Members of the History Department are sad to note the passing of our colleague Josef W. Konvitz. Dr. Konvitz was the author of several books, including Cities and the Sea: Port City Planning in Early Modern Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), The Urban Millennium: The City-Building Process from the Early Middle Age to the Present (Southern Illinois University Press, 1985), and Cities and Crisis (Manchester University Press, 2016). After teaching at Michigan State University (1973–1992), Dr. Konvitz joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, serving as Head of Division, Urban Affairs (1996–2003), and of the Regulatory Policy Division (2003–2011). In 2012, he became the Chair of the PASCAL International Observatory, a global network of universities that brings academics and practitioners together on projects to develop sustainable and learning cities.
