I grew up in and around Los Angeles. My bachelor's degree is in theater and film-making (at the University of California, Irvine, UCI). My first California teaching credential was in English, then a supplemental credential in math. I taught middle and high school math and English (mostly) for about 5 years before quitting, mortgaging the small house I’d bought using my teacher's salary, and returning to UCI in math. Finished a math PhD at UCI and a mathematics education post-doc at Arizona State. My current work is in three areas: supporting people who teach math at all grade levels (including college) to do it better, supporting people who learn math to do it better, and supporting people who design policy for math teaching and learning to do it better.

Ayse Pamuk is tenured full Professor of Urban Studies and Planning at San Francisco State University. She joined San Francisco State faculty in 2000 and served as Chair of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning from 2008-2011. She is Founder and Advisor of the PACE Applied Housing Research Initiative (AHRI) at San Francisco State University. She has served as Director of AHRI between 2017 and 2023.

Her internationally recognized scholarship addresses urban development in a comparative perspective, with an emphasis on housing. Her expertise is in housing and urban policy, international planning, and research methods, including GIS. She is the author of Mapping Global Cities: GIS Methods in Urban Analysis (ESRI Press, 2006). She has advised national and local governments in Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brazil on low income housing policy. She has been a consultant to the World Bank. She holds PhD and MCP degrees in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley.

Professor Pamuk is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Science Foundation grant to integrate GIS into social science research methods curricula. Her research-based articles have been published in leading urban studies and urban planning journals including International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies, Habitat International, and Journal of Planning Education and Research.

She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses for urban planning students at the University of Virginia and has lectured worldwide. She has held Visiting Scholar positions at the University of California at Berkeley, Uppsala University in Sweden, Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey, and the Johns Hopkins University. At San Francisco State, she teaches Housing Policy and Planning (graduate and undergraduate), Affordable Housing Development in California, Data Analysis, Dynamics of the American City, and the Urban Studies and Planning Senior Seminar.

Education

• Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, City and Regional Planning (1994)
• M.C.P. University of California, Berkeley, City and Regional Planning (1989)
• M.S. Aegean University, Computer Sciences (1987)
• B.C.P. Middle East Technical University, City and Regional Planning (1984)
• Junior international fellowship at the Institute for Policy Studies and graduate study at the Dept. of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University (1985-86)

Publications

Book

• Mapping Global Cities: GIS Methods in Urban Analysis. Redlands, Calif.: Environmental Systems Research Institute Press, 2006.
• Reviewed in
  Journal of Planning Education and Research, March 2007, 26(3):375-77.
  Journal of Regional Science, May 2008, 48(2):474-78.

Chapters in edited books

• "Immigration and urban development" In Local Planning: Contemporary Principles and Practice edited by Gary Hack, Eugenie Birch, Paul Sedway, and Mitchell Silver. Washington, DC: International City Management Association (ICMA) "Green book" fourth edition. (2009)
• "Favela-Bairro: New Trends in Upgrading Rio de Janeiro's Favelas" (with Fernando Cavallieri) In FavelaMetropolis edited by Elisabeth Blum and Peter Neitzke. Bauwelt Fundamente 130. Basel, Switzerland: Birkhauser, 2004, pp. 16- 42 (translated to German)
• "Tools for a Land and Housing Market Diagnosis" In The Challenge of Urban Government: Policies and Practices edited by Maria Emilia Friere and Richard Stren. Toronto and Washington, DC: Centre for Urban and Community Studies, University of Toronto and the World Bank Institute, 2001, pp.253-267 World Bank Institute module) (translated to Spanish & Portuguese)
• "The Role of the Institutional Environment in Nonprofit Housing Sector's Performance: The Case of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Region" In the FMF/ACSP-AESOP Housing Track Conference Proceedings, pp.189-208, Washington, D.C.: Fannie Mae Housing Foundation, 1997.
• "The Role of Nonprofit Housing Builders in the San Francisco Bay Area in Serving Low-Income Households with Special Needs" In Housing Question of the "Others" edited by Emine Komut. Ankara: Chamber of Architects of Turkey, 1996 (translated to Turkish)

