About UAA

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The Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, policy analysts, and public service professionals.

About
Mission
History
ABOUT

The Urban Affairs Association holds a conference each spring in an urban center. Recent conferences have taken place in New York, Nashville, Washington D.C., Montréal, Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago, Honolulu, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, San Antonio, Miami, and San Diego. 

These yearly conferences are an integral part of UAA’s efforts to increase knowledge about urban places and promote the development of research activities. They provide an excellent opportunity for members to exchange ideas, information, and experiences. The conference program features both topics of institutional concern and those related to urban issues. Although formal papers are presented, with selected papers published, the conference format also allows opportunities for informal activities designed to foster professional networking and open discussion.

In addition to the 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.

All UAA members receive the Journal of Urban Affairs and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City as part of their membership fee as well as discounted pricing for professional development opportunities.

MISSION

The Urban Affairs Association is dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life.  Through theoretical, empirical, and action-oriented research, the UAA fosters diverse activities to understand and shape a more just and equitable urban world. (Adopted March 12, 2010)

STRATEGIC GOALS

(adopted October 1, 2010)

  1. To foster education, professional development, and student mentoring in urban affairs;
  2. To foster and build the capacity among scholars, policymakers and other members of the community for collaboration on significant urban issues;
  3. To foster interdisciplinary scholarship on urban affairs;
  4. To offer a space for the examination of university engagement in urban communities such as service learning, engaged scholarship and university/community partnerships;
  5. To support university based urban affairs education, research and service; and
  6. To recruit, develop and sustain scholars to serve and influence the field of urban affairs and its institutions.
HISTORY