Renowned Indigenous Planner, Ted Jojola, Visits U of S

Photo: Prof. Ted Jojola talks to Regional and Urban Planning students on Nov. 14 in Kirk Hall

Submitted by Ryan Walker
Associate Professor, RUP

The Regional and Urban Planning (RUP) program in the College of Arts and Science was host to Prof. Ted Jojola from November 13-16.

Jojola is a Distinguished Professor and Regents’ Professor in the Community and Regional Planning program, School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico (UNM). He is the founder of the Indigenous Design + Planning Institute at UNM and cofounder of the Indigenous Planning Division of the American Planning Association. The relationship between Professor Jojola and the U of S started in 2007 when he worked with Professor Ryan Walker on starting the Indigenous Planning Exchange (IPEX), a student and faculty exchange program between six universities across Canada, USA and Mexico that ran from 2007-2011.

During his visit to the U of S Jojola gave a guest lecture to Professor Bob Patrick’s 4th year regional planning students on Indigenous planning and held discussions with several graduate students in the Department of Geography and Planning undertaking work relating to planning with Indigenous communities. He also gave a public talk at the Reclaiming Indigenous Planning book launch at Murray Library on Friday afternoon. Dr. Jojola co-edited the book along with U of S professors Ryan Walker and David Natcher. Professor Walker, one of the hosts of his visit, explained that “the main reason we invited Ted up here was for the book launch. But we wouldn’t have invited him all this way just for that.

"The other reason is our students. We wanted our RUP students to learn from his experience. Bob Patrick and I also have several graduate students in their first year of study here in Geography and Planning that are grappling with concepts of Indigenous planning, both in urban and regional contexts. What better way to help them get a foothold in the field than by having this international pioneer of the Indigenous planning paradigm talk with them about their thesis research.”

Professor Jojola holds a PhD in Political Science from University of Hawaii at Manoa, a Masters in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a BFA in Architecture from the UNM. He is an enrolled tribal member of the Pueblo of Isleta.