Savannah Cox
Ph.D. Student - City and Regional Planning
- Research Interests/Specializations
Science and technology studies; social studies of finance; urban climate governance; adaptation finance; risk
- Degrees
- M.A. International Affairs, The New School
- B.A. Political Science, B.A. Foreign Languages and International Studies, Bellarmine University
- Biography
I am an interdisciplinary qualitative social scientist who studies urban planning for climate change, and urban climate justice, with a focus on financial systems and infrastructure. My dissertation explores the politics of adaptation finance in the climate vulnerable city of Miami, Florida, through a 15-month extended case study of the $400 million Miami Forever Bond. In it, I show how municipal bond markets are beginning to shape the "what" and "when" of urban adaptation: that is, what urban adaptation practically consists of, and what sorts of futures adaptation efforts are meant to avoid and enact. As a former journalist, I am committed to producing community-engaged work that speaks to audiences within and beyond the academy. My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, with findings published in journals such as The Geographical Journal and Economy & Society, among others. My non-academic writing has been published in outlets like The New Republic and Salon.
E-mail me at savannah.cox@berkeley.edu.
- Awards + Recognition
- 2020 - recipient of NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant in Geography
- 2019-20 – recipient of the Blum Center for Developing Economies’ InFEWS Fellowship (NSF grant no. DGE-1633740)
- 2019 – recipient of Global Metropolitan Studies Summer Research Grant
- 2019 – recipient of U.C. Berkeley Global Metropolitan Studies Conference Grant
- 2018 – recipient of U.C. Berkeley Department of City and Regional Planning Travel Grant
- 2018 – recipient of U.C. Berkeley Global Metropolitan Studies Conference Grant
- 2017 – 2022 recipient of University of California-Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study
- 2015 – 2017 recipient of Julien J. Studley Grant for original research on resilience and urban planning in New York City
- 2013 – 2015 recipient of The New School for Public Engagement Merit Scholarship
- 2012 – 2013 recipient of the Spanish Ministry of Education Teaching Grant
- 2012 – winner of Fulbright Scholarship for English Teaching (declined)
- 2012 – winner of the Miguel de Cervantes Award for Excellence in Spanish Language and Culture
- 2011 – winner of Humana Foundation essay contest on human rights and women’s leadership
- Selected Publications
Refereed Journal Articles
Cox, S., Grove, K., and Barnett, A. 2022. "Design-driven Resilience and the Limits of Geographic Critique." The Geographical Journal.
Cox, S. 2021. "Inscriptions of Resilience: Credit Ratings and the Government of Climate Risk in Greater Miami, Florida." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space.
Collier, S. and Cox, S. 2021. “Governing Urban Resilience: Insurance and the Problematization of Climate Change.” Economy and Society.
Grove, K., Cox, S., and Barnett, A. 2020. "Racializing Resilience: Assemblage, Critique, and Contested Futures in Greater Miami Resilience Planning" with Kevin Grove. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 2020.
Grove, K., Barnett, A., and Cox, S. 2020. “Designing Justice? Race and the Limits of Recognition in Greater Miami Resilience Planning,” Geoforum.
Collier, S. and Cox, S. 2019. "Design and the scaling of politics." Political Geography.
Collier, S., Cox, S., and Grove, K. 2016. "Rebuilding by Design in Post-Sandy New York," Limn.
Peer-reviewed Chapters
Cox, S. 2022. “Accounting for Climate Justice: Fiscal Fights over Climate-Changed Urban Futures,” Urban Climate Justice: Theory, Praxis, Method. Rice, J., Long, J., and Levenda, A., eds., University of Georgia Press.
Cox, S. 2022. "Urban Resilience for the 21st Century," Urban Violence, Resilience, and Security: Governance Responses in the Global South. Glass, M., Seybolt, T., and Williams, P., eds. Edward Elgar Publishing.