Dr. James Clapp
James A. Clapp formerly directed the Master of City Planning Program and was Chairman of the School of Public Administration and Urban Studies. He received his Ph.D. in Metropolitan Studies from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 1968, his Master of Regional Planning from the SU School of Architecture and BS in Economics from Le Moyne College. He practiced for several years as a public urban planner and planning consultant. He is author of over 100 articles, book chapters, reviews, and technical reports on cities and city planning, and 17 books, among which four are novels written under the pen name Sebastian Gerard. Some of his books of been translated into French and Chinese. His nonfiction books range in subject matter from urbanism and motion pictures, to foreign travel, painting and religion. This most recent book of fiction deals with the subject of domestic terrorism. Dr. Clapp has taught on the faculty of the University of California, and was appointed by the French Ministry of Education as a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris VII in 1989 and 1999, where he lectured on both film and American urbanism. He also taught for the Syracuse University Division of International Programs in Hong Kong in 1997 and was a guest lecturer at TongJi University, Shanghai that year. He has also delivered lectures at Peking and Tsinghua Universities and the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. In 2008 he was made an “Honorary Professor” of Beijing City University. Articles based on his lectures there have been published in Chinese. In the year 2000 he was the Fulbright Scholar at Lingnan University and the School of Creative Media at City University, in Hong Kong. From 1977 to 2003 he conducted annual summer travel-study courses in European, Asian, North African, and Middle Eastern cities. As Producer/Writer/Commentator for San Diego Public Radio KPBS-FM from 1987 to 1992, he wrote and/or produced over 100 essays, interviews and documentaries, and created, wrote and hosted its public affairs program, Metropolitan Journal. He has won the awards for his work in both print and broadcast journalism He is also a freelance magazine and newspaper writer on travel and urban affairs topics, In 2003 he launched his website, Dragon City Journal, on which he has published over 700 essays and graphics on urbanism, media, travel and other subjects. He founded UrbisMedia Ltd. (chartered in Hong Kong in 2010).
Faculty Main Page