Event

Peter Dreier, the Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Program at Occidental College in Los Angeles, will deliver the 24th Annual Urban Studies Public Lecture. His presentation, entitled  "Is There Hope for American Cities? A Cautiously
Optimistic View", will take place on November 14, 2008 at 4 p.m. in the Logan Auditorium in Claudia Cohen Hall (formerly Logan Hall, 249 South 36th Street). The lecture is free and is open to the public.

Dreier is coauthor of The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (with Regina Freer, Bob Gottlieb, and Mark Vallianatos: 2006) and Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century (with John Mollenkopf and Todd Swanstrom, 2005), winner of the American Political Science Association's Michael Harrington Book Award for the "outstanding book that demonstrates how scholarship can be used in the
struggle for a better world." He also co-authored Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (with Manuel Pastor, Eugene Grigsby, and Marta Lopez-Garza: 2000). He co-edited Up Against the Sprawl: Public Policy and the Making of Southern California with Jennifer Wolch and Manuel Pastor. In addition to books, Professor Dreier has published for a wide range of audiences in policy and political journals, mainstream and alternative presses, and on-line. For his publications and activities,
see his website http://employees.oxy. edu/dreier.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, he spent more than three decades involved in Urban Policy as a scholar, government of!cial, journalist, and advocate for reform. Dreier is an activist in civic and political affairs at both the national and local levels. He has served and continues to be active on committees and task forces to address issues of housing affordability, economic development, political reform, education reform, and growth policy. He has worked closely with a wide range of community organizations, labor
unions, and public interest organizations, and has worked as a consultant for a variety of foundations and government agencies nationally and locally in Los Angeles and Boston. He has worked with community organizing groups such as ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation.

Professor Dreier has written widely on American politics and public policy, specializing urban politics and policy, housing policy, community development, and community organizing. He writes regularly on urban politics and community activism for such publications as Dissent, American Prospect, The Nation, and The Huf!ngton Post. He is frequently quoted as an expert on housing and urban issues in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and Philadelphia Inquirer. Prior to joining the faculty at Occidental, Dr. Dreier served as the Director of Housing at the Boston Redevelopment Authority and senior policy advisor to Boston Mayor Ray Flynn.

The lecture is an integral part of of the academic mission of the Urban Studies program Each spring, juniors in the program have the opportunity to select an eminent scholar in Urban Studies to deliver the annual lecture. In their senior seminar, students read that person's work as an exemplar of urban research. They have an opportunity to meet with the lecturer during a special noon-time seminar.