Now in its third year, the Atlanta Studies Symposium hosts a diverse group of scholars, activists and researchers each spring for a full day of papers and presentations. This year’s meeting will be held on May 6th at Georgia Tech’s Historic Academy of Medicine in midtown Atlanta, and as always, it is free and open to the public. Registration is open, and a preliminary program can be found here.
The theme of this year’s symposium is the Atlanta Way. Atlanta has long been portrayed as a city governed by a moderate, biracial coalition of business-oriented elites quietly collaborating around major initiatives—the so-called “Atlanta Way.” In the current era, Atlanta faces a variety of challenges: the legacy of the foreclosure crisis and great recession; fragmentation of local government; congestion and sprawl; widening inequality; the challenge to embrace sustainable environmental practices; and the goal of providing quality public education. What is the nature of the challenges facing Atlanta? Are city life and public decision making still governed by the Atlanta Way, or will the future bring a new system of governance and civic engagement?
Keynote speakers will be Dean Robert Bullard, Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University, and Carlton Basmajian, Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University and author of Atlanta Unbound.
The Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning is hosting the symposium, with sponsorship by Georgia State University’s Council for the Progress of Cities, Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
For more information about the symposium and other Atlanta events, visit the Atlanta Studies site.