Washington University will host a national conference on “America’s Urban Infrastructure: Confronting Her Challenges, Embracing Her Opportunities” Nov. 19 and 20 in the Danforth University Center.
The event, hosted by a consortium of nine WUSTL schools, departments, centers and programs, is free and open to the public.
“The conference is organized to bring together leading scholars and leaders who offer important insights into the infrastructure supporting the human condition in urban America,” said William F. Tate, Ph.D., the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences.
“Urban environments are not only, or even primarily, the sites of problems but are a storehouse of assets whose potential is not always realized.
“These assets include a rich diversity of people and cultures, a history of technological and environmental innovation and local political and economic activities that maintain community even in extremely difficult circumstances,” Tate said.
Confirmed participants include an interdisciplinary group of noted social scientists, legal scholars and humanists who have compiled significant research on various dimensions of America’s urban infrastructure from the disciplines of sociology, psychology, medicine, education, economics and law, among others.
“Conference participants will have the unique opportunity to hear from thought leaders about both the assets and challenges in our nation’s urban communities,” Tate said.
The conference is being sponsored by the Center for Regional Competitiveness in Science and Technology in Arts & Sciences; the Center on Urban Research & Public Policy in Arts & Sciences; the African & African American Studies Program in Arts & Sciences; the Office of Diversity Programs; the School of Medicine; the Center for the Humanities in Arts & Sciences; the Department of Education in Arts & Sciences; the School of Law; the George Warren Brown School of Social Work; and the Office of Diversity Initiatives.
Opening remarks will be made at 9 a.m. Nov. 19 by Tate and by Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Hortense & Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities.
The conference will include such topics as “Welfare Reform’s Impact on the Inner City Ghetto”; “Race, Risk and Resilience in the Health Development of African American Youth”; “Restructuring Education in America”; and “Undocumented Children in U.S. Schools: Deeper into the Shadows.”
For more information, including a full list of presenters and their topics, visit artsci.wustl.edu/~educ/edu_calendar.htm.