Latest news from Loughborough University

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.

Notes for editors

Article reference number: September News

Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.

It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme, putting it among the best universities in the world, and was named University of the Year in the What Uni Student Choice Awards 2015. Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’ and is in the top 10 in England for research intensity. It was 2nd in the 2015 THE Student Experience Survey and was named Sports University of the Year 2013-14 by The Times and Sunday Times. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.

In 2015 the University will open an additional academic campus in London’s new innovation quarter. Loughborough University London, based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, will offer postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities.