Gordon Douglas is the director of the Institute for Metropolitan Studies and an assistant professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. His work focuses on social inequality in planning and development, neighborhood identity and gentrification, and peoples’ relationships to their physical surroundings from streetscape design to disaster response. He is working on local improvement efforts in San Jose and Oakland and advising climate change resiliency efforts in San Francisco. His new book “The Help-Yourself City” (Oxford 2018) concerns people who create unauthorized but functional “do-it-yourself urban design” interventions to help their communities. He is currently working on local improvement efforts in San Jose and Oakland and advising climate change resiliency efforts in San Francisco. Prior to joining SJSU, Gordon helped lead the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University and worked on the U.S. exhibition at the Venice Architecture Biennale. He holds master’s degrees in media and communication from the University of Southern California and the London School of Economics; and a doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Chicago.