about SPIA...

_________________

Two faculty positions open:

Virginia Tech’s School of Public & International Affairs (SPIA) invites applications for two tenure-track faculty positions in its Urban Affairs & Planning (UAP) program to start August 2010: a senior position at Blacksburg and junior position at the NCR campus.  For the junior position, a doctorate is required by the start date in planning or a related field.  Applications and supporting documents (except reference letters) must be submitted online at www.jobs.vt.edu (paper documents cannot be accepted), reference posting #090558 for the senior position or #090557 for the junior position.   Application review will begin November 1, 2009.

For a complete announcement, including necessary application materials, click here...

Virginia Tech is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

_________________

Geopolitics Conference:

A one-day conference,Tuesday 13 April 2010, at the Alexandria Lyceum Hall, 201 South Washington Street, Alexandria, Virginia.
Flyer | More info...

_________________

Now available:

2008-2009 Report of Faculty Research and Scholarship...

View the new, interactive, online College of Architecture and Urban Studies magazine to see video, slideshows, and read about the top news of the School of Public and International Affairs. www.caus.vt.edu/09magazine

_________________

SPIA goes to ACSP
Oct 1-4, 2009
More info about presentations and other events...

_________________

SPIA Awards
List of Recipients...

___________

SPIA Speakers Series...

The standing of our faculty was well acknowledged by the university promoting three of them to position of full professor: Wilma Dunaway, Anne Khademian, and Robert Lang. Three of our faculty received service awards: Jesse Richardson for ten years’ service, John Browder for twenty, and Larkin Dudley for the impressive loyalty of thirty years’ service. Based on this year’s output, faculty produced two articles and one book chapter each year and one book every four years–a very impressive record. This year the SPIA faculty published nine books, twenty-six book-chapters, and fifty-nine refereed journal articles. In addition, there are four books, thirty-three book-chapters and thirty-one articles currently in press. Faculty gave ninety-three conference papers, edited six journals and served on a further thirty-three editorial boards. Their work was supported by thirty-four grants and a further eleven applications are under consideration.

The research of SPIA faculty continues to be internationally recognized.  Two of our new faculty received high honors.  Our adjunct and affiliated faculty complemented their teaching with their own research publications.  Our graduate students have also been actively publishing their research in leading journals, and several of them were also central to the creation of a new journal, Public Knowledge; http://pkjournal.org/blog/.

We had two of our programs evaluated this year. The Master of Public Administration was subject to an accreditation visit from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. The Master of Urban and Regional Planning was evaluated by the Planning Accreditation Board. Both these visits required much input by many faculty as they prepared documents and responded to requests for information. I think both site teams were impressed with our professionalism and commitment to vocational training.

This year CPAP established a new Graduate Certificate Program in Local Government Management. The first cohort of local government employees seeking the certificate entered the program in Fall 2008 under the aegis of a contract between the VLGMA and the Office of Outreach and Professional Education, bringing in much-needed external resources (including a graduate assistantship).

The presidential election this year saw many faculty contribute significantly to the university’s mission of engagement with the wider society.  Faculty continued to publish reflections upon public affairs in popular venues and to work with community groups while also involving students in research that engages partners from the community.  Faculty are also involved with a wide range of professional and academic bodies.

SPIA shares the University’s concern that we pursue inclusive excellence, addressing the multicultural diversity and systemic inequities of the community within and beyond the campus. Three of our public events addressed this explicitly.

• In our first event, we raised the issue of voter registration and perceived attempts to marginalize students by the diffusion of unfounded concerns about the risks they ran if they registered to vote in Blacksburg.
• Secondly, we brought to Blacksburg the leading scholar of the racial dimensions of environmental justice, Robert Bullard, and then we brought to campus a leading scholar and activist on issues of racial justice and urban planning, Mindy Fullilove.
• In addition, one of our graduate students, Leah Wickham, organized a high profile event on the crime of sex trafficking in women. All these events were covered by the student newspaper.