Faculty

James Nguyen H. Spencer


Professor



225-578-2311 | 223 Atkinson Hall
jhs@lsu.edu

Architecture BA Amherst College
MS Yale University
PhD University of California, Los Angeles



James Nguyen H. Spencer, Ph.D. is a professor of architecture with a focus in urban planning. His current research focuses on international urbanization and planning issues, with a particular focus on water supplies, infrastructure and inequality. His research has been published in the Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Landscape and Urban Planning, the Journal of the American Planning Association, Environment and Planning A, the Journal of Urban Health, Economic Development Quarterly, and elsewhere. His 2014 book titled Global Urbanization: The Global Urban Ecosystem is a part of the Rowman & Littlefield series on globalization.

Spencer was formerly a professor of City & Regional Planning and associate dean of the College of Architecture, Arts & Humanities at Clemson University, where, as the department chair for the Department of Planning, Development and Preservation, he oversaw three graduate programs including City & Regional Planning, Real Estate Development and Historic Preservation. Prior to Clemson, Spencer was an associate professor of urban and regional planning and of Political Science at the University of Hawaii, and the director of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa’s Globalization Research Center, as well as Adjunct Senior Fellow at the East West Center in Hawai’i. He is the former vice provost and dean for the LSU Pinkie Gordon Lane Graduate School.

He has held staff positions at the Ford Foundation and non-profit organizations working on community development. He holds a B.A. from Amherst College, a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University, and a Ph.D. from UCLA in Urban Planning.