Journal articles

• "Geography of Immigrant Clusters in Global Cities: A Case Study of San Francisco, 2000" International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 28(2): 287-307, June, 2004.
• "Informal Institutional Arrangements in Credit, Land Markets, and Infrastructure Delivery in Trinidad." International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24(2): 379-396, June 2000.  (based on funded research: Formal and Informal Mechanisms in Housing Production in Developing Countries. Lincoln Institute for Land Policy, Cambridge, MA); Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Working Paper No: WP98AP1, Cambridge, MA, 1997.
• "Alleviating Urban Poverty in a Global City: New Trends in Upgrading Rio-de-Janeiro's Favelas" (with F. Cavallieri)  Habitat International 22(4):449-462, October 1998.
• "The Price of Land for Housing in Trinidad: The Role of Regulatory Constraints and Implications for Affordability" (with David E. Dowall) Urban Studies 35(2), 1998. Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics Working Paper No. 95-234).
• "HABITAT II and the Globalization of Ideas" (with Michael Leaf). Journal of Planning Education and Research (Fall 1997, Vol:17, No:1, pp.71-78) HABITAT II).
• "Convergence Trends in Formal and Informal Housing Markets: The Case of Turkey" Journal of Planning Education and Research. Vol 16(2): 103-113, 1996. Institute of Urban and Regional Development, Working Paper No. 589. Berkeley: University of California).
• "Elusive Boundaries of the Informal Housing Sector. Berkeley Planning Journal, Vol:7, 1992.
• Housing in Developing Countries: A Select Bibliography and Field Statement. CPL Bib. 273 Chicago: Council of Planning Librarians, 1991.
• "Preliminary Findings on San Francisco Bay Area Nonprofit Housing Developers." (with Karen S. Christensen) Berkeley Planning Journal, Vol:4, 1989.

Other Working Papers

• “Residential segregation and immigrant clustering patterns in Europe: Spatial evidence from Paris, Amsterdam, and Stockholm” (with Roger Andersson and Asa Brama) Institute for Housing and Urban Research, WP-54, Uppsala University, Sweden. 2007.
• "Local government response to severe reductions in federal funding for low income housing" (with Karen Christensen and Michael Smith-Heimer)Institute of Urban and Regional Development Working Paper No. 490. Berkeley: University of California. 1988.

Applied Research Reports

• Pamuk, Ayse and Temur Umarov (2022) “Conceptualizing the Landscape for Emergency Housing Policies and Programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic in California” PACE Applied Housing Research Initiative Working Paper, San Francisco: San Francisco State University, WP-2022-1
• Pamuk, Ayse and Jeremy Hill (2019) “Inclusionary Housing in San Francisco: Mapping Racial Integration, Neighborhood Change and Affordability” Center for Applied Housing Research Working Paper, San Francisco: San Francisco State University, WP-2019-1.
• Data for Modules, Space, Culture, and Urban Policy: Integrating GIS into Social Science Research Methods Courses (NSF grant DUE-0228878), SFSU Public Research Institute, Aug. 11, 2003; Sep. 24, 2003 (rev)
• Children Under 5 years of Age in Poverty in San Francisco, SFSU Public Research Institute, January 2003.
• Spatial Distribution of Family Income and Poverty in San Francisco, 2000.  SFSU Public Research Institute, November 2002.
• San Francisco's Children & the Need for Head Start Centers, Mapping the Children Research Group at SFSU Public Research Institute, Feb. 2002.
• Regional Highlights, Bay Area Economic Pulse for the Bay Area Council, Spring 2001 issue (Economic Editor)

Creative work

• International Affordable Housing Image Collection

Contact information (mailing address)

Urban Studies and Planning Program
School of Public Affairs and Civic Engagement
HSS 261, San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue                                               
San Francisco, California 94132-4155 USA
Tel: 415/338-7045 (Voice mail)
Email: pamuk@sfsu.edu

I hold a Ph.D. in Physics from the Brazilian Center for Research in Physics, Rio de Janeiro, in 1991, with a dissertation on theoretical applications of Goedel's theorem in physics, under the advisement of Francisco Antonio Doria and Newton da Costa.  After my Ph.D., I spent three years as a researcher at the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences, Stanford University. Then, between 1995 and 2011, I was a faculty member of the Physics Department of the Federal University of Brazil in Juiz de Fora. Immediately before coming to SFSU, I was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Center for the Study of Language and Information at Stanford University.

My research interests are interdisciplinary, having published many scholarly articles in top journals in Physics, Philosophy, and (Mathematical) Psychology.  My work is on subjects ranging from the foundations of quantum mechanics to the physics of the brain and of cognitive processes.  At Stanford, for many years I worked closely with Patrick Suppes (a prominent philosopher and polymath whose work involved both science and philosophy) on projects involving the physics of the brain and theories of learning.  My current scholarly work focuses on the foundations of quantum mechanics and probabilities and how they relate to the physical and social sciences. 

You can find more details about my scholarly work on Google Scholar, https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tCxJUE8AAAAJ&hl=en, or on my website, http://debarros.atwebpages.com/

Ellen Christensen is an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design. She holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design and a BA in American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Drawing from an undergraduate cultural and urban studies concentration within the American Studies major at Berkeley, she is interested in the visualization of power imbalances. Her research primarily focuses on community, placemaking, and experimental mapping. Her design practice includes editorial, identity, and information design. Prior to joining the faculty at SFSU, she taught at Boston University, Clark University, and Tufts University. 

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