Updates

Shatkin, Sami, and Glover Work with CSAS

During the 2009 calendar year Professor Gavin Shatkin, doctoral candidate Neha Sami, and Professor Will Glover will co-coordinate a theme year for UM’s Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) titled “State, Space, and Citizenship: Indian Cities in the Global Era." This theme year is being undertaken by CSAS as part of the Trehan India Initiative, which is funded by Ranvir and Adarsh Trehan.

During the year, this initiative will explore the ways that contemporary urban transformations in India are impacting the socioeconomic, cultural, political, and ecological landscape of the country. The theme year will focus on three main topics: transformations in urban politics and the role of the state in urban development; changes in the production of urban space; and issues of citizenship and politics in the urban realm. The goal of this initiative is to enrich thinking on the key social, political, and economic issues facing India’s urban future and to provide opportunities for substantial collaboration among scholars, activists, and community groups across disciplinary and knowledge culture boundaries. Activities for the theme year will include: a lecture series featuring speakers from across the social sciences; the awarding of competitive grants to several University of Michigan graduate students to do summer research in India; a film series; and a year-end conference to assess the year’s findings. Another highlight will be the participation of a distinguished visiting scholar from India, Ravi Sundaram, who is a fellow at the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi and a founding member of SARAI, a major research center focusing on urban issues in India. He will teach a fall semester graduate seminar focusing on urban issues in India.

8/18/2008 Permanent link to this post.

Rachel Wells wins Rackham Graduate Sutdent Research Grant

MUP/MSW student Rachel Wells is the recipient of a 2008 Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant.Rachel’s research will examine Creekside Community Development Corporation, which serves the Jefferson Chalmers Neighborhood in Southeast Detroit with over 50% renters. Because renters are often ignored in community development plans, her goal is to analyze how this high percentage of rental housing affects the Jefferson-Chalmers area. With her research, Rachel will create a housing and community development plan for the neighborhood that will help maintain high-quality rental housing for low-income residents.

7/24/2008 Permanent link to this post.

Cameron Weimar Wins Two-Year Energy Fellowship

Cameron Weimar, URP Ph.D. candidate in land use and energy systems planning, is the recipient of a 2008 MMPEI-Rackham Energy Fellowhips Award, a two-year fellowship from the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Energy Institute (MMPEI). This is the 2nd year of the cross-disciplinary fellowship program based at U-M School of Engineering.

7/10/2008 Permanent link to this post.

Congratulations Qingyun Shen

Ph.D. student Qingyun Shen has been awarded a Rackham Graduate Student Research Grant to support her research on housing policy in China.

6/20/2008 Permanent link to this post.

New Developments on the Accessibility Index

SMART member Dr. Jonathan Levine has been working with a group of researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland to develop a comparative Accessibility Index for cities across the U.S.
For more information…
SMART website

6/04/2008 Permanent link to this post.

TCAUP Team Wins EPA P3 Competition

We've got a winning team in this year's EPA P3 competition!

The Mada Biofuels team lead by student Doug Kolozsvari and faculty advisor Gavin Shatkin had received a grant to fund its effort to compete for the EPA P3 Award. The team studied developing biofuels from plant materials (Jatropha curcas) in Madagascar.

For more information...

5/13/2008 Permanent link to this post.

TCAUP Has a Second Winning Team in the EPA P3

The team, the UP 634 Dustbusters, will use the award from EPA to implement some of their vegetation strategies to address the problem of particulate pollution in Southwest Detroit. This student team is headed by Larissa Larsen and advised by Eric Dueweke. Congratulations to Will Brodnax, Mark Hansford, Tyler Kinley, Carolyn Pivirotto, Shiply Singh, Jeff Storrar, Benjamin Stupka, Erin Thoresen, Jon VanDerZee.

For more information...