Faculty Experts Guide

History

Professor of History

Specialties:

Conflict studies, Latin America, Latin American refugees and migrants, Latin American relations, Latin American resistance movements, Mexico, New Songdo City (South Korea), Urbanism, UN Habitat III, Complexity thinking, Urban studies, Smart cities, Economic history, Globalization, Climate change, Energy, Environmental studies, mining

Bio:

Glen Kuecker is currently working on a project called “The Making of Habitat III.” It is part of a larger project about how humanity will weather the perfect storm of 21st-century crises:  the intersections between climate change, energy transition, food insecurity, demographic shift (growth, aging, urbanization), ecological degradation, economic stress and dysfunctional politics. Habitat III is a 20-year agenda for UN Habitat’s work, which defines how the development community engages the urban form to 2036. It is the blueprint for how two-thirds of humanity will live during the 21st century.

In terms of urban research, Kuecker is a project leader with faculty colleague Alejandro Puga for a GLCA collaborative grant that involves 10 faculty from six GLCA schools. The project is called “Mapping the Megalopolis,” which has the goal of generating an urban atlas of Mexico City. The website is http://gkuecker.wix.com/mappingmegalopolis.

Kuecker created and oversees a human rights project in Ecuador that sends international human rights observers to a community that is fighting mining projects (www.intagsolidarity.com).  A long and growing list of DePauw alumni have served as human rights observers. Kuecker's work in human rights translates into research and writing projects, as well as in the classroom, especially in his courses like Latin American Environmental History.