Category Archives: Journals

Call for Papers: Psychedelic Capitalism: From Forest Retreat to Fortune 500 and Pharmacies

History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, the official journal of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP), is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue: “Psychedelic Capitalism: From Forest Retreat to Fortune 500 and Pharmacies.” The issue is anticipated to appear in 2023. Guest editors for the special issue will be Drs. Neşe Devenot and Brian Pace, both of The Ohio State University.

Submission Guidelines

To submit a proposal for the special issue, authors must submit a 500-word abstract and 100-word biography to Patrick Walsh (pwalsh3@wisc.edu) by April 4, 2022. For guaranteed consideration for the special issue, the preferred deadline is August 15; after August 15, submissions will be accepted on a rolling basis. The editors anticipate publication in 2023. The final research papers must range from 6,000–8,000 words in length. Commentaries and discussion pieces, ranging from 1,500–3,000 words, will also be considered. All submissions must conform to HoPP style, available here.

Call for Papers

Buoyed by calls for medical access, social justice, and regulation, psychedelic substances and products are becoming more socially acceptable in various jurisdictions, and support for regulatory changes, in some countries at least, continues to grow. Several estimates suggest that the psychedelic industry may hit roughly $10 billion annually by 2027. Recent academic scholarship germane to psychedelics, meanwhile, is expanding rapidly but has remained largely North America-centric and focused on medico-scientific and socio-political developments rather than the business history. 

The aim of this CFP and special issue is to contribute to critical discussions around relatively underexplored socio-economic, business, and capitalist histories of psychedelics. Such substances, broadly conceived, exist at the intersection of legality and criminality, domestic and transnational markets, medicine and recreation, and scientific study and sensationalism. To build upon recent literature and foster new critical dialogues, we propose a business/economic history approach that connects circuits of psychedelic capitalism to engage with themes of commodification and coercion, as well as the open scientific questions and ongoing struggles in politics and society that will impact psychedelics in the marketplace. 

This special issue of History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals will address some of the following questions: How have these businesses evolved, and who has directed and financed this development? What methods and models are being used in pharmaceutical and recreational enterprises to promote, sell, and/or study the drugs? How has the media participated in selling psychedelics to new consumer markets? Are there parallels between movements of enclosure and the commodification of Indigenous psychedelic medicine and religious traditions? How are Indigenous approaches to psychedelics being appropriated to administer and sell psychedelic services? How will the concept of social justice fare under an increasingly profit-oriented system? What contributes to the belief that psychedelics would be different than any other commodity within capitalism? Are we witnessing the development of new psychedelic empires, and what will the effects of this transformation be? How are mental and public health issues being treated, and what happens to patient-consumers in a legalized personal use market? What are the international effects of a shifting market, and how does legalization, along with a growing gray market, affect issues like access and adherence in the medical marketplace? Given that for-profit healthcare functionally denies healthcare to millions, should psychedelics continue to be touted as a solution to the mental health crisis?

Possible paper topics include:

  • Organizational histories
  • Indigenous appropriation in branding, marketing, and advertising
  • Media representations of psychedelics
  • Government regulation of psychedelic businesses
  • Underground and illegal markets
  • Corporatization, industry, and its impacts
  • Transnational trafficking, regulations and sales
  • Biographies of influential business persons and companies
  • Comparisons of Indigenous modes of psychedelic production and exchange with market proposals
  • The problem of biopiracy and its proposed solutions, including the Nagoya Protocol

We invite submissions that deal with one or more of the above-mentioned topics or other possible topics that focus on the themes of this special issue. We particularly encourage submissions, based on primary and archivally-based research, from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Landscape Journal Welcomes New Editor James LaGro Jr.

A photograph of James LaGro Jr.

UW Press is pleased to welcome James LaGro Jr. as the new editor of Landscape Journal: Design, Planning, and Management of the Land. LaGro began his editorial tenure in June of 2021, succeeding former interim editor Katherine Melcher.

James LaGro Jr. is a professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He received his MLA and PhD from Cornell University, and he has also worked in private practice as a professional land planner. Prior to joining the faculty of UW–Madison, he served as a 2008-09 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Center for Environmental Assessment – Global Change Research Program. His 2008 book, Site Analysis: A Contextual Approach to Sustainable Site Planning and Design, was selected by Planetizen as one of the top planning books of that year.

