dialogue…
with ourselves
A continual questioning of our own path, our place in academia, in California, in our community, and our communication with others.
To implement great ideas in teaching and research requires us to be in dialogue with ourselves to face real challenges (such as homelessness) and to convey them in a manner that inspires.
Cory Parker, Phd PLA teaches at the University of California, Davis in Human Ecology. Prior to that, he completed a Spatial Justice Fellowship as a visiting professor at the University of Oregon in the Design School. He received his PhD in Geography from U.C. Davis focusing on the homeless experience of movement in several California cities. Cory practiced landscape architecture of public infrastructure for 20 years, primarily working on large transportation and park projects at Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects in Seattle.
Education
Selected Jobs
Publications
PhD in Geography at University of California, Davis
Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington
Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture at University of California, Davis
Lecturer in Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Environmental Design at the University of California, Davis, 2018 to present
Project Scientist at U.C. Davis as part of the Growing Up in Cities III project, 2022 to present
Lecturer at InLand summer program, University of California, Berkeley, 2019, 2020
Visiting Professor of Spatial Justice at the University of Oregon, Design Department, 2019 to 2020.
Accepted with minor revisions: “Landscape dialogue and the design response” to Landscape Research Journal. Under review.
“Homelessness in the public landscape: A typology of informal infrastructure.” Landscape Journal. Spring 2021, 40:1
“Tent city: the manifestation of urban informality in Sacramento’s floodplain.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 44:2. January 2020
“Bicycle use and accessibility among homeless people in California cities.” Journal of Transportation Geography, v.80, October 2019
“Negotiating the waters: Canoe and steamship mobility in nineteenth-century Pacific Northwest,” Journal of Transportation History, v.35, n.2, December 2014
Dissertation on “Homeless Negotiations of Public Space in Two California Cities,” 2019
Landscape architect at Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, Ltd. working on large-scale public projects, 2001 to 2013
Landscape architect at L.C. Lee & Associates doing wetland assessment and restoration, 1998 to 2001
Landscape architect at Natural Resources Conservation Service, Seattle, WA and Davis, CA, 1994 to 1998
Submitted book chapter entitled “Growing Up in Urban America.” Co-authored with Patsy Eubanks Owens, Byoung-suk Kweon and Janet Loebach. Growing Up In Cities of the Twenty-First Century: A Global Study with Young People and Their Urban Environment. eds. Beau Beza and Angela Kreutz. Under existing contract with Routledge and GUIC III network. To be published in 2025.
Submitted book entitled Landscape as Dialogue: A New Approach to Site Analysis and Design on the importance of fieldwork in urban design, architecture and planning. Accepted by Routledge, to be published in 2025.
“A line through a city: Using transects to uncover patterns, experiences and histories of everyday landscapes.” Co-authored with Patsy Eubanks Owens. Chapter in edited collection Handbook of Urban Landscape Research. eds. Kate Bishop and Linda Corkery. Routledge, pp. 415-429.
“Inhabiting the city without shelter.” Chapter in edited collection: Handbook of Public Space, Use, Design and Management. eds. Karen Franck and Te-Sheng Huang. Routledge, pp. 237-248.
“Landscape architecture tackles homelessness and shelter in the pandemic.” Co-authored with Yekang Ko. ASLA, The Field. thefield.asla.org.
The intellect so ravenous to know
And in its knowing hold the very light,
Disclosing what is so and what not so,
Must finally know the dark, which is its right
And liberty; it’s blind in what it sees.
Bend down, go in by this low door, despite
The thorn and briar that bar the way.
- Wendell Berry, Sabbath Poems, 1980
Portfolio of design work