Richardson Dilworth, Ph.D.

Director, Center for Public Policy; Associate Professor

Office: 3021 MacAlister
Phone: (215) 895-2471
Email: dilworth@drexel.edu

Curriculum Vitae: Download PDF

Education

• B.S., magna cum laude, Economics, 1993
• Ph.D., Political Science, 2001

Biography

My research focuses on urban political development and urban public policy. I am the author of The Urban Origins of Suburban Autonomy (2005) and the editor of two books: The City in American Political Development (2009) and Social Capital in the City: Community and Civic Life in Philadelphia (2006). In 2008 I was a visiting scholar at the Legislative Office for Research Liaison of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and in 2009 a visiting scholar at the Center for Environmental Policy at the Academy of Natural Sciences. In 2008 I was appointed by Mayor Michael Nutter to serve on the Philadelphia Historical Commission, where I am chair of the Historic Designation Committee.

I am also the Director of Drexel's Center for Public Policy (CPP). The CPP supports interdisciplinary policy-oriented scholarship among Drexel faculty and other external affiliates, and engages students in this research through its innovative Master of Science in Public Policy (MSPP) degree program.

Publications

• Editor, Cities in American Political History (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2011).
• “The Place of Planning in Sustainability Metrics for Public Works: Lessons from the Philadelphia Region.” Robert Stokes, Rachel Weinberger, and Sabrina Spatari, coauthors (lead author: Dilworth). Public Works Management and Policy 16 (January 2011): 20-39.
• "Business Improvement Districts and the Evolution of Urban Governance." Drexel Law Review 3 (Spring 2010): 1-9.
• "American Cities as Firms in the 21st Century - Or, Should Philadelphia Move to New Jersey?" Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy  24 (2010): 99-129.
• Editor, The City in American Political Development. New York: Routledge, 2009.
• "Teaching urban politics at an Albanian university: how do you make an American sub-discipline internationally relevant?" Teaching in Higher Education (January 2008): 13:1, 69-80.
• "Privatization, the World Water Crisis and the Social Contract." In PS: Political Science and Politics 40 (January 2007): 49-54.
• Editor, Social Capital in the City: Community and Civic Life in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006).
• "Introduction: The Place that Loves You Back?" In Dilworth, ed., Social Capital in the City.
• The Urban Origins of Suburban Autonomy . (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).
• "When Cities Get Married: Constructing Urban Space through Gender, Sexuality, and Municipal Consolidation." Kathryn Trevenen, co-author. Urban Affairs Review 40 (November 2004): 183-209.
• "From Sewers to Suburbs: Transforming the Policymaking Context of American Cities.” Urban Affairs Review 38 (May 2003): 726-739.
• "Urban Infrastructure Politics and Metropolitan Growth: Lessons from the New York Metropolitan Region." Public Works Management and Policy 6 (January 2002): 200-214.