The following interview with LaGro was conducted by Jennifer Tse of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) and published on the CELA website, and we are republishing it here with their permission. In it, LaGro details some of his exciting plans for the future of the journal.


ARE THERE ANY SEMINAL MOMENTS IN YOUR EDUCATION OR PROFESSIONAL CAREER THAT INFLUENCED YOUR PATH?

Yes, I certainly have had moments where I knew it was time to close one chapter of my career and move on to the next.

For example, my undergraduate degree is in urban horticulture, so I studied plant ecology and plant physiology, and soils and pathology, and all the things that contribute to healthy plants. I started a business in my senior year—a landscape contracting and gardening business—but within about a year I became much more interested in the design and construction aspects. So that led me to go back to school for my Master’s in Landscape Architecture.

I then worked for five years in private practice. When I was in South Florida with EDSA, I began to see the connections between public policy and land use change and impacts on the environment. And that got me interested in going back to school yet again for my PhD in Natural Resources Policy and Planning with a focus on urbanizing landscapes. Each step was a progression up in scale, looking at increasingly bigger issues.

I have also had good mentors along the way—in universities and in private practice. They influenced my career path by helping me visualize what my next steps could be.

IT SEEMS LIKE YOU’RE COMING INTO THIS POSITION AT THE PERFECT TIME.

I hope so. My experiences as a researcher, educator, and practitioner all help to broaden my perspective on land planning, design, policy, and management. I’ve planted trees and built patios with my own hands. But I’ve also worked on teams that planned new communities on sites as large as 5,000 acres.

AND YOU ALSO WORKED IN SWITZERLAND.

Yes, I did. I learned a lot about green roofs in Switzerland. The Swiss are fantastic in horticulture and in using space very efficiently. So that was fun because I spent time up on rooftops—sometimes five, six, eight stories up, overseeing the construction and planting. Because it was a design-build firm, I would be in the field about half of the time, supervising crews that were always international. These skilled workers came from several European countries.

WHAT INTERESTED YOU IN BECOMING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF LANDSCAPE JOURNAL?

One of the reasons is that I love to write. I am continuously trying to improve my craft. I enjoy the writing process. I enjoy editing. And I enjoy helping other people write well. I often review graduate student writing, but I also peer-review journal and book manuscripts. So, this opportunity really appealed to me—a leadership position focusing on writing for publication. Frankly, I was impressed by the position description because it was clear to me that there had been considerable thought given to where the journal has been, where the journal is currently, and where it could go in the future. That came through very clearly. I was impressed by the level of analysis, but also by the visionary aspect—that the task force envisioned a new model for editorial oversight and leadership. It was also clear that this wasn’t just a caretaker role, but an opportunity to provide innovative leadership. So that attracted me very much.

AS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ARE THERE ANY TYPES OF SCHOLARSHIP, GENRES, OR TOPICS THAT YOU ARE MOST INTERESTED IN EXPANDING OR EMPHASIZING IN THE FUTURE?

Yes, definitely. I would like to encourage scholarship from a broad range of authors. Original research articles, obviously. Those are the mainstays of an academic journal. But I also would like to find ways to encourage review papers that synthesize the literature and articulate the state-of-the-art on important issues for the profession and discipline. Different practice types, educational pedagogies, and research methods could be examined. I would also like to encourage reflective and speculative essays, to encourage more practitioners to write for Landscape Journal.

I also think there’s a role for advocacy scholarship in landscape architecture. Public policy plays a huge role in shaping the built and the natural environment. So, public policy briefs that are evidence-based and analytical could be published in the journal. These policy briefs might look at two or three policy scenarios: compare the pros and cons, and then make recommendations for policy reforms. These could focus on federal, state, or local-level policies. Landscape architecture, as a profession, could play a more assertive role in public policy conversations in this country and across the world.

HAVE YOU SEEN A LOT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS ADVOCATING FOR THIS AS WELL?

The New Landscape Declaration addresses this issue and that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited to serve as Editor-in-Chief. So, I do think some of the aspirational aspects of what the LAF (Landscape Architecture Foundation) and the Landscape Declaration are saying are outcomes that I can help bring to fruition.

We also can learn from critiques of built works—projects that have been implemented. LAF’s landscape performance case studies, for example, assess the social, economic, and environmental benefits of selected built projects. These increase our collective knowledge base. And in the best traditions of design criticism (I’m thinking, here, of Ada Louise Huxtable), critiques of built works could offer interesting new perspectives and insights.

