On March 30 Sheila Foster was officially named Fordham’s fourth active University Professor by Joseph M. McShane, SJ, president of Fordham University, during a special program inside the Law School’s Gorman Moot Courtroom.
University Professors must possess a keen intellect, proven leadership, and scholarship across multiple disciplines, Father McShane said, noting Foster, an environmental justice pioneer, possesses those qualities and more.
“The compassion you bring to the law is something that allows you to see the law as a liberating force, as an affirmation of human possibility and hope,” said Father McShane, who is the sole person responsible for nominating a University Professor.
In her new capacity, Foster, the Albert A. Walsh Professor of Real Estate, Land Use, and Property Law at Fordham Law, will serve as a mentor for other professors across the entire University, aid in the development of new programs in social innovation and urban studies, and team teach a course with Professor Rosemary Wakeman, director of urban studies.
Foster received the honor before delivering the inaugural University Professor Lecture titled “The City As A Common Good,” a culmination of her work to date, which provides a framework for how cities should be governed in an era of increasing urbanization. Her article “The City as a Commons,” which she co-authored with Christian Iaione of LUISS University in Rome, is featured in the Yale Law and Policy Review’s 34th edition, Volume 2, published in 2016.
Foster, a Detroit native and UC Berkeley Law graduate, joined the Fordham Law faculty in 2001, after starting her career at Rutgers University-Camden. In addition to her professorial duties, she serves as the co-faculty director of the Urban Law Center and served as vice dean of the Law School from 2011–2014 and associate dean from 2008-2011. She also currently sits on the New York City Panel On Climate Change which is exploring the impacts of climate change through the lens of inequality.
Foster’s reverence for the Fordham Law community has only grown over time and extends well beyond the School’s collective intellectual prowess, she noted.
“I’ve connected with Fordham at the heart level,” she told the audience consisting of many of her fellow law professors.
Foster’s current research centers on the admittedly counterintuitive idea that cities, like the natural world, are common resources in the sense that its residents share neighborhoods, streets, parks, museums, and other resources, she explained.
Worldwide population projections estimate 66 percent will live in urban areas by 2050. This raises questions about how urban resources will be allocated and who will make these decisions, Foster said.
Foster’s research focuses on a polycentric method in which city residents, aware of their own history and culture, make decisions based on their needs, with advice from requisite experts. In this model, government acts as an enabler, transferring monetary and structural assistance, in order to engage in a collaborative process.
The goal is to facilitate “an equitable distribution of resources involving a broader swath of residents” in the management of cities, our common resource, Foster said, noting her research highlights resource access and open governance.
In New York City, participatory budgeting provides a democratic process in which residents directly decide how to spend part of the public budget. In Bologna, Italy, where Foster assisted drafters of the recently adopted regulation on the “Care and Regeneration of Urban Commons,” a collaborative governance approach has allowed residents to restore infrastructure and repurpose underutilized land and buildings to meet the needs of a variety of communities.
Other cities across the globe have moved to use vacant houses and land to address homelessness and create community centers, respectively. Communities considered economically impoverished possess untapped power, if their resources are used correctly, Foster noted.
“Even cities like Detroit or Newark, that don’t have a large pot of money, actually have resources, and the resources are the city itself,” she said.
New ways of thinking about cities, their residents, and their resources will hopefully forge more inclusive and democratic communities while also “securing our common future,” Foster concluded.
Prior to Foster’s speech, University Provost Dr. Stephen Freedman reflected on the March 19 funeral mass for longtime Fordham University Professor Gerard C. Reedy, SJ, whom he described as “a giant in Jesuit higher education.”
“When thinking about Gerry and the tremendous contribution he made over 40 years at Fordham, my thoughts turned to Sheila,” Freedman said. “I am absolutely convinced Sheila will be as much of an asset to Fordham over the next 40 years.”
Foster is the seventh all-time University Professor and fourth active, joining Bill Baker, John Hollwitz, and Donna M. Rapaccioli. Retired Professors Kevin Cahill and Peter Steinfels have also held the title, in addition to Reedy.
