Dear Friends of GCI,

The Faculty Scholar Competition for 2005-2006 is now underway. To help potential Scholars with their applications and research proposals we have scheduled a Proposal Writing Workshop for Tuesday October 26, 2004 at 3:00 pm in the main conference room at GCI. If you are interested in applying this year or in the near future this is a very good opportunity to learn from past scholars and to discuss your research with members of the Institute. If you cannot attend the workshop and would like to discuss your proposal with us, please contact me, either through Marilyn Ruiz at marilynr@uic.edu or by phone at 996-8874 or at dperry@uic.edu .

We are especially proud to announce that Ms. Asma Ali , a research assistant in the UIC Neighborhoods Initiative and a doctoral student in Urban Planning and Policy along with Dr. Laxmi Ramasubramanian, CUPPA Research Assistant Professor won the 2004 Best Action Research Paper in Housing and Community Development for their paper titled "E-Planning with Youth: Creating Spaces of/for Engagement". This paper reports on work that is part of a collaboration between the UICNI and the Mexican Fine Arts Museum and is funded in part by the Ford Foundation. The competition was sponsored jointly by the American Collegiate Schools of Planning and the Fannie Mae Foundation. Ramasubramanian and Ali will present the paper and receive their award at the 45th Annual Conference of the American Collegiate Schools in Planning in Portland , Oregon later this month. The complete paper is available at http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~laxmi/ACSPpaper.htm .

Finally, as part of the path-breaking research program on Muslims in America by GCI Fellow Louise Cainkar, Dr. Garbi Schmidt of the National Danish Institute of Social Research will visit the Institute on Monday, October 25 and deliver a lecture at 3:00pm on the formation of activist religious identities among young Muslims.

I hope to see you at the Institute in the next few weeks for one of our workshops or lectures.

Sincerely,

David Perry Professor and Director

News

The Great Cities Institute announces two competitions:

Great Cities Institute 2005-2006 Faculty Scholar Competition
Applications are due Friday, January 21, 2005 by 4:00 pm
Faculty Scholar guidelines and application are available at:
http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/Web%20Faculty%20Scholar%20Guidelines%202005-06.pdf

Great Cities 2005-2006 Faculty Seed Fund Competition
Applications are due Friday, January 28, 2005 by 4:00 pm
Faculty Seed fund guidelines and application are available at:
http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/Web%20Seed%20Fund%202005-2006.pdf

Calendar

• Dr. Garbi Schmidt of the National Danish Institute of Social Research
  Monday, October 25, 2004 , 3 pm , GCI conference room

• 2005-2006 Faculty Scholar Competition
  Proposal Writing Workshop
  Tuesday October 26, 2004 at 3pm , GCI conference room
  
• Faculty Scholar Seminar Series Tuesday, November 2, 1pm , GCI conference room
  From Hunger Strike to High School: Success and Challenges across Communities in Creating a Neighborhood School David Stovall, Assistant Professor, Policy Studies
  College of Education

People

Congratulations to Linda Kaste , Faculty Scholar 2002-2003, who was named the recipient of the 2004 Racial Justice Award, administered by the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago. The luncheon was held on October 14 th at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago .

Irma Olmedo , Faculty Scholar 2003-2004, gave a presentation at the Puerto Rican Studies
Association Conference in New York in October. The topic was "Themes and
Controversies: The Social Science Literature on Puerto Ricans”.

GCI Fellow Davis Jenkins made a presentation to the Michigan Governor's Commission on Higher Education and the Economy. Through a National Governor's Association initiative, Davis is consulting with Michigan and several other states on strategies for improving postsecondary access and attainment by low-income adults.

Great Cities Fellow Martin Jaffe was recently appointed to a two-year term on the Executive Board of the Illinois Water Resources Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The IWRC, funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and the State of Illinois , is one of a nation-wide network of university-based water resources centers created under the federal Water Resources Research Act. The Center is dedicated to research, graduate training, and outreach programs on water resources issues critical to Illinois and the Midwest .

UIC CUED Director Nik Theodore is quoted in Crain's Chicago Business , 10/4/04 , on employment prospects in Chicago area. He is also quoted in the Guardian Unlimited regarding the issue of Wal-Mart and the creation of new jobs. This article can be viewed at http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1318918,00.html