Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Welcome to this month's news from the Great Cities Institute. As you can see, this has been an active period for Institute research at all levels of urban change: from international concerns over the impact of globalization on urban development, to "the state of American cities," to state policy affecting the death penalty and to supporting and organizing those key relationships that comprise the university-community partnerships that produce engaged research.

As you read about our work, we hope you will find activities that suit your interests and see ways that we can support your work.

David Perry Professor and Director	Lauri Alpern Associate Director

UIC Neighborhoods Initiative: Partners Council for Health
The UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Partners Council for Health was created to provide an arena to exchange information about community health matters and UIC involvement in its immediate community. The meetings review and evaluate community partnership activities and provide a forum to address issues of mutual concern. The co-chairs are Cynthia Barnes-Boyd, Director, UIC Neighborhoods Initiative and Coretta McFerrin, Executive Director of Bridges to Opportunity. The meetings are held bi-monthly on the third Tuesday of the month. Please keep posted for the next meeting on May 20th.

Sabrina Nelson, Assistant, 312.996.4656, or sabrina1@uic.edu.

"Can We Talk?" - A Successful Training Program Underway
On March 19 and 20, the UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Division of Community Health sponsored "Can We Talk?", a training for facilitators that focuses on helping parents talk to their children about social pressures and making healthy choices to promote safe, drug free families and communities. Over 20 enthusiastic participants from various local agencies and schools were in attendance.

Nancy Tartt, 312.996.4880, ntartt@uic.edu.

Six New GCI Faculty Scholars Selected for 2003-2004
Chosen from UIC faculty through a competitive peer review process, the Scholars will spend the 2003 - 2004 academic year conducting research, working collaboratively with other Scholars and Institute Fellows and sharing the results of their work through lectures and informal forums. More information on their projects will be posted on the GCI website.

Congratulations to:
Tanya R. Anderson, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, College of Medicine
Ann M. Feldman, Associate Professor, English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Irma Olmedo, Associate Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education
Arkalgud Ramaprasad, Professor and Head, Information Decision Sciences, College of Business Administration
Laurie Schaffner, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Eric W. Welch, Assistant Professor, Public Administration, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs

Now Available Online*
Great Cities Institute 2001-2002 Annual Report http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/publications/AnnualReport/Great Cities Annual Report 01-02.pdf

Summary Report - The Ninth Annual GCI Winter Forum - The Open City
http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/events/gci_winterforum_site/winter forum summary.pdf
* For hardcopy, contact Christiana Kinder at 312-996-8700

Calendar
Tuesday, April 29, 7 pm., at 57th St. Books (1301 E. 57th St., Chicago).
David Ranney, CUPPA Professor Emeritus and UICUED Affiliate will speak about his new book, Global Decisions, Local Collisions: Urban Life in the New World Order, Temple University Press, 2003.

Wednesday April 30, 9am-11:30 am at GCI Conference Room
Faculty Scholar Seminar: Ralph Cintron presents Rhetoric, Genius Loci, and Cultural Politics in an Urban Setting

Thursday, May 1, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm at GCI Conference Room
UIC Neighborhoods Initiative Partners Council Meeting

People
On April 23, Great Cities Institute Director David Perry and Public Administration Director and GCI Fellow Michael Pagano were guests on the nationally syndicated WBEZ Chicago Public Radio show Odyssey. Their topic was " The State of the American City," and they were joined by University of Chicago Sociologist, Saskia Sassen. To access a taped version of the show, go to: http://www.wbez.org/frames.asp?HeaderURL=../schedule/hd_sched_light.htm&BodyURL=/schedule/odyssey/odyssey_v2.htm

Earlier in the month, David Perry was invited to present two lectures at the University of Oviedo in Asturias, Spain, on the topic "The Splintering Metropolis: Two conversations on Development Planning in the US City-Regions in a Neo-Liberal Era." He also presented one public lecture at the Press Club of Asturias on "The Metropolis and Regional Change." Later in the month, Professor Perry presented two days of invited lectures in the Teachers as Scholars Program, titled "Urban World/Global Cities: Globalization and Urban Change," under the sponsorship of the Newberry Library, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation and UIC's Graduate College.

David Perry has also just published a chapter, titled "Making Space," in the new book edited by Susan Fainstein and Scott Campbell, Planning Theory (London: Blackwell Publishers).

GCI Research Fellow, Louise Cainkar's latest publication "Targeting Muslims at Ashcroft's Discretion" is available on the Middle East Report Online website at http://www.merip.org/mero/mero031403.html.

GCI Faculty Scholar Rebecca Hendrick participated in "The Impact of This Year's State Budget on Units of Local Government", a discussion about the impact, policy ramifications and potential responses by local units of government to the recently unveiled FY04 budget at the Union League Club of Chicago on April 23.

Jean Templeton, Research Director for the Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment in Illinois presented "Studying Messy Social Problems: The Illinois Death Penalty" at GCI on Thursday April 24.

Faculty Scholar Spotlight
Each month we are pleased to introduce to you one of the GCI faculty scholars spending the year with us.

Ralph Cintron is an ethnographer who specializes in Latino communities in the Chicagoland area. His current research, "Rhetoric, Genius Loci, and Cultural Politics in an Urban Setting" uses Humboldt Park as its field site and seeks to provide an ethnographic study on the unique ways in which a kind of cultural politics get made there. The research focuses on the idea of genius loci in Humboldt Park in relation to the production of cultural capital, catalysts of community mobilization, neighborhood level policy making, and connections between international and local Puerto Rican/Latino political identity.