Assistant Professor Haifeng Qian and recent alum, Shiqin (Shirley) Liu, have won Urban Affairs Association’s (UAA) award for 2018 Best Conference Paper. The paper titled, "Cultural Entrepreneurship in U.S. Cities” has also been accepted for publication at Journal of Urban Affairs, the flagship journal of the UAA.
Qian’s areas of expertise include regional and local economic development, entrepreneurship and innovation, and public policy analysis. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Annals of Regional Science, Economic Development Quarterly, Environment and Planning A, Growth and Change, Journal of Economic Geography, Journal of Technology Transfer, Regional Science Policy & Practice, Regional Studies, Small Business Economics, and Urban Studies.
Liu, class of 2017, began collaborating with Qian while working on her Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa. She is now a PhD student in Law and Public Policy at the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University, in Boston, MA. The paper was originally presented at UAA’s 2017 conference in Minneapolis.
Their research examines why some U.S. cities have more start-up firms in the cultural industries than others. This analysis will help urban planners or policy makers be better able to assist cultural entrepreneurs and understand the urban factors that can attract or discourage them. In particular, their research addresses the importance of urban amenities or quality of life to cultural entrepreneurs ,and meanwhile recommends public efforts to promote inclusiveness and diversity when adopting amenities-based cultural entrepreneurship policy.
Qian and Liu’s work was recently acknowledged at the UAA annual conference, held this year in Toronto, Canada, where they received the award and an honorarium. More details are available in the press release.
Pictured from left to right: Haifeng Qian, Renia Ehrenfeucht, Committee Chair (University of New Mexico) and Shiqin Liu. Copyright Robert Levy.