Dr. Ehrenfeucht seeks to understand ordinary landscapes and that daily ways that
heterogeneous urban residents live together. She currently conducts research in two
areas. First, she focuses on the production and meaning of public space and the
specificity of sidewalks. This includes the politics of public space use and design as
well as how institutions governing shared space including the built form, municipal
ordinances and social norms interact. Another component of this work is the collective
dimensions of private property and how public and parochial spaces shape property
relations. Her second area of research is shrinking cities or cities that face sustained
population loss. The strands of this area include how planning processes function in the
face of population loss, how cities address excess land, and how residents respond to
their changing environments.
For four years, Dr. Ehrenfeucht worked in land use planning in Washington State.
