Ujijji Davis, Brooklyn born, is a landscape architect and urban planner currently living in Detroit. There she focuses on landscape and urban design, master planning, and strategic implementation projects. Her current research regards the impact of arts & culture and, race & vernacular landscapes in the urban realm. She recently published a critical essay in the Avery Review with Columbia University, entitled "The Bottom: The Emergence and Erasure of Black American Landscapes," on black identity in American landscapes in 2018. She is an advocate for STEM girls education and keynoted the 4th Annual Young Women's Leadership Affiliate Convening, and was a feature for CareerGirls.org STEM leaders. She is also a 2018 Next City Vanguard Fellow. Ujijji holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University and a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan. 

The class she is teaching this summer, Creative Detroit: Arts Movements in the City is a course that focuses on the impact of cultural planning to understand the relationship between the creative economy, urban identity, neighborhood composition and long-term urbanization implications. So far, they have covered the relationship between creative arts and local urban economic drivers and are now discussing gentrification in Detroit and other places. They've visited Eastern Market, the Dabls African Bead Museum, ArtSpace Dearborn and Southwest Detroit to explore some of the creativity in the city.