Panel – Linking Schools and Communities in Detroit – At the kickoff event of the 2017-2018 series, a panel of education researchers will discuss their Detroit-based research on the relationship between education and community engagement – how schools inform communities and how communities inform schools. Panelists will include Elizabeth Moje, Dean for the School of Education, the George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Education, and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the School of Education at the University of Michigan; Enid Rosario-Ramos, Assistant Professor in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan; and Kimberly Ransom, doctoral student in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan.

October 20, 2017 4:15PM

Annenberg Auditorium, 1120 Weill Hall // Ford School of Public Policy


Bicentennial Symposium – Urban Futures: Michigan Cities – As part of the University of Michigan’s Bicentennial celebration, the Detroit School Series is hosting an afternoon symposium: Urban Futures: Michigan Cities. The symposium brings together urban leaders from across the state for a conversation about how Michigan cities are challenging a public image of dereliction and decline and positioning themselves for the next century. Over the course of the afternoon symposium, Suzanne Schulz – Director of Planning for the City of Grand Rapids –  and Arthur Jemison – Director of Housing and Revitalization for the City of Detroit – will share their perspectives on two distinct Michigan cities, discuss what we can learn from their varied histories, and offer visions for the future. The two keynote speakers will focus their remarks on the distinctive challenges and opportunities Michigan cities present and how their cities are charting equitable, diverse, sustainable, and prosperous paths forward. Following these keynote addresses, a panel of experts will offer their thoughts on the two cities and lead a discussion with the speakers and the audience.

Speakers:
Suzanne Schulz, Director of Planning, City of Grand Rapids
Arthur Jemison, Director of Housing  and Revitalization, City of Detroit
Panelists: 

Margaret Dewar, Professor Emerita of Urban and Regional Planning, Taubman College, University of Michigan
Lou Glazer, President, Michigan Future Inc
Danielle Lewinski, Vice President and Director of Michigan Initiatives for the Center for Community Progress

November 14, 2017 3:00PM

Rackham Amphitheater, 4th Floor // Rackham Building

Lecture Audio


Book Launch: Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Bondage and Freedom in the City of the Straits with Tiya Miles – Tiya Miles is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and professor in the Departments of American Culture, Afro-American and African Studies, History, Women Studies, and Native American Studies at the University of Michigan. Please join the Detroit School Series and Clements Library to celebrate the release of Miles’ new book, Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits, which examines the experiences of the unfree, both Native and African American, in the frontier outpost of Detroit. Throughout the book, Dr. Miles exposes the limits of freedom in early America and the role slavery played in the city. Following the book talk, Stephen Ward – Faculty Director of the Semester in Detroit program and Associate Professor in the Residential College and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies – will offer comments on the book and the questions it raises.

December 8, 2017 4:15PM

Rackham Amphitheater, 4th Floor // Rackham Building

Lecture Audio


Lecture: Power, Practice, Property: An Applied People’s Geography – Josh Akers – To launch our Winter lecture series, Joshua Akers, Assistant Professor of Geography and Urban & Regional Studies, will discuss the role of academic researchers in building tools and disseminating information in ways that subvert power hierarchies by introducing new avenues to establish and maintain residents’ rights to the city. Dr. Akers is the founder and director of the Urban Praxis Workshop, a community-led research initiative that collaborates with organizations and activists in Detroit focused on housing and tenancy issues. In his research and writing, Akers examines the intersection of markets and policy and their material impacts on urban neighborhoods and everyday life. He is particularly interested in the transition of property markets in the wake of the financial crisis, the exploitative practices that emerged, and their impact on low income urban residents and communities of color.

February 16, 2018 4:15PM

Rackham East Conference Room, 4th Floor // Rackham Building


Co-Sponsored Breakout Panel Discussion: Measurement Tools-Transportation Security Index – As part of the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions Engagement Series Transportation and Economic Mobility, the Detroit School is co-sponsoring a breakout session on Transportation Equity and Regional transportation from 2:15 to 3:30 on Thursday March 15th. The breakout session will feature new research from University of Michigan faculty around measurements for transportation equity, and feature a brief policy discussion for how this research can be applied in the Detroit context.

The afternoon event will run from 1:00 until 5:00pm at the Michigan League, 1st and 2nd Floors. The breakout discussion will take place from 2:15 – 3:30pm.

March 15, 2018

Michigan League


Lecture: Ends of Houses – Catherine Fennell – Cities in decline can possess an odd array of abundances – building debris, vacant land, “potential”. In this talk,  Catherine Fennell (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University) will discuss her research on the burgeoning “Deconstruction” movement in late industrial urban spaces and consider how places like Detroit, Gary, Youngstown and Akron  invite urbanists to think through, theorize, and – in the case of planners and architects – work with the strange and competing abundances offered by these cities. Dr. Fennell’s research focuses broadly on the decline and transformation of industrial cities and how inhabitants manage the physical aftermaths of demolition and decline of houses that have ceased being homes and instead become waste. Her first book, Last Project Standing: Civics and Sympathy in Post-Welfare Chicago, focused on the politics of space, race, and development during the demolition and rebuilding of  subsidized housing in Chicago.

March 23, 2018 4:00PM

Hussey Room (2nd Floor) // Michigan League


Panel Discussion: Fair Housing Act, Housing Discrimination from Past to Present Times This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act (FHA) of 1968. The FHA prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, disability, families with children and national origin, when an individual or family tries to buy, rent, lease, sell or finance a home. Join us for a conversation with Margaret Brown, Executive Director at the Fair Housing Center of Metropolitan Detroit; Shannon Ackenhausen, Assistant U.S. Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan; and Roshanak Mehdipanah, Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health. They will share the historical events leadings up to the passing of the FHA, an overview of the FHA and the different enforcement strategies used to address housing discrimination cases today both in Ann Arbor and Detroit.

March 23, 2018 4:00PM

Hussey Room (2nd Floor) // Michigan League