Newsletter
of the Global Urban History Project volume 1 issue 1 (September, 2017)
Dear GUHP members and member-invitees:
Our first thoughts go to the millions of people whose homes have been inundated in an especially fierce season of monsoons, taifuns, hurricanes, and severe rainstorms. We wish you boundless courage and also the hope that your experiences give extra urgency to efforts worldwide to build wiser, more just, inclusive, and renewably fueled human habitats.
As the Global Urban History Project enters its first full academic year, I would like to thank the nearly 200 scholars who signed up as members over the last few months.
For those who have already signed up, do take a moment to explore the profiles of your fellow GUHP members. I think you'll be simply awed by the breadth of learning represented by our new network, the extent of commitment to the field, and the diversity of scholars that make it up. We come from all across the world and dozens of primary professional homes. We include pioneers in the field, mid-career scholars who are branching into new realms, and graduate students writing dissertations about cities as creations and creators of larger historical phenomena. The profiles contain citations to dozens of recent books and articles. We hope to highlight these in future editions of this Newsletter as well as on the Global Urban History blog.
There cannot be any doubt: global urban history has become a thriving field of inquiry.
For those who still want to become members, the GUHP website welcomes you with open arms. Membership is free for this full academic year. We do ask you to spend a little more time signing up than most professional associations. This is because GUHP gathers information to promote your work and to build a one-stop shop for the networking and bibliographic needs of practitioners in the field.
An update on the last few months. Since our opening invitation to members, GUHP has become incorporated and our tax-exempt application is complete and pending at the US Internal Revenue Service. We have an energetic, smooth-operating, and growing Board of Directors. We are building an International Activities Committee. We even have two staff members, Guangzhi Huang of the University at Buffalo and Rafael Garcia of Ohio University, who will be organizing our bibliography and syllabus bank projects this year. Their services come to us courtesy of Robin Schulze of the UB College of Arts and Sciences and of the Latin American Studies Program at OU.
Coming Up at GUHP. As Project Coordinator, I will reach out to you periodically with reminders about the events and activities GUHP plans for the year. We have organized an exciting line-up of activities.
Here is what we have planned for the coming year:
Communications. Our new Newsletter will keep you up to date about GUHP activities and will work hand in hand with the Global Urban History blog.
Website revisions. Within the month the "Meet Other Members" pages (accessible to members only) will get a face-lift. You can contribute to the new look, and to the general friendliness of the site, by posting a picture of yourself. Also note that the "Biography" section of your profile, which you have to access separately from the initial sign-up, allows you to post links to abstracts or full texts of your work elsewhere on the Web. Gathering these links is a priority for the Project as we strive to make the site a reference tool for people exploring the field. That will be further enhanced by the next item in the list:
The Global Urban History Bibliography Project. Over the course of the year we will reach out to you for help in creating this resource, which will include a cross-catalogued lists of hyperlinked citations and a course syllabus bank. It will offer a great way to promote your work to fellow specialists and also further document the scope and growth of the field. Thanks to Board Member Mariana Dantas of Ohio University who has taken the lead in creating this resource.
GUHP Roundtables Around the World: GUHP will hold roundtables, panels, and informal open houses at all four of the world’s major urban history conventions in 2017-18. By the end of the year we hope to make a concerted effort to reach scholars across the world by traveling as close as possible to as many home universities as we can. Hopefully this will set a pattern for even more substantive meetings in the future. More information about times and rsvp’s will be sent out as the dates get closer.
Save the dates for the GUHP event nearest you:
- October 28, 2017 2:30-4:15: GUHP Roundtable and informal Open House at the Conference of the Society for American City and Regional Planning Historians (SACRPH), Cleveland, Ohio
- April 12-14, 2018: Urban History Association (UHA) /GUHP Co-Sponsored Roundtable and informal Open House at the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians (OAH), Sacramento, CA
- July 15-19 2018: Five GUHP-sponsored panels at the International Planning History Society (IPHS) conference in Yokohama, Japan
- August 29-Sep 1, 2018: Roundtable and informal Open House at the European Association for Urban History (EAUH) in Rome, Italy
A Call for Papers for the panels at the IPHS in Japan will be issued over the course of the fall.
Intensive Planning. This fall we will begin conversations about more ambitious future events and conferences. To take a role in this planning process, or to offer ideas, contact me at cn6@buffalo.edu.
More soon! I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible in person during the year.
My very best,
Carl Nightingale
Coordinator, Global Urban History Project
University at Buffalo, SUNY
for the GUHP Board of Directors:
Tracy Neumann, Treasurer, blog Editor, Wayen State University
Emma Hart, Secretary, St. Andrews University
Michael Goebel, blog Editor-in-Chief, Freie Universität Berlin
Joseph Ben Prestel, blog Editor, Freie Universität Berlin
Mariana Dantas, Ohio University
Nancy Kwak, University of California San Diego
Carola Hein, Technical University Delft
Kristin Stapleton, University at Buffalo, SUNY
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