The Department of Community and Regional Planning at Alabama A&M University will host the first annual Urban Planning Conference on Friday, February 22 in the ARC Auditorium.
Sessions will run from 8:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. This year’s conference theme is “Planning for Socially Just, Inclusive and Empowered Cities”. The conference will focus on the challenges of planning for socially just, inclusive, and empowering cities in the current era as nations across the globe undergo dramatic swings towards isolation, a closing of borders, and proclamations of the death of multiculturalism.
The featured speakers are Dr. Edward Goetz and Dr. Del Smith. Dr. Goetz is professor and the Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He will present a paper titled “Understanding the Full Spectrum of Segregation: Concentrated White Affluence in American Metropolitan Areas”. Dr. Del Smith is the Dean of the College of Business and Public Affairs at Alabama A&M University. His presentation title is “Opportunity or ‘Opportunistic’ Zones? An Initial and Future Impact Assessment”.
The concurrent sessions will run from 9:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m in three different themes including (1) the Socially Just City, (2) the Inclusive City, and (3) the Empowered City. A total of 30 presenters will present their case studies, projects and research in the conference. The presenters include MIT, Harvard, Florida State University, University of Florida, Gettysburg College and AAMU faculty members and graduate students, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta representative, and professional planners from New York, Birmingham, Montgomery and Savannah, GA.
All sessions are open to the public. All participants must register and pay the conference fees of $75 (presenters and regular participants) or $50 (students). AAMU faculty, students, and staffs are free of charge to attend the conference, but are still required to register.