Dr. Ariel Bierbaum has been promoted with tenure to associate professor of urban studies and planning by the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. With 25 years of experience in the non-profit and public sectors, her cross-disciplinary background connects the fields of urban studies, planning and public education. Through her research, Bierbaum explores how public schools and planning at the neighborhood, city and regional levels interact and contribute to the perpetuation of inequality. She also identifies potential pathways to promote justice for historically marginalized and minoritized communities.
“Ariel's merits for this promotion are vast and mighty: She is a prolific and sophisticated researcher, an excellent and caring teacher, and a generous and multifaceted servant leader inside and outside our school,” said Clara Irazábal, the director of the Urban Studies & Planning Program (URSP). “Our URSP Program and MAPP community are fortunate to have her and are excited to see her start a new, promising chapter in her life.”
Bierbaum is currently finishing her book, “Schools for Sale: Displacement, Dispossession, and School Reuse in Philadelphia,” set to be published next year. The book compiles over 10 years of research on Philadelphia school closures, building sales and reuse, and how the aftermath of these events connect to the larger patterns of inequity. It also explores how schools are not only educational institutions, but public civic spaces for communities and how selling these civic assets on the private market perpetuates harm against Black, brown and immigrant communities.
Bierbaum will release a study in the spring that focuses on school transportation and school travel, specifically in communities that have intentional programs to integrate their schools.
Her research has appeared in journals such as Planning Theory and Practice, Journal of the American Planning Association and Journal of Urban Affairs. Organizations such as the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, the Poverty and Race Research Action Council and Enterprise Community Partners have sponsored her research.
Bierbaum earned her Ph.D. in city and regional planning from the University of California-Berkeley, a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts in urban studies from the University of Pennsylvania.
Read more in her biography.