IS THAT AN AREA WHERE PRACTITIONERS WOULD COME IN?

They absolutely could. This is an area where both practitioners and educators can contribute—including students.

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT PRACTITIONERS HAVE BEEN LESS REPRESENTED IN THE JOURNAL?

I think it has to do with the traditional expectations for publishable scholarship. And this is one area where I can help. I plan to reach out to practitioners in the field and invite them to reflect upon and write from their experience. These would not be 8,000-word articles reporting on scientific research. But shorter pieces—1,000 or 1,500 words—reflective essays that encapsulate the views and insights that they’ve developed through practice. This scholarship can have benefits not only for students, but for academics who are teaching the next generation of practitioners. I’m hoping this is a mutually beneficial dialogue that helps to shape the field’s future research agenda.

DO YOU SEE THEM AS PLAYING A SPECIAL ROLE WHEN IT COMES TO PUBLIC POLICY DISCUSSIONS?

Practitioners confront public policies in terms of regulatory requirements and ensuring that their projects meet local permitting and approval standards. Practitioners also have an interest in understanding the performance of implemented projects. Research collaborations—between academics and practitioners—could generate useful new knowledge. That kind of information can be good for business and also influential in shaping policy reforms.

Ideally, we will have authors from the research community and the practitioner community writing from their experiences in different contexts. I’m interested in the perspectives of practitioners working in the private sector, but also in the public and non-profit sectors. This is an under-tapped resource. In the city of Madison, the community where I live, there are landscape architects who are or have been in influential positions within local government. They have a story to tell, too, that I think would be interesting and useful.

DO YOU THINK THAT THE GREATER PUBLIC WOULD BENEFIT FROM HEARING FROM PEOPLE SUCH AS YOURSELF AND THESE PRACTITIONERS?

Absolutely. I often tell my students that, as future professionals, they will have a responsibility to be civically engaged. When opportunities arise to serve on committees or advisory boards, they should take them because they have a unique lens for looking at community issues. They can contribute to the greater good if they use their knowledge and values to weigh in on local policy decisions.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH THE MEMBERS OF CELA?

I’m excited about this new role. The plan is to increase the annual number of Landscape Journal’s issues from two to four. This will happen incrementally. So, all these changes will increase opportunities for publishing scholarship from CELA members, from practitioners, and from other disciplines. More information on the journal’s revised aims and scope and author guidelines will be forthcoming.

WHAT IS YOUR OVERALL GOAL FOR YOUR EDITORSHIP?

Increasing Landscape Journal’s impact factor is a key goal. As an international outlet for scholarship on land planning, design, and management, the journal should be a respected resource for scholars and practitioners, not just in landscape architecture but in other disciplines as well.

An image of the cover of Landscape Journal vol. 40 no. 1

Landscape Journal is the official journal of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA). Landscape Journal offers in-depth exploration of ideas and challenges that are central to contemporary design, planning, and teaching. Besides scholarly features, Landscape Journal includes editorial columns, creative work, and reviews of books, conferences, technology, and exhibitions. In publication since 1982, Landscape Journal continues to be a valuable resource for academics and practitioners.

The Journal of Human Resources Will Now Publish Six Issues Per Year

Beginning in 2022, the Journal of Human Resources will increase the number of issues published per year from four to six. This change allows the journal to accommodate a steady increase in top quality research submissions over the last several years.

The Journal of Human Resources publishes articles that use a lens of microeconomics to study everything from healthcare, to the labor market, to early childhood development and education, to government-sponsored programs in various nations. Though the journal’s title may seem to signal a connection with the field of human resources, it actually predates the popularization of this term, which didn’t occur until the 1970s. The JHR was started in 1965 to study “the effects of education, manpower, and welfare policies in the classroom, in the labor market, in the community, and in the lives of human beings,” as Gerald G. Somers, then the chairman of JHR’s board of editors, wrote in his introduction to the first issue. In effect, the use of “human resources” in the journal’s title relates to scholarly examination and evaluation of the US government’s investment in its citizens (its “human resources”) through such policies as the Manpower Development and Training Act (1962), the Vocational Education Act (1963), and the Economic Opportunity Act (1964).

