|
Myron Orfield, director of the Institute on Race and Poverty (IRP) and associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Law, has been named the 2005–2006 Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs. Orfield’s appointment, announced this past June, was made by the interim dean of the Graduate School, Victor Bloomfield, based on recommendations from CURA’s nominating committee.
The Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs is one of four endowed chairs and two named professorships made possible through a generous contribution to the University of Minnesota by David R. and Elizabeth P. Fesler. The Fesler-Lampert Endowment in Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies was initially established in 1985 to stimulate interdisciplinary research and teaching through the appointment of distinguished, broadly learned scholars to endowed faculty positions at the University of Minnesota.
CURA director Tom Scott praised Orfield’s selection, saying that “both his recent research and his work throughout his career exemplify the purposes and intent of the Fesler-Lampert Chair.” Orfield’s research has embraced a broad range of urban affairs issues, from socioeconomic and land-use policies to civil rights and election trends. During the last decade, he has served as executive director of the nonprofit Metropolitan Area Research Corporation and president of the demographic research firm Ameregis (a position he still holds), and he is currently a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His most recent book, American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality (Brookings Institution Press, 2002), analyzes economic, racial, environmental, and political trends in the 25 largest metropolitan regions in the United States. Using detailed case studies, Orfield explains how social isolation and sprawling development in these regions limit opportunities for the poor, diminish quality of life, and threaten the environment, and then outlines a comprehensive strategy for addressing these problems. In addition to his research activities, Orfield served in the Minnesota state legislature for more than a decade, where he was actively involved in legislation addressing metropolitan land use planning, fiscal inequality, and regional governance issues.
Orfield plans to use the resources provided by his appointment to analyze the evolving legal authority and responsibilities of the Metropolitan Council in light of several ongoing or recently settled lawsuits against the Met Council, as well as state and federal court interpretations of similar metropolitan governance statutes in other jurisdictions. Orfield hopes to couple his analysis with recent demographic research on the Twin Cities metro area, both to benchmark the performance of our regional legal framework and to suggest how this framework might address racial and social segregation in Twin Cities schools and neighborhoods.
Myron Orfield joins a distinguished list of University faculty who have held the Fesler-Lampert Chair in recent years, including Ann Markusen of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Patrick Brezonik of the Department of Civil Engineering, Eugene Borgida of the Department of Psychology, Dennis Ahlburg of the Department of Industrial Relations, and John Adams of the Department of Geography.
The Fesler-Lampert Endowment is intended as a tribute to David Fesler’s grandfathers, Bert Fesler and Jacob Lampert. The Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs is appointed for a one-year period and receives approximately $42,000 for research, salary, and logistical support. The funds are jointly administered by the University of Minnesota Foundation and the University of Minnesota.
Return to CURA News and Notes |
