2019 RSA Europe Summer College Instructors

Jennifer Clark is Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology where she is Director of the Center for Urban Innovation and Associate Director for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation. Dr. Clark’s books include: Working Regions: Reconnecting Innovation and Production in the Knowledge Economy (2013), Remaking Regional Economies: Power, Labor, and Firm Strategies in the Knowledge Economy (2007) w/ Susan Christopherson, winner of the Best Book Award from the Regional Studies Association in 2009, and the 3rd edition of Basic Methods of Policy Analysis and Planning (2012) w/ Carl Patton and David Sawicki, a widely adopted text in public policy and urban and regional planning courses.

She is also co-editor of the Handbook of Manufacturing Industries in the World Economy (2015) and Transitions in Regional Economic Development (2018). Her current research projects include a new book: Uneven Innovation:The Making of Smart Cities (with Columbia University Press). In addition, she has written numerous articles and book chapters. Dr. Clark is a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association (RSA). She is the current Chair of the Economic Geography Specialty Group (EGSG) of the AAG and served as the Chair of the AAG’s Nominating Committee (2017-2018). Dr. Clark is also the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Regional Studies. She earned her Ph.D. from Cornell University, a Master’s degree from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Dr. Clark teaches courses on urban and regional economic development theory, analysis, and practice and research design and methods.

She specializes in the theory and analysis of the spatial organization of economic activity and regional economic development policy. Dr. Clark has provided expert testimony before the US Congress and policy advice and consulting to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the EU, the Canadian, UK, and US governments as well as serving on nongovernmental policy commissions and committees.

Prof Riccardo Crescenzi is (Full) Professor of Economic Geography at the London School of Economics where he is also affiliated with the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) and the Spatial Economics Research Centre (SERC). Riccardo is the current holder of a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant, one of the most competitive research funding schemes in Europe. He is also an Associate at the Centre for International Development (CID) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Taubman Centre, at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute (Florence). Riccardo has provided academic advice to, amongst others, the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Parliament, the European Commission (DG Regional Policy), the Inter-American Investment Bank (IADB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and various national and regional governments. Riccardo is the 2016 recipient of the Talented Young Italians Award for ‘Research and Innovation’ “in recognition of his outstanding research accomplishments” and the 2017 recipient of the Geoffrey J.D. Hewings Award from the North American Regional Science Council for “outstanding contribution to Regional Science Research”. His research is focused on Regional Economic Development and Growth, Innovation, Multinational Firms and the analysis and evaluation of European Union development policies.

I’m an associate professor of the Department of Architecture, Design and Urban Planning, the University of Sassari, where I teach Urban Planning and Analysis of urban systems. I held a Ph.D. at the University of Cagliari, after spending eight month as a fellow at the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, the University of Melbourne, focusing my research on decision-making processes in public policymaking, strategic planning, policies and pluralism-oriented tools.

I combine my research activities with higher education, international and institutional cooperation activities, as director of the II level International Master’s Program “Advanced Methods and Tools for Sustainable Planning”, developed in academic cooperation with Harbin Institute of Technology and as scientific coordinator of the activities planned for the funded national call “extraordinary Program of intervention for urban redevelopment and security of the metropolitan suburbs”, specifically in Sant’Avendrace district, the Municipality of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy). Among my recent publications: Urban regeneration of peripheral areas: the critical role of the connective space in an italian city. (Aa.Vv) Urban Design Journal, 2018; Planning for S.M.A.R.T. development: a bottom up approach to lead knowledge-based tourism development in low density rural districts (Aa.Vv.), INPUT, 2016.

Emanuela Marrocu is Full Professor of Econometrics at the Department of Economics and Business, University of Cagliari. She is Director of the Centre for North South Economic Research (CRENoS), University of Cagliari and University of Sassari.

She attained her PhD in Economics from the University of Warwick (United Kingdom) in 2000. Her main research fields are: spatial econometrics and time series econometrics; productivity analysis at regional and firm level; determinants of knowledge diffusion and innovative performance; tourism economics.

Stefano Usai is a full professor of Applied Economics at the University of Cagliari and a researcher of CRENoS (Center for North-South Economic Research). He is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Law and Social Sciences. He graduated in Political Science, majoring in Economics, at the University of Cagliari, then received the M.A. in Economics and the Mphil in Industrial and Business Studies at the University of Warwick and later the Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Naples.

His research focus is on regional economic development and growth, with special emphasis on knowledge production and diffusion, and processes related to technological change, innovation and structural change. Current projects include topics on green innovation, dynamics of regional specialization in European and Italian regions and international and interregional trade. He is Associate Editor of Regional Studies.

Dieter F. Kogler is the co-founder and academic director of the UCD Spatial Dynamics Lab. He is an Associate Prof. in Economic Geography at the School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy at University College Dublin. His research focus is on the geography of innovation and evolutionary economic geography, with particular emphasis on knowledge production and diffusion, and processes related to technological change, innovation, and economic growth. Dr. Kogler is an ERC Starter Grant Holder with the following project title: Technology Evolution in Regional Economies (TechEvo). This is a 5-year, €1.5m research project with the objective to produce a series of economic indicators, models and tools which will enable firms and policy makers, across Europe, to make more informed and better location-based investment decisions to boost innovation and drive regional prosperity; see here for further details.

His career path combines professional, education and research experience acquired in Europe, the United States, and Canada within a variety of areas pertaining to the spatial analysis of socio-economic phenomena.

He is an Editor of Regional Studies and an Editorial Board member of the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, both of which are highly regarded top-tier peer-reviewed journals concerned with research on the spatial dimensions of contemporary socio-economic processes. Further, Dr. Kogler is also an editor of the Economic Geography book series published by Springer. Since 2014 he is a Board Member (Conference and Events Coordinator) of the Regional Studies Association (RSA), which serves as a global forum for city and regional research, development and policy, as well as an Associate Editor for the RSA’s interdisciplinary open access journal, Regional Studies, Regional Science. In 2016, he spent a period as a Visiting Professor at the Centre for North South Economic Research(CRENoS) at the University of Cagliari and University of Sassari in Sardinia, Italy.