Anne Taufen Wessells, Ph.D., MGA

Anne Taufen Wessells is Associate Professor in the Urban Studies program at the University of Washington Tacoma. Her research focuses on planning for sustainable urban development, with two main areas of interest. First, her theoretical work is concerned with narrative constructions of urban spatial policy, and the recursive relationship between planning discourse and pragmatic action. This includes questions of inclusivity and equity – who governance serves, and with what outcomes; as well as questions of socio-material change – how governing processes are held in place, influenced or transformed, with a focus on things, practices, and technologies. The second main area of research is a subset of environmental justice: public access to urban waterways. This work considers the planning, politics, history, and legality of how people use waterway spaces, and to what ends, an issue of increasing policy relevance as we face global climate change.