AAMU to Host Urban Planning Conference
Conference attracts planners nationwide
The Department of Community & Regional Planning (DCRP) at Alabama A&M University (AAMU) will host the second annual Urban Planning Conference on Friday, February 21, in the Agricultural Research Center (ARC). Sessions will run from 8:00 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.
The conference will include nationally invited presentations of research, practice, and experiential planning practices that address the challenges of environmental, social and spatial justice planning.
This year’s conference theme is “Environmental, Social, & Spatial Justice Planning,” and it will focus on the fundamental elements required for communities to thrive in complex urban environments. Global challenges to justice present opportunities for innovative, informed, and reflective planning practices.
Moreover, how cities respond to the climate crisis, the rise of nationalism and closing of borders, unaddressed legacies of racialized oppression, and economic entrenchment, will be a focal point for the field of planning. This year's conference will focus on research, practice, and experiential planning practices that address the challenges of environmental justice, social justice, and spacial justice.
The conference will have two plenary sessions that feature Emma Osore of BlackSpace and Ivan Holloway of Urban Impact, Inc. Osore is co-founder of BlackSpace Urbanist Collective and the director of community at NEW INC. She will present "BlackSpace: Brownsville/Heritage Conversation Tools for Practitioners." Holloway is executive director of Urban Impact, Inc., in Birmingham, Ala. He received both his B.S. in urban planning and the Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) from Alabama A&M University. He will address "Reconstructing a Community Plan in a Deconstructed African American Community in Birmingham, Ala.”
The concurrent sessions will run in three different rooms from 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The objective of the conference is to provide opportunities for conference participants to learn the challenges to the planning process and the need for planning to reevaluate its role in shaping cities and catering to diverse needs, groups, and futures. The conference will discuss how planners create environmentally, socially and spatially just cities in a more diverse and challenging world.
All sessions of the conference are also pending approval by the American Planning Association for the continuing education for certified planners. AICP holders can receive up to 6 hours of CM credits through this conference.
For registration and more information, please visit: https://planningaamu.wixsite.com/conference or contact Dr. Deden Rukmana, professor and chair, Department of Community and Regional Planning, Alabama A&M University, at deden.rukmana@aamu.edu.