DATE & TIME
December 02, 2022
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
LOCATION
Hunter College (Faculty Dining Room) 8th floor Hunter West
DESCRIPTION
Prof. Laura Wolf-Powers will be speaking about her new book University City: History, Race, & Community in the Era of the Innovation District (Penn Press 2022). The book uses archival and ethnographic research to trace five decades of university-community politics in West Philadelphia’s University City neighborhood, examining the conflicting claims on value and space that accompany academic institutions’ sponsorship of innovation-oriented economic redevelopment projects. It analyzes the work of mobilized civic groups to win policies that help economically insecure families keep a foothold in changing neighborhoods, advocating a reorientation of redevelopment practice around the recognition that, despite their negligible worth in real estate terms, the time, care, and energy people invest in their local environments are precious urban resources.