Call for Proposals

12th Annual Atlanta Studies Symposium

From Diaries to Data: The Unfolding Stories of Atlanta

May 2, 2025

Morehouse College

Shirley Massey Executive Conference Center

Atlanta, Georgia

Throughout human history, from the earliest Cro-Magnons to today’s virtual reality, we have used stories and narratives to communicate with each other. Stories are the way we process the vast amounts of information we receive into a coherent whole. From Sam Richards’ diaries to “The City Too Busy to Hate” to the lyrics of OutKast, metro Atlanta has created and shaped its own narratives. But are those stories always true? Whose stories get told? And which stories should be told? What happens when the stories conflict? Do we tell of Atlanta as the “Black Mecca”? Or a metropolitan region with high levels of income inequality? Are we the City of Trees? Or a city that pays lip service to ecological concerns?  

The Atlanta Studies Symposium invites participants to consider the many stories of metro Atlanta and how we tell them. Questions one might explore under this theme could include, but are in no way limited to:

• Data Analytics and AI
  • How has data analytics and data mining changed Atlanta’s story? What new information is coming to light that helps us see the city afresh?
  • AI harnesses tremendous power, but it also consumes tremendous energy. Can it change the way Atlanta grows in the future? How will it shape the policies and decisions that move us forward? Will it make us more or less equitable?
• Arts and Culture
  • Atlanta has become an epicenter of the cultural universe. Media, music, influencers, fashion, etc. have roots in Atlanta. What are the myriad ways we have told our stories?
  • Who decides which stories are told? And who are the storytellers? How can Atlanta bring a voice to so many that have not been heard?
• Urban Planning and Design
  • The very streets (layouts and names) tell a narrative about Atlanta: who had power and who did not. Can that narrative be changed?
  • How do we design a future Atlanta that gives more opportunity while protecting what makes us unique?
  • How do we change Atlanta’s story of car-centric growth at all costs to one of smart design and environmental sustainability?
• Housing and Affordability
  • For decades, metro Atlanta was a place of opportunity where people from across the world could travel to find a more affordable place to live. How do we maintain an affordable city?
• History and Archives
  • For too long, Atlanta’s story was linked to Gone with the Wind. Then it was the Civil Rights Movement. But which stories were left out? Which stories remain to be told?
  • Over the past thirty years, Atlanta has been the home of a cultural explosion. How are we keeping the data necessary for future generations to tell those stories? Who is creating the archives of today?

In addition to these questions, researchers and contributors to the symposium might consider the role of environmental sustainability, public health, economic development, and education in Atlanta’s narratives. The multidisciplinary approach, which includes the humanities, social sciences, planning, engineering, sciences, and the arts, will provide a broad perspective on the complex and evolving interplay of the Unfolding Stories of Atlanta and the diverse forces that have influenced and will continue to influence us for generations.

This year, we seek a diverse array of symposium sessions from scholars and practitioners at academic institutions and public, private, and nonprofit organizations. We welcome proposals for:

• Fully constituted panels with up to 4 presenters and a moderator
• Individual papers or posters
• Roundtable discussions
• Interactive workshops
• Film screenings
• Any other creative form of presentation you’d like to propose

Please submit abstracts via this Google form no later than January 24, 2025 February 14, 2025.

Notifications will be sent out by mid-February 2025 early March 2025.

If you have questions about the event or proposals, please contact atlantastudiessymposium@gmail.com.

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Symposium Organizing Committee

Keith Hollingsworth, Chair, Professor, Business Administration (Morehouse College)

Brennan Collins, Associate Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (Georgia State University)

Vicki Crawford, Director, Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Collection and Professor of Africana Studies (Morehouse College)

Marni Davis, Associate Professor of History (Georgia State University)

Timothy Frilingos, Director of Exhibitions (Morehouse College)

Katherine Hankins, Professor and Chair, Department of Geosciences (Georgia State University)

Thomas Jackson, African American Studies Librarian (AUC Robert Woodruff Library)

Jesse P. Karlsberg, Senior Digital Scholarship Strategist, Emory Center for Digital Scholarship (Emory University)

LeeAnn Lands, Professor of History (Kennesaw State University)

Brandeis Marshall, Data Equity Strategist and Computer Scientist (DataedX Group, LLC)

Todd Michney, Associate Professor, School of History and Sociology (Georgia Tech)

Ben Miller, Associate Teaching Professor of Writing, Quantitative Theory and Methods (Emory University).

Stuart Minson, Associate Director, Atlanta Global Studies Center (Georgia Tech)

Domonic Purviance, Subject Matter Expert (Atlanta – Federal Reserve Bank)

J. Marshall Shepherd, Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor/Associate Dean for Research, Scholarship and Partnerships in Geography and Atmospheric Sciences (University of Georgia)