For nearly two centuries, the rural-urban divide has served as one of the great dichotomies in both the conceptual and organizational structuring of the United States; and perhaps in no region more than the American West. This conference seeks to complicate such characterizations in the modern West and explore the increasingly porous nature of the rural-urban divide in the late-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Moreover, the event promises to offer an important intellectual bridge between urban and rural scholars within the West, aiming to advance an interdisciplinary discussion on the interconnected relationship between the region’s cities and its countryside.
Agenda
Friday, April 4, 2014
Panel 1: Agriculture's New Landscapes: From Rural Fields to Urban Gardens
Andre Robichaud
Stanford University
Julie Guthman
UC Santa Cruz
Ann Thrupp
Director, UC Berkeley Food Institute
J. Arbuckle
Iowa State University
Patrick Archie
Moderator
Panel 2: Economies in the Countryside
Jonathan Simon
UC Berkeley
Bryan Holmes
Assoc. Warden, California State Prison, Mule Creek
Mike Koewler
Owner, Sacramento Rendering Company
Michael Kahan
Stanford University
John McChesney
Moderator
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Panel 3: Labor Regimes and the Shifting Politics of Immigration
Kathy Olmstead
UC Davis
Kelly Richter
Stanford University
Matt Garcia
Arizona State University
Mario Sifuentez
Moderator
Panel 4: Politics and the Changing Demographic Tide
Panel 5: Problems of Fluidity: Water in the Modern West
Burke Griggs
Stanford; University of Kansas
Brad Udall
University of Colorado
Ellen Hanak
PPIC
Leon Szeptycki
Moderator
Panel 6: Booms and Busts: Housing the Golden
Hugo Lefebvre
Stanford
Destin Jenkins
Stanford Graduate Student
Larry Rosenthal
UC Berkeley
Fred Stout
Moderator