RESEARCH
New methodologies, datasets: advancing knowledge
Faculty Forums
Since 2005, Penn IUR has funded six Faculty Forums that foster and support interdisciplinary research and collaboration among Penn faculty and graduate students. Faculty Forums, directed by two or more faculty members representing two disciplines and/or schools, encourage dialogue, highlight Penn's intellectual strengths, and offer opportunities for innovative research. Awarded competitively, faculty forums are eligible for funding of up to $30,000 for eighteen months and are eligible for renewal. These forums have involved 19 faculty from 9 schools and have resulted in publications and leveraged grants from the Brookings Institution, and others currently being discussed.
Current Faculty Forums
African American Males Transcending Urban Disadvantage
Shaun R. Harper, Graduate School of Education
John L. Jackson, Annenberg School for Communication, School of Arts & Sciences
Much evidence exists to confirm that social problems confronting African American boys and men are exacerbated in urban contexts. Researchers typically default to deficit models when seeking solutions to urban vulnerability. While it is important to continually illuminate factors contributing to urban disadvantage, it is equally necessary and arguably more instructive to explore "what works" - the social resources, conditions, practices, and policies that yield more encouraging outcomes for African American males in the city. This Penn IUR Faculty Forum features monthly research presentations from seven scholars who conduct research on African American males from various disciplinary fields of study. This forum is free and open to the public. For more information, please click here.
Immigration, Race, and Urban Inequality
Kathleen D. Hall, Graduate School of Education
Michael Katz, School of Arts & Sciences
Wendell Pritchett, School of Law
Mark Stern, School of Social Policy and Practice
Domenic Vitiello, City and Regional Planning, Graduate School of Design
One of the first Penn IUR Faculty Forums, this Forum seeks to initiate an interdisciplinary discussion of the literature related to immigration, race, and urban inequality and to conduct research on immigration to Greater Philadelphia through its seminars, research, and public outreach activities. Most notably, it has sponsored the on-going construction of a unique database on immigration to Greater Philadelphia, which members have used in various public presentations, and it is now collaborating with the Brookings Institution on a foundation-sponsored report on immigration to the Philadelphia area. It has produced one major working paper on immigrant suburbanization, bibliographies of work on Philadelphia immigration and on immigrant suburbanization, draft working papers on the history of immigration to Philadelphia and on the literature of immigrant suburbanization, and a number of case studies of specific immigrant groups.
Urban Change Under Globalization in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Mauro Guillen, The Wharton School
Brian Spooner, School of Arts & Sciences
The primary objectives of the Forum are to bring together people who work on globalization in different parts of the University community and develop a comparative discussion on research methods and the underlying theoretical assumptions involved in extrapolating from research and practice in particular locations to general propositions and statements about global processes and connections and their larger significance. We take off from the understanding that as these processes continue to build, more and more cities take on the function of nodes--global cities--in the larger process at the global level. Click here to visit the Forum website.
Past Faculty Forums
Cities Around the World: Networks, Form, Function (2005-2007)
Richard Estes, School of Social Policy & Practice
Donald F. Kettl, School of Arts & Sciences
Janice F. Madden, School of Arts & Sciences
This Faculty Forum examined the functions and forms of cities in the global economy in both developed and developing countries. The forum focused in particular on what distinguishes “global cities” from highly populated cities that are not global, in the sense that they are not shaping global norms nor active as international centers of finance.
Modeling Urban Environmental Impacts on Health, Development, and Behavior (2005-2008)
Dennis Culhane, School of Social Work
John Fantuzzo, Graduate School of Education
Shiriki Kumanyika, School of Medicine
Dana Tomlin, School of Design
The Faculty Forum established an active network of Penn faculty members whose shared interests and expertise in public health, child development, behavior, and spatial research methods, hold promise for productive collaboration on research into the relationship between people and places in the urban setting. Click here to visit the Forum website.
Refocusing the Interdisciplinary: Toward Elder-Friendly Urban Environments (2006)
Eileen Sullivan-Marx, School of Nursing
Joan K. Davitt, School of Social Policy & Practice
Dina Schlossberg, School of Law
Harris Steinberg, School of Design
Lucy Kerman, Fels Institute of Government
This Faculty Forum sought to encourage interdisciplinary research and teaching on the challenges facing older adults who live in urban environments --with a particular focus on West Philadelphia -- and develop a strong “civic engagement” component by extending research and teaching into applications aimed at fostering a sustainable, elder-friendly community in West Philadelphia. Please visit our Publications page for a list of publications related to this faculty forum (E.M. Sullivan-Marx et al).