Faculty Profile

Susan Christopherson is J. Thomas Clark Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University. She is an economic geographer (Ph.D., U.C. Berkeley) whose research and teaching focus on 1) economic development, 2) urban labor markets, and 3) location patterns in service industries, particularly the media industries. Her research includes both international and U.S.-policy-oriented projects. Her international research includes studies in Canada, Mexico, China, Germany, and Jordan as well as multi-country studies. In the past three years she has completed studies on 1) advanced manufacturing in New York’s Southern Tier, 2) the photonics industry in Rochester, 3) the role of universities and colleges in revitalizing the upstate New York economy, and 4) production trends affecting media industries in New York City. Her book, Re-making Regional Economies: Labor, Power and Firm Strategies in the Knowledge Economy (Routledge 2007) focuses on barriers to regional economic development in the U.S. economy. She has also written numerous articles for academic journals on subjects ranging from labor standards to the competition between U.S. and Canadian regions for film and television production. Her work in the field of economic development has concentrated primarily on strategies for revitalizing the economy of upstate New York.

• Susan Christopherson's research on New York Economic Development
• The Creative Ecomomy as "Big Business" (PDF)
• Fingerlakes New Economy (PDF)
• Remaking Regional Economies: Introduction (PDF)