Bara
Safarova

Meet Bara, an Assistant Professor at the University of Washington – Tacoma.

Bara graduated from the Texas A&M Master of Urban Planning program in 2019 with an area of focus in Housing.

What does a typical day look like for you in your position?

Twice a week I teach two classes: A 2 hour lecture class Introduction to Urban Planning (or H/T of Urban Design) followed by a 3 hour urban design studio.

What is your favorite thing about your current position?

I get to do research that interests me. And I also really enjoy teaching what interests me — urban planning and urban design because that way I get to learn it inside out and from different angles and through different readings and students’ questions.

How does what you learned at Texas A&M help you in your current role?

During my Ph.D. at Texas A&M, I learned how to do research (methods, writing for academic outlets, designing research studies, presenting results, etc.) and without it I could not do any research at all! One of the most useful tools I learned during my MUP degree was GIS — how to do spatial analyses from publicly available datasets. It has unlocked a level of confidence that I can ask own questions and answer them and no-one can stop me — which I use in my role as a researcher of housing segregation. Learning about principles, theories, and the broad context of how cities functions has widened my narrower architecture education and has allowed me to now understand and teach urban design.

What is your best piece of advice for incoming or current MUP students who want to work in the area of planning that you do?

Learn GIS, learn basic coding in GIS, use the Writing Center from week 1, and take classes in sociology.