Research & Thought Leadership
GLUE builds on the foundational scholarship of Dr. John Austin, whose landmark “Renewing the Great Lakes Region” research for the Brookings Institution diagnosed the deindustrialization crisis and proposed a regional strategy for economic revitalization. Austin emphasized that without bold, intentional, and inclusive policy frameworks, the Rust Belt would remain stagnant and fragmented. GLUE takes up that charge with a targeted racial equity lens—focusing not just on economic development, but on who benefits from it.
Dr. Henry Louis Taylor Jr
Dr. Henry Louis Taylor Jr. has pioneered a new lens on urban history and neighborhood development from the grassroots. Through his leadership at the University at Buffalo’s Center for Urban Studies, Taylor has argued that systemic disempowerment of Black communities in post-industrial cities is not merely a product of neglect—it’s a deliberate outcome of urban planning decisions, economic policies, and racialized spatial control. GLUE draws from Taylor’s framework of structural urban dislocation, and commits to organizing communities for power, place-based investment, and narrative change.