Amy Glasmeier

Amy Glasmeier is professor of Economic Geography and Regional Planning. She runs LRISA, the lab on Regional Innovation and Spatial Analysis, in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning. Glasmeier is a founding editor of the Cambridge Journal of Economics. She serves on numerous journal editorial boards and organizations. Glasmeier’s research focuses on the spatial interactions of economic actors and structures including firms, industries, institutions and the state in the provision of economic opportunity for communities and individuals. Her work investigates the role of access and the effect of locational accident, which encumbers human development. She is currently writing a textbook on the Economic Geography of the Global Energy Economy where she is capturing the interplay among resources, technology, state-led development trajectories and the challenges of the resource curse, path dependence and technological lock-in. Her other project, “Good Bye American Dream” traces the ideology of opportunity which undergirds America’s relationship to the poor. Through analysis of census data, popular media, and personal narratives Glasmeier is seeking to expose the contradictions in this most sacred of constructs by demonstrating the ephemeral nature of economic opportunity encumbered as it is by locational accident, institutional inertia and unintended consequences of public policy. The work builds off of her long operating Living Wage Calculator, www.livingwagecalculator@mit.edu, which analyzes the minimum level of income required for individuals and families to pay for basic living expenses. She is a faculty Co-I on the post traumatic stress innovations project of the SSRC, where she and her students are studying the challenges of accessing mental health care and other support programs by members of the Marines and Navy, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC. Glasmeier holds a professional Masters and PhD in Regional from UC Berkeley. Glasmeier holds a professional Masters and PhD in Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.