Deden Rukmana

Deden Rukmana is a professor and the director of the Master of City and Regional Planning program at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). Prior to joining the UTA, he was a professor and chairperson of the Department of Community and Regional Planning at Alabama A&M University for six years, taught at Savannah State University for twelve years, and worked as a planning analyst with the Florida Department of Community Affairs. He also has eight years of experience as an urban planner in Indonesia. He received a Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University and completed master's degrees from the University of Southern California and Bandung Institute of Technology.

His research centers on homelessness, health disparities, and food insecurity. He is also interested in international development planning, particularly on development challenges in Indonesian cities and megacities in the Global South. He has published over 50 articles and book chapters. His work appears in journals such as Cities, International Planning Studies, Journal of Planning Education and Research, Planning Theory and Practice, Housing Policy Debate, and Planning Practice and Research. He is the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Planning Megacities in the Global South (2020) and a co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Urban Indonesia (2022) and Growth of a Megacity: Planning Jakarta in the Post-Suburban Era (2026). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Planning Education and Research, Town Planning Review, Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspective, and the Journal of Regional and City Planning. He is also an assistant editor of Cities.

His research has been supported by some institutions, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health and the Department of Homeland Security. Many media have also cited his works, including the New York Times, NPR, AFP, Public Radio International, Straits Times (Singapore), Jakarta Post and Kompas (Indonesia), Diplomat (Australia), El Pais (Mexico), and Nikkei Asian Review (Japan). Rukmana has also received recognition for his work, including the Outstanding Journal Reviewer Award from Town Planning Review (2023), the Georgia Planning Association Service Award (2018) and Savannah State University President’s Faculty Award for Innovation and Excellence (2018).