Over time, the journal expanded its focus beyond the US, and now each issue of JHR features research from around the world. For example, the current issue includes studies on air pollution reduction efforts in Sweden, labor issues in Colombia, Italian high school students’ development of personality traits, survey methods to measure cognitive and noncognitive skills in Kenya and Colombia, and the economic impacts experienced by Malawian farmers from a change in their children’s annual school start date.

With such a broad relevance, it’s no wonder that the journal has seen an increase in article submissions in recent years. Adding two more issues per year will expand JHR’s capacity to publish this globally important and timely research. In addition to a full slate of issues, two supplementary special issues are in the works: one on monopsony in the labor market will be published in 2022, and another on child mental health will appear in 2023.


The Journal of Human Resources is among the leading journals in empirical microeconomics. Intended for scholars, policy makers, and practitioners, each issue examines research in a variety of fields, including labor economics, development economics, health economics, and the economics of education, discrimination, and retirement. Founded in 1965, the Journal of Human Resources features articles that make scientific contributions in research relevant to public policy practitioners.

History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals: New Journal, New Name, New Design—New Issue!

We are excited to announce a new issue of the journal History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals. This issue, 63.1, marks many firsts: the first issue under the journal’s new name (formerly Pharmacy in History), the first issue to sport the journal’s new cover and interior design, and the first issue published with us at UWP!

Plus, this is a special issue, published in coordination with two other journals, the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History and the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs. Each is releasing an issue inspired by a 2020 conference hosted by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy and the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy. History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals‘ latest issue “represents the increasingly global and vibrant nature of pharmacy and pharmaceutical history,” according to Editor-in-Chief Lucas Richert.

To celebrate all this, we’ve made the following articles and reviews from the issue freely available for 3 months:

Additionally, print copies of the issue are available at a discounted price. Visit our website to order.


History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals is the official journal of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP). HoPP publishes original scholarly articles about the history of pharmacy and pharmaceuticals, broadly defined, including (but not limited to) the history of: pharmacy practice, pharmacy science, pharmacy education, drug regulation, social and cultural aspects of drugs and medicines, the pharmaceutical industry—including the history of pharmaceuticals, drugs, and therapeutics—and facets of the related medical sciences.

The Journal of Human Resources Welcomes New Editor

This post was originally published on the Journal of Human Resources blog


A photograph of Anna Aizer

The Journal of Human Resources is pleased to welcome Anna Aizer as editor. Anna Aizer is Professor of Economics and Chair of the Economics department at Brown University. She joined Brown in 2003 after graduating from UCLA in 2002 and completing a postdoc at Princeton. She is codirector of the Children’s program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and has been coeditor at the JHR since 2015.

She is a trained health economist and the focus of her work is understanding the high rates of intergenerational transmission of poverty in the US. Her work has been funded by the NIH and the NSF and has been published in the Journal of Human Resources, the American Economic ReviewScience, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.

The editor directs the peer review process, appoints coeditors and associate editors, and leads the journal in terms of content, sound peer review and editorial practice, and policy. The editorial board and journal staff extend their thanks and best wishes to Editor Aizer as she serves in this leadership role.


A picture of the cover of Journal of Human Resources volume 56 number 4, with a link to the journal's website.

The Journal of Human Resources is among the leading journals in empirical microeconomics. Intended for scholars, policy makers, and practitioners, each issue examines research in a variety of fields, including labor economics, development economics, health economics, and the economics of education, discrimination, and retirement. Founded in 1965, the Journal of Human Resources features articles that make scientific contributions in research relevant to public policy practitioners.

Monatshefte Editor Receives Award for Teaching, Research, and Service

Sabine Gross, book review editor of Monatshefte

Sabine Gross, book review editor of UW Press–published journal Monatshefte, has received a prestigious Hilldale Award for her research, teaching, and service as the Griebsch Bascom Professor of German at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In a press release announcing the award, Gross is praised for “brilliant interdisciplinary scholarship” in the areas of poetry, theater, literary analysis, and philosophy, as well as her “innovative and inspiring teaching.”

Gross’s contributions to Monatshefte mirror the high level of commitment and excellence celebrated by this award. For two decades she has overseen the journal’s robust book review section, which can include up to twenty-five reviews per issue. For a journal published on a quarterly basis, this represents a tremendous feat.

On receiving this honor, Gross says, “Being part of the UW community and working with great colleagues has been the foundation for all I’ve done here, including my position as Monatshefte book review editor, which connects me with hundreds of colleagues nationally and internationally every year.”

