Release

Media Advisory: Rebuilding New Orleans in Wake of Hurricane Katrina Focus of UAlbany Mumford Center Forum

Contact: Catherine Herman (518) 437-4980

ALBANY, N.Y. (November 7, 2005)

What: Rebuilding New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is the subject of a forum hosted by the University at Albany’s Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research and the UAlbany Department of Geography and Planning. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Central Gulf Coast near New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 storm. The resulting storm surge soon breached the levee system that protects New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, leaving nearly 80 percent of the city flooded.

When: Friday, Nov. 11, 2005, 2-6 p.m.

Who:

• Richard Alba, Distinguished Professor of sociology, director of the Center for Social and Demographic Analysis and the Mumford Center
  
  
• Hayward D. Horton, associate professor of sociology and director, Capitalize on Community project
  
  
• Catherine T. Lawson, assistant professor of geography and planning and interim director of the Master of Regional Planning Program
  
  
• David A. Lewis, assistant professor of geography and planning
  
  
• Sambamurthy Thyagarajan, adjunct professor , geography and planning
  
  
• Jeffrey Lowe, assistant professor, urban and regional planning, School of Policy and Planning, Jackson State University, and member of the American Planning Association’s (APA) Hurricane Recovery Taskforce
  
  
• Marla Nelson, assistant professor, urban and regional planning, College of Urban and Public Affairs, University of New Orleans
  
  
• Jacob Wagner, assistant professor, urban planning and design, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Where: UAlbany Performing Arts Center Recital Hall, 1400 Washington Ave, Albany, N.Y. (uptown campus)

How: Forum is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Lewis Mumford Center at (518) 442-5403 or (518) 442-3211

Background:

About the Mumford Center
The University at Albany’s Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research honors the tradition of interdisciplinary scholarship established by Lewis Mumford (1895-1990). Mumford was a native New Yorker internationally recognized as one of the most distinguished urbanists of the 20th Century. By promoting broad-based collaboration among urban scholars from a variety of fields and geographic settings, the Center's mission is to further Mumford's ideal of local involvement with global vision.

About the Department of Geography and Planning
The University at Albany’s Department of Geography and Planning is a pioneer and national leader in the integration of its constituent disciplines. Its’ faculty are engaged in research, teaching and consultancy in many parts of the world, and they encourage students to build on their own life and work experience, to think globally and to act locally. Geography and planning employ a wide range of skills, including writing, documentary research, interviewing, graphic design, computing and statistics. Both disciplines have a strong interest in cities, urban environments, and urban design.

About the College of Arts and Sciences
The University at Albany’s College of Arts & Sciences is the largest academic unit at the University. It provides the general education foundation of the undergraduate curriculum and is the intellectual base for study in a wide variety of disciplines at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The College’s programs promote critical thinking and reasoning, aesthetic sensibility, and intellectual development, while providing career preparation to help students meet the challenges of the future and achieve their goals.