News
Thomas headlines February doctoral lecture
The next Wilder School Doctoral Lecture Series in Public Policy will take place virtually on Thursday, February 4 and feature June Manning Thomas, Ph.D., Mary Frances Berry Distinguished University Professor Emerita of Urban Planning at University of Michigan.
The lecture series gives doctoral students the opportunity to learn from and engage with leading scholars in a variety of fields related to public policy. Four speakers will participate during the 2020-21 academic year, two in each semester. The lecture series is geared to graduate students, faculty and alumni of our Ph.D. program, and it is open to public.
Thomas’ talk will be entitled “"Racial Challenges for Ethics, Urban Professionals.” The lecture will take place virtually via Zoom from 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Thomas writes about race relations and social justice issues, largely in U. S cities. She explores these issues for the field of urban and regional planning in Thomas and Ritzdorf, eds., Urban Planning and the African American Community: In the Shadows (Sage, 1996); Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit (Wayne State University Press, 2013); and Dewar and Thomas, ed.s, The City after Abandonment (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).
Thomas’ writing also focuses upon strategies for distressed communities in cities such as Detroit, as in the above plus Thomas and Bekkering, ed.s, Mapping Detroit: Evolving Land Use Patterns and Connections (Wayne State University Press, 2015). Other topics explored in journal articles include diversification of the profession, community development challenges in cities such as Detroit, and the evolution of ethics in urban planning. She has recently completed a book-length manuscript on school desegregation up until and during the civil rights era in South Carolina, now under review, as a way to study the lingering effects of racial injustice.
For more information, contact Dr. Harper-Anderson at elharperande@vcu.edu.