Professor Megan Horst (PhD, AICP) is MURP Program Director and teaches many core urban planning classes. Her research focuses include climate action, food systems and land use planning. In all of her work, she prioritizes environmental sustainability and social justice. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Theory and Practice, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development and the Journal of Renewable Agriculture, and in books by the Planners’ Press and the University of Iowa.
Megan values community-engaged and applied research and practice. She is currently serving as co-chair of the Portland Clean Energy Fund, Community Advisory Board. In her work and research, she uses a variety of methods, especially interviewing, focus groups, and spatial analysis.
Megan has a diverse work background. Prior to Portland State University, she worked as a consultant for American Farmland Trust on GIS mapping, for the community-based organization Solid Ground on children's food security issues, for the non-profit Sustainable Seattle on the Communities Count initiative, for King County Metro on community-based social marketing, as a park ranger at Lava Beds National Monument, and as a sustainable agriculture promoter/volunteer for Peace Corps in western Honduras.
What Professor Horst Has to Say...
FOR STUDENTS: Today’s students live in very unique times, as climate change ramps up. On top of that, we face increasing economic disparity and ongoing injustices. We are also living in a time when our elected leaders and business leader- and sometimes dominant planning practice- seem largely unwilling to change course. In facing this, students face a kind of pre-traumatic stress. At the Toulan School, I hope that students deal with that stress, by finding kindred spirits, developing knowledge, and building skills that will enable them to lead careers and lives of genuinely purposeful action.
APPROACH TO TEACHING: Critical, participatory, engaged in real-world issues, and connected to the community as much as possible. Come to my classes prepared to challenge your preconceptions, collaborate with other classmates and community members, and to participate actively in various ways. I am also extremely committed to, and constantly learning and improving, anti-oppression class facilitation and pedagogy/curriculum/projects around anti-racism and in support of equity and diversity.
FAVORITE CITIES:
Any city that I can wander for hours on foot or bike. Cities I have loved visiting include Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Washington DC, Miami, Quito… and many more. I have been lucky to live in a lot of cities, including Odense, Denmark; Groningen, the Netherlands; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; St. Petersburg, Florida; Seattle, Washington; and now Portland, Oregon.