John Forester

John Forester’s research into the micropolitics of the planning process, ethics, and political deliberation assesses the ways that planners shape participatory processes and manage public disputes in diverse settings. He has served as a mediator for the Community Dispute Resolution Center of Tompkins County, has consulted for the Consensus Building Institute, and has lectured in the past several years in Seattle, Chapel Hill, Sydney, Melbourne, Helsinki, Palermo, Johannesburg, Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, and Milan.

Forester’s recent writing includes Dealing with Differences: Dramas of Mediating Public Disputes, and he has edited a manuscript with Ken Reardon (Ph.D. CRP ’90) for CRP’s New Orleans Planning Initiative. Forester spent the 2008–09 academic year as a NICIS Scholar at the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for Conflict Studies.

Forester served as department chair from 1998–01 and was associate dean from 1997–98. He received his B.S., M.S., M.C.P., and Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley.