Dr. Scott Markley (National Zoning Atlas) has been selected to receive the 2025 Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award.
This annual award is given to a promising Ph.D. candidate or early-career researcher whose work demonstrates a commitment to rigorous and impactful research and service. It was renamed in 2004 in honor of Alma H. Young to commemorate her long-standing service to the Urban Affairs Association (UAA) and her particular commitment to mentoring graduate students and junior faculty.
AWARD COMMITTEE ASSESSMENT
Dr. Scott Markley has been unanimously selected as the Alma H. Young Emerging Scholar Award winner for 2025. Scott completed his PhD from the University of Georgia (Athens, GA) in spring 2023. His dissertation was entitled: Planning Spatial Obsolescence: Racial Capitalism, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, and the Production of Racialized Devaluation. Scott published two academic papers from his master’s work focusing on transformations of Atlanta’s inner suburbs prior to beginning his doctoral work. His dissertation work on HOLC maps is drawing attention, and he has published four peer-reviewed articles in high-impact journals since graduating in 2023. Since he completed his master’s degree, he has published a total of 17 scholarly works.
AWARD RECIPIENT BIO
Scott Markley holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Georgia and is currently the Research Director for the National Zoning Atlas. His research and teaching bridge critical urban theory with spatial analysis to improve how planners, scholars, activists, and policymakers can understand and address racially uneven sub/urban development. As part of this effort, he also produces spatial datasets to assist others investigating related questions. His dissertation reassesses how scholars have studied the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s (HOLC) misnamed “redlining” maps, reframing the HOLC mapping program as part of a larger state-backed spatial data science initiative to help property investors better predict home value trajectories by conflating whiteness with value and Blackness with anti-value. This and related work has appeared in Urban Studies, Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Environment & Planning B and D, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Scientific Data, and elsewhere. Over the past two years, he has been a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University.
AWARD PRESENTATION
The formal presentation of this award will be made at the upcoming International Conference on Urban Affairs in Vancouver, BC, Canada, at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre. The theme of this year’s conference is Urban Concentration: Challenges to Equity, Mobility, and Sustainability. The conference will convene over 900 participants from 55+ countries and representing 20+ fields of study. All award recipients will be formally recognized for their achievements during the Awards and Recognition Program on April 16, 2025; 3:00–4:15pm.
AWARD COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Stacy Moak, University of Alabama Birmingham (Chair); Anna Livia Brand, University of California, Berkeley; Stefan Chavez-Norgaard, University of Denver; Tyler Haupert, NYU Shanghai; Matthew McLeskey, Oswego State College, SUNY
ABOUT THE URBAN AFFAIRS ASSOCIATION
The Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is an international professional organization for 1000+ urban scholars, researchers, policy analysts, & public service providers. UAA is dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life. Through theoretical, empirical, and action-oriented research, UAA fosters diverse activities to understand and shape a more just and equitable urban world.
In addition to hosting an annual conference, UAA sponsors ongoing professional development opportunities; Upsilon Sigma: The Urban Studies Honor Society; and two peer-reviewed journals, the Journal of Urban Affairs and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City. You can find UAA on the web, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Facebook, and X.
