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// University News

7 Sep 2015

Loughborough hosts global urban research conference

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Loughborough University is set to host over 60 academics for a global urban research conference starting today (Monday 7 September).

The conference, which takes place until Thursday, will examine the challenges of ‘Doing Global Urban Research’.

Global urban research has become a thriving academic endeavour in recent years with significant policy implications and media attention devoted to the issues surrounding it. The aim of the conference is to bring together scholars with a range of different theoretical and methodological positions, both from the Global North and South, to consider the methodological and empirical responses to new geographies of urban theory and to establish the near-future priorities for researchers doing global urban studies.

The Geography Department at Loughborough has a longstanding international reputation for its global urban research. In the late 1990s, Professors Peter Taylor and Jonathan Beaverstock founded the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network at Loughborough, which has since become a globally renowned international network of researchers in the field. Both founders will be attending the conference.

The conference has been organised by Dr John Harrison and Michael Hoyler, Senior Lecturers in the Department of Geography, and is sponsored by the Urban Studies Foundation. Both professors are the Associate Directors of GaWC and continue the tradition of global urban research at Loughborough, together with a number of colleagues in Geography who research related urban themes.

Over 50 papers will be presented by delegates selected competitively from over 125 applications and represent a mix of established and highly promising emerging scholars from 15 countries in 5 continents.

The conference will also see five world-renowned keynote speakers including Professor Roger Keil (York University, Toronto), Professor Susan Parnell (African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town), Professor Christian Schmid (ETH Zurich), Professor Peter Taylor (Director of GaWC, Northumbria University), and Professor Kevin Ward (Director of cities@manchester, University of Manchester)

Further information, click here.