Now on its 113th volume, Monatshefte has appeared continuously since 1899 and has been published at UW–Madison since 1927. For a sample of Gross’s interdisciplinary interests, see the most recent issue, which is focused on the theme of rhythm. Gross coedited this special issue with Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge, and their introduction is freely available to read.

Ecological Restoration Editor Named ESA Fellow

Steven N. Handel, editor of Ecological Restoration

Congratulations to Steven N. Handel, editor of UW Press published journal Ecological Restoration, who has been named a 2021 Fellow by the Ecological Society of America. ESA Fellows are recognized for outstanding contributions related to ecological knowledge and are elected for life. Handel was chosen for “contributions in urban restoration ecology, including research on opportunities and methods for adding ecological enhancements to degraded areas; for building important bridges to the landscape architecture profession in prize-winning public projects; and for revising university curricula to better incorporate ecological concepts into landscape design practices.”

On receiving this honor, Handel says:

I am so grateful for this wonderful Fellow award from the ESA. Restoration ecologists learn many things, but we have neither the training nor legal license to actually draw blueprints. For that we must closely collaborate with landscape architects and planners. I have tried to build that link in my writing, public speaking, and university teaching. As editor of Ecological Restoration, I encourage landscape architects to publish their concepts with us, then ask working ecologists to critique those plans. We publish the critiques. I also write editorials in every issue that champion this transdisciplinary thinking. In these ways, we are trying to mesh the thinking of two professions and create a more ecological future for us all.

Handel is Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. He has served as editor of Ecological Restoration since 2011, and his incisive commentary on the state of restoration science can be found in each issue’s editorial section, freely available to read. His latest editorial is entitled “Black and White, and Green,” and considers the connections between racism and environmental degradation.

A Celebration of Turkish-German Writer Aras Ören

The most recent issue of Monatshefte, a special issue dedicated to Aras Ören, is now available. Guest editor Ela Gezen gives a brief summary of the issue below.


An actor, playwright, novelist, poet, theorist, and radio journalist, Aras Ören (1939–) is one of the earliest and most significant contributors to the emergence of Turkish-German literature. He had his literary breakthrough in 1973, with the publication of the first part of his highly acclaimed Berlin trilogy: Was will Niyazi in der Naunynstraße [What Does Niyazi Want in Naunyn Street]. Ören has been a regular participant in a variety of cultural events and also an important public figure in his role as editor for the first regular Turkish-language radio programming in (West) Germany. This special issue brings Aras Ören’s literary oeuvre as well as cultural-political contributions to the fore, while also highlighting their continued significance. It features well-known scholars from a variety of institutional and national contexts, and not only offers new approaches to Ören’s work, but also includes selected first-time English translations expanding his readership and therefore providing opportunities for inclusion into the English-language classroom. At the same time this special issue draws attention to the extensive archive, Ören’s Vorlaß at the Akademie der Künste, which not only includes documents relevant to his own work, but also his collection of materials on Turkish-German cultural activities and events in (West) Berlin since the 1970s.


To learn more, browse the table of contents and read the introduction (in German), freely available now.

Call for Papers: Colonial Histories of Plant-Based Pharmaceuticals

Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection: The Munsong cinchona plantation, Kalimpong, Bengal, India: a woman in traditional Bengali dress holds a circular tray of cinchona seeds (the plant of which is used to produce the anti-malarial drug quinine), which are planted by the Bengali man next to her. Photograph, 1905/1920 (https://wellcomecollection.org/works/u3vcd8uy).

History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals, the official journal of the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy (AIHP), is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue: “Colonial Histories of Plant-Based Pharmaceuticals.” The issue will appear as volume 63, number 2 of HoPP (Winter 2021). Guest editors for the special issue will be Dr. Geoff Bil and Dr. Jaipreet Virdi, both of the University of Delaware.

Submission Guidelines

To submit a proposal for the special issue, please send a 200-word abstract and 1-page CV to guest editors Geoff Bil (gbil@udel.edu) and Jaipreet Virdi (jvirdi@udel.edu) by January 31, 2021. Invitations for manuscript submission of 8,000 words will be sent by February 6, 2021, with first drafts due April 15, 2021, for peer review. Please consult the full HoPP author guidelines when preparing manuscripts.

