March 25, 2015 The Center for Urban and Regional Studies sponsored a talk today by Allan Parnell, Ph.D., vice president of the Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities, called “Local Political Geography and Racial Inequality: Spatial Evidence from Advocacy and … Continued

September 10, 2014 Several North Carolina metropolitan areas are among those with the fastest growing poverty rates in the nation, according to a recent research study. Researchers and leaders from across the Triangle and Triad gathered at the Greensboro Poverty … Continued

This report examines poverty, unemployment, and per capita income at the U.S. Census tract level in North Carolina, updating a 2005 report. This deeper dive into the state’s most distressed areas using tract-level data reveals pockets of extreme distress in … Continued

Colin Thor West, assistant professor in anthropology, studies how households in semi-arid regions cope with limited or fluctuating natural resource availability and focuses on food security. One such region, the northern Central Plateau of Burkina Faso, lies in the Sahel … Continued

Colin West, Assistant Professor, Anthropology The Sahel of West Africa is a region commonly associated with desertification, droughts, political instability, and famine. Like many parts of Africa, the Sahel faces significant social, economic, and environmental challenges, and we mostly hear … Continued

A Brown Bag Seminar with nationally-recognized photographer Donn Young  What are the benefits of art and photography for research and solving social problems? How do artists work with social scientists to collaborate on research from the very beginning of a … Continued

Brown Bag Seminar with T. William Lester, Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning Conditions in the low-wage service sector are at an historically low level. Recent, high-profile efforts to increase wages and benefits follow a two-decade long pattern of attempting to improve … Continued