Atlanta has long been portrayed as a city governed by a moderate, biracial coalition of business-oriented elites quietly collaborating around major initiatives - the so-called "Atlanta Way." In the current era, Atlanta faces a variety of challenges: the legacy of the foreclosure crisis and great recession; fragmentation of local government; congestion and sprawl; widening inequality; the challenge to embrace sustainable environmental practices; and the goal of providing quality public education. What is the nature of the challenges facing Atlanta? Are city life and public decision making still governed by the Atlanta Way, or will the future bring a new system of governance and civic engagement?

The third annual Atlanta Studies Symposium is hosted by the Georgia Tech School of City and Regional Planning with sponsorship by Georgia State University’s Council for the Progress of Cities, Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship, Georgia Tech’s College of Architecture, School of Architecture, School of Building Construction, School of City and Regional Planning, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of History, Technology and Society, and School of Public Policy, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The symposium will be held at the Historic Academy of Medicine, located at the corner of7th Street and West Peachtree in midtown Atlanta on May 6th, 2015. The Academy is a five minute walk from the Midtown MARTA station. The symposium will begin at 8:00am. Keynote speakers will be Dr. Robert Bullard, Dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University and father of the environmental justice movement, and Carlton Basmajian, Associate Professor of Community and Regional Planning at Iowa State University and author of Atlanta Unbound.

The conference will be free as in prior years, but we request that all attendees and presenters register to assist with catering.

RSVPs ARE NOW CLOSED.

Please visit the Atlanta Studies website for more information and to stay updated on Atlanta Studies projects and events.