Hi, I’m Dr. Sophonie Milande Joseph! I’m a community planner and critic who writes about Black urbanism.

My work centers Black urbanism and employs mixed methods to both make the work of planning public and to bring the public into the work of planning. My applied research interests include Black urbanism, community planning, and public arts. My work is transnational planning in nature, spanning the North American continent and the Caribbean; while engaging intersectional feminism, environmental justice, and transnational planning as tools for realizing inclusive community development. Because of the diasporic character of my planning practice, my research projects possess the shared themes of cultural capital and oral narratives. My research trajectory builds from my dissertation work on post-earthquake recovery in Haiti and arcs across North America, reaching African Nova Scotian communities and the Little Haiti neighborhood in Brooklyn, exploring the challenges of Black community networks and the role of uneven development.