The Urban Affairs Association (UAA), the international professional association for urban scholars, researchers and public service professionals, convened its 49th Annual Conference in Los Angeles, April 24-27, 2019. More than 1,000 participants, representing universities, research institutions, and non-profit, public, and private sector organizations, from around the world, met to discuss current issues impacting urban populations and places. Conference participants represented institutions from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Local sponsors for the event included:
- The University of California, Los Angeles | Luskin School of Public Affairs
- The University of California, Irvine | Urban Planning and Public Policy
- California State University, Los Angeles | Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs
- The University of California, Los Angeles | Department of Public Policy | Institute on Inequality and Democracy | Latino Policy and Politics Initiative
During the conference, awards were presented in recognition of outstanding scholarship and service. Among those honored was John Hull Mollenkopf (CUNY Graduate Center). Mollenkopf was awarded the fifth ever Contribution to the Field of Urban Affairs Award, which is given to individuals whose body of work has contributed to defining the field.
Award Committee Assessment:
“We are pleased to recognize Dr. John Mollenkopf, a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Urban Research at CUNY Graduate Center, with the Contribution to the Field of Urban Affairs Award. The committee concurs with one of his recommenders that Dr. Mollenkopf is an internationally influential urban scholar, a dedicated mentor with protégés scattered across the scholarly and applied urban landscape, and an influential applied researcher. Beyond an impressive scholarly imprint in the study of urban politics–as evidenced through cutting-edge and influential books, articles, and applied publications–Dr. Mollenkopf’s commitment to developing institutions to support comparative and international research has influenced numerous scholars and will bear fruit for decades to come.”
Award Committee:
Thomas Skuzinski, Committee Chair (Virginia Tech), Vladimir Kogan (Ohio State University), Clarissa Freitas (Federal University of Ceara), Julia Nevarez (Kean University), and Leslie Martin (University of Mary Washington).
Award Winner:
John Mollenkopf is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center and directs its Center for Urban Research. His eighteen books analyze urban politics, urban policy, and the role of race, ethnicity, and immigration. Receiving his PhD at Harvard University, he began his academic career studying pro-growth coalitions and their opponents in The Contested City (Princeton University Press, 1983) and teaching urban studies at Stanford University. His recent work examines immigrant incorporation. His Unsettled Americans (Cornell University Press, 2016), co-edited with Manuel Pastor, analyzes political responses to immigration across U.S. metropolitan areas. His Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age (Russell Sage Foundation, 2009), co-authored with Philip Kasinitz, Mary Waters, and Jennifer Holdaway, won the 2010 Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociological Association. He is currently exploring how the rise of new immigrant communities has reshaped New York City politics since 2001. He has been a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences, a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam and Sciences Po, Paris, and directed an urban studies exchange program with Humboldt University, Berlin.