Call for Papers

Plants and their medicinal properties have been used for healing since time immemorial. Plant-based pharmacopoeias have generated local, regional, and global systems of production, distribution, and consumption; defined trade relations across borders; and even accompanied exchanges of bodies and technologies. Scholars have examined, for instance, how the circulation and consumption of plants and pharmaceuticals were generated within deeply inequitable systems of colonization, with the accompanying exploitation, suppression, and erasure of ancestral knowledges. Within these contexts, the very definition of plants as medicines—as opposed to foods, taxonomical specimens, symbols or ornaments—is frequently unstable, shaped by language, culture, empire, and ecological context, and subject to contingent understandings of the body, physiology, illness, and treatment. While the rise of synthetic and chemical pharmaceuticals has inadvertently positioned herbalist approaches as “alternative” healing systems in the Western world, phytomedicines have enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as complementary forms of treatment, even while they constitute 80 percent of pharmacopoeias in the Global South. Increased demand, coupled with ecological destruction wrought by climate change, have furthermore depleted crucial plant resources, thereby threatening Indigenous ways of life. 

What are the cultural and epistemological tensions between plant-based pharmaceuticals and synthetic biomedicines? How have medicinal plants figured in colonial relationships? This special issue of History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals aims to reframe histories of phytomedicines through intersecting approaches from the history of medicine, pharmacy, and pharmacology with postcolonial, Indigenous, and gender studies, histories of science and empire, labor history, environmental history, and related fields.

We seek papers on themes including, but not limited to, the following: 

  • Colonial histories of medicinal plants as examined through Indigenous and local histories
  • “Medical quackery” reframed through new histories of plant-based pharmaceuticals 
  • Workers and labor histories, including intersections with disability and industry
  • Gender, sexuality, and medicinal plant knowledges
  • Global and/or imperial consumption and distribution patterns 
  • Phytomedicines and colonial encounters in the Global South 
  • Plant-based approaches for chronic diseases, disability, and health maintenance
  • Effects of climate change and ecological factors on medicinal plant resources
  • Bioprospecting, patenting, and anti-colonial resistance
  • Medicinal plants in translation

Landscape Journal Welcomes New Interim Editor

Landscape Journal, the official journal of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), is excited to welcome a new interim editor. Katherine Melcher succeeds previous interim editor Robert Corry and assistant editor David Pitt. The UW Press would like to thank Corry and Pitt for all their hard work on behalf of the journal over the past year. The following is a brief introduction to the new editor.


Katherine Melcher is an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s College of Environment and Design, where she teaches courses in community design, site engineering, and research methods. Her research interests span two areas: landscape architecture theory and social aspects of design, with a special focus on participatory design. Her work has been published in Landscape Journal, Landscape Review, Landscape Research Record, Town Planning Review, The Plan Journal, and New Geographies. Her piece in Landscape Research Record, “Three Moments in Aesthetic Discourse,” received the Outstanding Paper Award from the Council of Educators of Landscape Architecture in 2018.

She co-edited the book Community-Built: Art, Construction, Preservation, and Place, published by Routledge in 2017, and served as co-editor of the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts’ newsletter from 2017 to 2019. In addition to teaching research methods at the University of Georgia, she has supervised the research of over twenty-five master students.

Prior to joining the University of Georgia, she was Design Director at Urban Ecology, a nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay Area that specializes in community-based design. She developed participatory processes that engaged diverse communities in the design and creation of their public places, including the East Bay Greenway, a twelve-mile pedestrian and bicycle path in Alameda County, CA. The California Chapter of the American Planning Association awarded the East Bay Greenway Concept Plan its 2009 Focused Issue Award of Excellence.

Originally from Oklahoma, she received her BA in sociology from Vassar College and her MLA from Louisiana State University. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts.

On her new role with Landscape Journal, Melcher says,

I am excited about the opportunity to engage directly with landscape scholars to help further our understanding of how we can best plan, design, and manage our environments. I would especially like to thank Robert Corry and David Pitt for taking so much time and care to introduce me to the editing process. Because of their work, I believe the transition will be smooth. I also would like to thank Dan Nadenicek and Ashley Steffens for encouraging me to take on this role.


To learn more about Melcher’s work, see her 2013 article in Landscape Journal entitled “Equity, Empowerment, or Participation: Prioritizing Goals in Community Design,” which is freely available to read until the end of January.