24th ANNUAL PUBLIC LECTURE
Friday November 14, 4:00 PM
Logan Auditorium, Claudia Cohen Hall, 249 S. 36th Street (formerly Logan Hall)
links to the audio files - in 15 minute incrememts:
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_1.MP3
http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_2.MP3 http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_2.MP3 http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_3.MP3 http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_4.MP3 http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_5.MP3 http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_6.MP3 http://media.sas.upenn.edu/urban_studies/2008/urbs_part_7.MP3
Peter Dreir
Peter Dreier, the Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
and Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College
in Los Angles, will deliver the 24th Annual Urban Studies Public Lecture.
His presentation, entitled "Is There Hope for American Cities? A Cautiously
Optimistic View", will take place on November 14, 2008 at 4 p.m. in the Logan
Auditorium in Claudia Cohen Hall (formerly Logan
Hall, 249 South 36th Street). The lecture is
free and is open to the public.
Dreier is coauthor of The Next Los
Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (with
Regina Freer, Bob Gottlieb, and Mark Vallianatos:
2006) and Place Matters: Metropolitics for the
21st Century (with John Mollenkopf and Todd
Swanstrom, 2005), winner of the American Political
Science Association's Michael Harrington
Book Award for the "outstanding book that demonstrates
how scholarship can be used in the
struggle for a better world." He also co-authored
Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs
Can Grow Together (with Manuel Pastor, Eugene
Grigsby, and Marta Lopez-Garza: 2000).
He co-edited Up Against the Sprawl: Public
Policy and the Making of Southern California with Jennifer Wolch and Manuel Pastor. In addition
to books, Professor Dreier has published for
a wide range of audiences in policy and political
journals, mainstream and alternative presses,
and on-line. For his publications and activities,
see his website http://employees.oxy.
edu/dreier.
A graduate of the University of Chicago, he spent more than three
decades involved in Urban Policy as a scholar, government of!cial, journalist,
and advocate for reform. Dreier is an activist in civic and political affairs at
both the national and local levels. He has served and continues to be active
on committees and task forces to address issues of housing affordability,
economic development, political reform, education reform, and growth policy.
He has worked closely with a wide range of community organizations, labor
unions, and public interest organizations, and has worked as a consultant for
a variety of foundations and government agencies nationally and locally in Los
Angeles and Boston. He has worked with community organizing groups such
as ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation.
Professor Dreier has written widely on American politics and public
policy, specializing urban politics and policy, housing policy, community development,
and community organizing. He writes regularly on urban politics
and community activism for such publications as Dissent, American Prospect,
The Nation, and The Huf!ngton Post. He is frequently quoted as an expert
on housing and urban issues in publications such as the Wall Street Journal,
Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and
Philadelphia Inquirer. Prior to joining the faculty at Occidental, Dr. Dreier served
as the Director of Housing at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and senior
policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn.
The lecture is an integral part of of the academic mission of the Urban Studies program Each spring, juniors in the program have the opportunity to select an eminent scholar in Urban Studies to deliver the annual lecture. In their senior seminar, students read that person's work as an exemplar of urban research. They have an opportunity to meet with the lecturer during a special noon-time seminar.