The Scholarship of Social Engagement Symposium was arranged by the University of Kansas on 20th-21st October, 2016. The symposium had been initiated to bring presenters together for the discussion and dissemination of research on design and work concerning social engagement. The symposium offered the establishment of a global network of scholars who are currently developing a theoretical ground to assess the scope, limitation, diversities and possibilities of social engagement. This report presents a summary of the event and my involvement at the event as a speaker.
The two-days program included 31 academic presentations with seven sessions covering scholarships on history, theory, urban design, practice and open issues. The paper was presented in the session “Open Issues” with the title “Integration of public participation in heritage management: a possibility for safeguarding heritage in South Asia”. The presentation dealt with my research development which I made since my presentation in the 50th annual RSA conference in April, 2016. At the beginning of the presentation I introduced RSA travel grant and explained how the grant award helped me to plan my trip to Lawrence, Kansas. My talk was about heritage conditions in South Asian megacities and laid the focus on the question, how public participation can be a possibility to safeguard heritage in future. Often there is a big gap between theory and practice regarding the involvement of communities in restoration projects, affecting the development of restoration processes. The paper presented a survey analysis to assess how effective public participation can be implemented in the context of South Asian megacities. The panel was chaired by Mr. Joseph Krupozynski, associate professor from the University of Massachusetts. The discussion panel gave an overview along with questions and feedbacks from the audience. At the end of the session there were few minutes left and I took the opportunity to talk more about RSA initiatives to the audience. It was a privilege for me to participate in this academic platform with the support of the Regional Studies Association travel grant.
The presentation can be accessible from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tanzia_Islam