning Schools (ACSP), Ft. Worth Texas, November 10.

2006 Paper presentation with Gabriella Modan: “’Safe and Clean’”: Community Reactions to Environmental Innovations in a Multi-Ethnic Business Improvement District “at the Critical Geography Mini-Conference, Ohio State University, October 14.

2002 Paper presentation with Lourdes Beneria: “Espacio urbano, privatización, informalización, y género,”  (Urban Space, Privatization, Informalization and Gender) at Home-based Work and Labor Market Informalization workshop, FLACSO, Quito, Ecuador, May 29.

2001 Individual paper presentation: “Neighborhood Business Improvement Districts and Community Development Corporations: The Contestation of Public Space and Citizenship” at the annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), Cleveland, OH, November 2001.

GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

PSC-CUNY Research Grants

2019, Cycle 50: BID Urbanism in New York City: Examining the Intersection of Neighborhood Commercial District Placemaking and Rezoning.

2018, Cycle 49: Co-PI with Dr. Elizabeth Nisbet, John Jay College, CUNY: Narratives of Equity: PPP Regimes for Urban Parks.

2016, Cycle 47:The Neoliberalization of DC: Business Improvement Districts, Progressive Planning and Place-Making in the Capital City. (Complete Book Manuscript)

2015, Cycle 46: Reconceiving Urban (Re)Development in Tuebingen, Germany

2014, Cycle 45: The Neoliberalization of DC: Business Improvement Districts, Progressive Planning and Place-Making in the Capital City.

2012, Cycle 43: BIDing on BIDs to Revitalize Urban Districts: A Cross National Perspective

Fellowships

2016, CUNY Faculty Fellowship Publication Program

2014/2015, The Graduate Center, CUNY, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, Faculty Fellow

Summer 2014, Lehman College, CUNY, Numeracy Infusion Course for Higher Education (NICHE), Faculty Fellow. 

2011, The City College of New York Colin L. Powell Center, Service-learning Fellow

Pre-CUNY Grants and Fellowships

2001-2002, Cornell University, Sage Fellowship

2001, Cornell University, Enaudi Center for International Studies Research Grant

1997, Pan-American Roundtable, Latin American Institute, UNM  

1996, Title VI Foreign language Area Studies fellowship, Latin American Institute, UNM 

1996, Latin American Institute Field Research Grant, Latin American Institute, UNM

1995, Latin American Institute Field Research Grant, Latin American Institute, UNM