Engaging scholars and practitioners

Last month, ESLARP had a presence at two conferences: Imagining America and the American Planning Association's 2008 Illinois State Conference.

In early October, Imagining America drew together a group of scholars, activists, community organizers, and all shades in between, to mutually engage one overarching question: what does it mean to do "public" scholarship? Abbilyn Harmon, an ESLARP graduate assistant, had the opportunity to reflect on this question many times over in the panels and activities organized for the conference, and found herself challenged by those from inside and outside the walls of academia.

Abby also had the opportunity to take part in the Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) program, which brought together a group of 20 graduate students to aggressively take on this question as part of a daylong PAGE summit. At this summit, Abby presented her ESLARP-based Participatory Action Research course as a model of engaged critical pedagogy. Laura Lawson, ESLARP director, also presented at the conference about ESLARP's engagement in public scholarship.

The American Planning Association's 2008 Illinois State Conference was held here in Champaign from October 29-31. Planning students and practitioners from all across the state attended workshops and sessions exploring creating greener cities, better transportation, and the changing demographics of cities in Illinois. Sang Lee, an ESLARP visiting lecturer, presented on planning education, community organizing, and East St. Louis. She was part of a session exploring equity planning in practice. Ken Salo, an ESLARP Campus Advisory Committee member, was also part of the session, presenting on his work in north Champaign around environmental justice issues. Earlier in the conference, another ESLARP CAC member, Elizabeth Sweet, presented her work on gender and immigrants in Illinois.