Michigan-Mellon Project
The Michigan/Mellon Project on Egalitarianism and the Metropolis, a 4-year academic and research initiative focused on architecture, urbanism and humanities research in Detroit, Mexico City DF and Rio de Janeiro, is made possible by a $1.3 million grant from the A. W. Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Foundation’s Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities is a new initiative in the Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities program interested in establishing multidisciplinary research programs that can generate new insights into changing urban conditions. The project allows the particularity of design practices to inform and be informed by broader questions of social justice, social movements and transformative creative arts movements –  both historically and contemporaneously.

Michigan-Mellon Colloquia this fall are two hours in length and will address the following questions:

• What do contemporary conceptions of justice demand of us as academics, activists and cultural workers?
• What aspects of conventional city-making (planning, architectural and urban design, landscape design, private and public investment, etc.) are ripe for re-invention, overturning, or reconsideration in light of how lived experiences of the urban poor and others are falling short of our expectations?  
• What role does racial, ethnic, gender, sexuality, and nation of origin play in attempting to construct a more egalitarian city in Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and/or Detroit?

Speakers:

Janet Attarian, Deputy Director, Detroit Planning and Development Office
Lars Graebner, Clinical Associate Professor, University of Michigan
Christina Hansen, Lecturer, University of Michigan

To join, please RSVP to Kate Grandfield, 734.615.5260,grandk@umich.edu