Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This month we are very pleased to introduce you to the UIC faculty who have been selected as 2002-2003 GCI Scholar and Seed Fund recipients. If you would like more information about their work, please contact them directly.

David Perry Professor and Director	Lauri Alpern Associate Director

Faculty Scholars 2002-2003

Ralph Cintron, Associate Professor, English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Rhetoric, Genius Loci, and Cultural Politics in an Urban Setting
Puerto Rican activists in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood are confronting gentrification, promoting local development, and raising political awareness in their community. While engaging in these activities, they draw on aspects of their own culture, such as language, architecture and symbols. Professor Cintron will study this use of cultural expression to promote local, national, and international political action.

Rebecca Hendrick, Associate Professor, Public Administration, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs
Fiscal Strategy Making in Chicago Suburbs: How Suburban Municipalities Balance Their Budgets and Manage Fiscal Stress
Small governments must balance the competing pressures of providing quality services, offering lower taxes, balancing their budgets, and maintaining fiscal health. Professor Hendrick will analyze how public officials in eight to ten suburbs of Chicago make fiscal decisions and how successful they are in accomplishing their goals. This data will be used to help small urban municipalities better manage their resources.

Janise Hurtig, Research Specialist in the Humanities, Center for Research on Women and Gender
Parents Write Their Worlds: A Parent Involvement Program Bridging Urban Schools and Families - A Participatory Ethnographic Study
The Parents Write their Worlds (PWTW) program builds on the natural intellectual, artistic, and leadership roles of parents to involve them in their children's education. Offered in the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago, PWTW parents participate in writing workshops, oral presentations, the publication of their writings, and eventually working directly with the schools to incorporate their writings into the curricula. Dr. Hurtig's appointment as a Great Cities Institute Scholar will allow her to study and document the program.

Steve Jones, Professor, Communication, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
A Great City Online: A Study of the Internet's Impact on Chicago's Neighborhoods
Professor Jones will study six Community Technology Centers (CTCs) in Chicago, which provide low-income communities access to technology. He will examine the capacity of CTCs and the Internet to enhance community development and better connect citizens to their communities. Research findings will be used to determine the technology and services most useful to the communities served by CTCs.

Dennis R. Judd, Professor, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
The Fracturing of City Politics: Building the Tourist City in Chicago and St. Louis
This study of tourism development in two cities, Chicago and St. Louis, will examine how special interest groups form independent authorities to overcome political and fiscal limitations to building sports stadiums, convention centers, downtown malls, entertainment districts, and other tourism venues. This research will explore whether these new structures undermine or strengthen the democratic governance of cities.

Linda M. Kaste, Associate Professor and Director, Predoctoral Dental Public Health, Pediatric Dentistry, College of Dentistry
UIC Community Partnerships: Dental Workforce Development
UIC's College of Dentistry (COD), the only dental school in Chicago, is uniquely positioned to help prepare dental health professionals to address the unmet needs of underserved populations. The research gathered through this project will help the COD design a curriculum that would prepare graduates to establish "community-sensitive" private practices and to assume volunteer and leadership roles promoting oral health in low income communities.

Bryant T. Marks, Assistant Professor, Psychology and African American Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
On Being Separate and Together: Hyper-Segregation, Diversity, and Inter-Racial Relations in Urban Settings
Chicago is at once one of the most racially segregated cities in the United States and one of the most diverse cities. While most Chicagoans live in segregated communities, they work and attend school in integrated settings. Professor Marks will examine the effects of segregation and integration on equity, prejudice, identity, and self and group esteem among African, Asian, European, Latino, and Middle Eastern Americans, by examining inter-race relations and racial attitudes among these groups in school, the workplace and neighborhoods.

Sarah Ullman, Associate Professor, Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Policies and Practices of Mental Health Service Providers to Chicago Sexual Assault Victims: Reducing Barriers to Effective Treatment
Professor Ullman will interview sexual assault victims and mental health care providers working at five organizations to better understand the limitations of the care available. Research findings will be used to help victims gain access to mental health treatment and to ensure the counseling they receive is responsive and informed by current research.

Faculty Seed Fund Winners 2002-2003
The Great Cities Institute Faculty Seed Fund small grants support University of Illinois at Chicago faculty working on early-stage interdisciplinary urban research projects that have the potential to generate new partnerships and/or new external support.

In the News
The Voorhees Center's research on gentrification in West Town will be featured on WTTW Channel 11's Chicago Matters series on housing on Thursday, April 25, 2002 at 7:30 and 11:30p.m.