(NAME-MCE) Poverty Conference May 29–30, 2008

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Poverty Conference

May 29–30, 2008, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Continuing the seminal book series on poverty policy and research
which includes Fighting Poverty (1986), Confronting Poverty (1994),
and Understanding Poverty (2001), IRP is holding a conference on May
29–30, 2008, to discuss a new set of commissioned papers that consider
trends and determinants of poverty and inequality, the evolution of
poverty-related policy, and the consequences of poverty for families
and children.
IRP Director Maria Cancian will coedit the book with Sheldon Danziger,
codirector of the National Poverty Center, with financial support from
the Office of the Assistant Sec Secretary for Planning and Evaluation,
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.irp.wisc.edu/newsevents/conferences/poverty2008.htm

IRP is a center for interdisciplinary research into the causes and
consequences of poverty and social inequality in the United States. It
is based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As one of three Area
Poverty Research Centers sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, it has a particular interest in poverty and family
welfare in the Midwest.

 The Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) is a university-based
center for research into the causes and consequences of poverty and
social inequality in the United States. It is nonprofit and
nonpartisan.

The Institute was established in 1966 at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison by the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, the
organization given responsibility for reducing poverty in America. In
the years since then, the Institute's affiliates, who represent a
variety of disciplines, have formulated and tested basic theories of
poverty and inequality, developed and evaluated social policy
alternatives, and analyzed trends in poverty and economic well-being.

Most affiliates of the Institute hold regular teaching appointments at
the university and divide their time between teaching and research.
Some Institute affiliates are faculty members at other institutions
who visit the Institute regularly to consult with colleagues and to
present seminars. The Institute also hosts visiting scholars who, on
leave from their permanent affiliation, come to IRP to conduct
poverty-related research.

The principal activities of the Institute are sponsorship of the
original research of its members, dissemination of their findings, and
training and mentoring of future poverty researchers. Seminars,
workshops, conferences, a publications program that includes print and
electronic dissemination, and a challenging graduate student research
training program are designed to achieve those ends.

As a university-based research institution, the Institute operates
under University of Wisconsin regulations in receiving grants and
disbursing funds. Grants are administered by Institute support staff.
Appointments of the director and members of the Executive Committee
are made by the University's College of Letters and Science. Within
this framework the Institute is allowed substantial latitude in
building a staff and research program.

IRP is one of three Area Poverty Research Centers sponsored by the
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE)
in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The other two
area centers are the University of Kentucky Poverty Research Center
and the West Coast Poverty Research Center (WP/PRC), a new
collaborative venture linking the School of Social Work and the Evans
School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington with the
university's departments of Economics, Sociology, and Geography. The
WP/PRC will also collaborate with the Public Policy Institute of
California in dissemination and other activities. ASPE also sponsors a
National Poverty Center, located in the Gerald R. Ford School of
Public Policy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.