ABOUT US

As the Founding Director of the Center on Urban Research & Public Policy (CURPP), I welcome you to our website. The establishment of CURPP comes at a time of profound social, economic and political change in our country, indeed the world. Renewed national commitment is required if we are to address and solve the challenges facing America’s cities and dense populations around the globe. Since the l970s, civic discourse has become increasingly anti-urban with fewer opportunities for informed non-partisan dialogue.  However, political leaders and ordinary citizens need reliable policy research, training in methodologies and technologies, and opportunities for public discussion on issues of concern to America’s cities. As an internationally known research university, Washington University in St. Louis recognizes its responsibility to make substantial contributions to these efforts. The Center on Urban Research & Public Policy promises to fulfill this responsibility by becoming a national resource for education, research and public discussion on issues confronting America’s cities. While we are dedicated to the conduct of social science research in metropolitan America, we understand the social, economic and political nexus between ourselves and other cities of the world.

The Center’s mission is deliberately multi-faceted, to:

• contribute to the national dialogue about the challenges and successes of our nation’s urban policies and programs;
• advance research and curriculum on pressing urban issues, regionally, nationally and internationally;
• prepare, educate and train students to play a greater role in improving our cities;
• promote the education and participation of urban residents in policy determination at local, state and national levels; and,
• provide public officials and community leaders with new tools for management and policy analysis on issues that confront America’s cities.

There are a number of reasons why the Center on Urban Research and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis is well-positioned to be at the forefront of institutions committed to the study of urban America. First, Washington University in St. Louis is a premier research institution, well known for its excellence and its social science research endeavors. Second, the historical, geographical and social contexts and culture  of the University provide a rich intellectual environment where academic work can be used to inform and mobilize community groups. St. Louis, as a river city, witnessed: the legacy of the Great Migration; the questions and crises confronting newly emerging immigrant communities; the in-migration and out-migration of the city and its schools; the evolving patterns of suburbanization and the necessity for central city reconstruction; problems associated with re-gentrification and affordable housing; and, transportation alternatives including high rail and transit based land development. Third, the United States is now facing a social, political and economic climate in which the social cleavages of urban marginalized communities are central to policy debates at local, state and federal levels. Issues such as heightened racial and ethnic antagonisms, affordable housing, educational under-achievement and soaring drop out rates, law and justice, immigration, school re-segregation, HIV and AIDS, the economic under-development of poor communities, the rise in female headed households, inequality, and the paradox of declining welfare rolls amidst escalating poverty rates, are all part of the political agenda confronting governing officials and poor persons, in cities, in general, and communities of color, in particular. All available social indices suggest that such domestic issues in our central cities will only increase in significance in the years ahead. The opportunity for joint regional, national and international collaboration with colleges and universities, as well as other intellectual partnerships, investigating these and other urban related issues, will clearly advance research and knowledge on pressing urban issues in powerful ways.

You are most welcome to join us as we embark on these important missions.

Carol Camp Yeakey
Professor and Founding Director, Center on Urban Research and Public Policy and Interdisciplinary Program in Urban Studies