The Annual Conference for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning celebrated its 60th anniversary earlier this month. Originally planned to be hosted in Toronto this year, Cornell faculty, Ph.D. students, and alumni joined the conference to participate in a variety of virtual functions, including roundtable discussions and abstract paper presentations.
For many of the Ph.D. students, this conference provided opportunities to augment their current research and dissertation topics with other scholars pursuing similar interest tracks in planning research. Seema Singh (Ph.D. CRP ’22), whose research examines theorizing travel dependency through gender, was able to present her work alongside other Ph.D. students contributing towards the focus on equity and accessibility in the transportation context.
Ph.D. candidate Dylan Stevenson (Ph.D. CRP ’22) participated in a virtual roundtable discussion with students from the University of Southern California and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to discuss establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives into campus life.
“It was great to bounce ideas around with students at other institutions on how individuals can hold accountability to their own departments in establishing more inclusive settings in academia through more inter-personal interactions exclusive from the institutional processes of addressing these issues,” Stevenson shared.
Additionally, Professor Mildred Warner was presented with the Margarita McCoy Award, one of several Faculty Awards presented at this year’s Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Annual Conference. The award, facilitated by the ACSP Faculty Women’s Interest Group, recognizes individuals who have contributed towards the advancement of women in the planning academic field.
“Dr. Warner’s contributions to the fields of planning and economic development, particularly around gender and multigenerational issues, are remarkable and ongoing,” the interest group commented.
ACSP anticipates holding its annual conference in Miami, Florida in 2021.