Call for Proposals – 2018 Atlanta Studies Symposium

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) projects that the 20-county Atlanta region will grow by 2.5 million to more than 8 million people by 2040. Around 8% of ARC-forecasted growth will occur within the current City of Atlanta boundaries. We cannot plan for this growth without considering the historical context of the city and region, including policies determining—and sometimes limiting—the flow and connectivity among people, jobs, cars, and other transit options through the region. Having this context creates a platform to discuss lessons learned from the past and present to plan for regional growth in a more equitable and sustainable way.
This symposium poses the questions:

  • How has the distribution of people, housing, jobs, and transit shifted in the Atlanta region over time, and what factors have driven these shifts?
  • How can we plan for equitable regional growth?
  • How do racial, class, jurisdictional, environmental, and other boundaries impact Atlanta’s development and cultural landscape across the region?
  • How and why have the borders and geography of the City of Atlanta and Atlanta region changed over time, and what have been the effects of these changes?
  • How have literary texts and audiovisual arts in Atlanta captured and responded to these changes?

This year, we seek a diverse array of symposium sessions that address past, present, and future issues of regional growth from scholars and practitioners at academic institutions, as well as from other public, private, and nonprofit organizations. We also welcome proposals on any aspect of Atlanta, past, present, or future, though priority will be given to those that directly relate to the conference theme. We welcome proposals related to the symposium’s theme for:

  • Fully constituted panels with up to 3 presenters and a moderator
  • Individual papers or posters
  • 5 minute/5 slide presentations that will be part of a lightning round session
  • Roundtable discussions
  • Interactive workshops
  • Film screenings
  • Any other creative form of presentation you’d like to propose

Please submit abstracts via this google form no later than January 16, 2018.

Notifications will be sent out by February 16, 2018.

If you have questions about the event or proposals, please email us.

Sponsors of the event include the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship the Urban Studies Institute and the Department of History at Georgia State University, and the School of City and Regional Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Visit the website for further information.