[URBANTH-L]CFP: Global Suburbs Conference (Ann Arbor, MI)

[Angela Jancius]

[forwarded from H-Urban]

From: Vandana Baweja <vbaweja at umich.edu>

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

<http://sitemaker.umich.edu/globalsuburbs>

GLOBAL SUBURBS CONFERENCE March 7- 8, 2008: Ann Arbor, Michigan

The faculty and students at the A. Alfred Taubman College of  
Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan are  
organizing an interdisciplinary graduate student conference on  
international metropolitan expansion, titled "Global Suburbs." This  
conference will be held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, March 7-8, 2008. It  
will bring together students and research scholars from various  
disciplines, both within and outside of the University of Michigan,  
to offer recent research and emerging perspectives on suburbanization  
the world over.

Suburbanization is no longer solely the province of developed Western  
countries.  Peripheral metropolitan expansion is now a global  
phenomenon and must be considered in new ways, be they within a  
metropolitan framework, independently of central cities, or with  
reference to rural surroundings. This conference seeks to examine  
global suburban development broadly to understand not only the past  
and present character of suburbia, but also with the hopes of  
understanding and guiding future development.

Panel Theme Structure

Five broad themes are identified to guide presentations and panel  
discussions toward various aspects of suburban scholarly research.  
Proposals do not need to be submitted specifically on the suggested  
themes.

  Theme 1: Suburban Politics and History of Suburbs

(Public policy, real estate industry, public/private sector  
relationship, migration)

  Theme 2:  Sustainable Development and Environmentalism

(Suburban infrastructure, growth management/farmland preservation,  
transportation, environment and health, ecological impact of global  
climate change)

  Theme 3: Suburban Life

(Social justice, social aspirations, quality of life, housing,  
poverty vs. prosperity, relationship between suburban living and  
social formations such as race, gender and class)

  Theme 4: Suburban Form

(Morphology and typology, rural + urban interface, design aspects)

  Theme 5: Rethinking Suburbs

(Future of suburbs, re-densification of urban centers, center and the  
periphery relationship, urbanizing suburbs)

Research may focus on any region of the world and presenters are  
encouraged to submit work using traditional and/or innovative  
research methods including archival research, spatial analysis,  
surveys and oral histories or interpretive methods. Moreover,  
presenters are encouraged to consider bodies of evidence from case- 
specific cities and suburbs to their representations in film,  
photography, literature and word media.

  We invite abstracts from scholars in Architecture, Urban Planning,  
Art History, Comparative Literature, History, Anthropology,  
Sociology, Geography, Public Health, Public Policy and related  
disciplines. Paper presentations will be limited to 20 minutes. We  
encourage the use of visual aids in all presentations.

Please submit a 500-word Abstract along with 5000-characters  
Biographical Statement/s by January 3, 2008 to:  
<globalsuburbs.papers at umich.edu>. For more information: <http:// 
sitemaker.umich.edu/globalsuburbs>.

Biographical Statement/s should be followed by the Abstract -  
formatted in the following order:

Title of Paper, Name of the Presenter/s, Academic/other Affiliation,  
500-word Abstract, Keywords.