Contact Info
Costas Spirou is currently accepting and scheduling areas of expertise interviews. Please use the information below to arrange a meeting.
Campus: Chicago
Email: cspirou@nl.edu
Phone: 312.261.3420
Need Help?
Contact NLU Public Relations to find and schedule an interview with the best source for your story.
Tracy Kremer
Senior Manager of PR & Social Media
312.261.3847
Biography
Costas Spirou’s scholarly inquiry has broadly centered on social and community development, investigating the interplay of structure and agency within the urban environment. By utilizing an interdisciplinary perspective his research includes culture industries and the dynamics of cultural policy and redevelopment, private-public partnerships, urban tourism, race/ethnicity and social inequality, issues of governance and mobilization, sport and the political economy of stadium and convention/entertainment center development.
Recent work includes It's Hardly Sportin': Stadium, Neighborhoods and the New Chicago (2003), St. Charles: Culture and Leisure in an All-American Town (2005), articles in Urban Affairs Review, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Sociological Imagination and chapters in numerous academic volumes. His professional activities have been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Spencer Foundation, the Library of Congress, the Ford Foundation and the Sam Walton Foundation. He has engaged in policy debates and has developed an active public scholarship agenda. Appearances and contributions to print and broadcast outlets include the Chicago Tribune, Crain's Chicago Business, the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Public Radio (Chicago NPR affiliate), WGN, the Daily Herald, WTTW11 (Chicago PBS affiliate), The Kansas City Star, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette amongst others.
He is currently working on a book-length manuscript titled From the White City to the Tourist City: Daniel Burnham, Richard M. Daley and the making of Chicago (with Dennis Judd).
Education
Ph.D., Loyola University ChicagoPublications
Books
It's Hardly Sportin': Stadiums, Neighborhoods, and the New Chicago (2003) Northern Illinois University Press (with L. Bennett). Reviewed by Enterprise and Society, American Journal of Sociology, Urban Affairs Review, Perspectives on Politics, Journal of the Illinois Historical Society, Indiana Magazine of History, International Journal of the History of Sport.
St. Charles: The Rise of Culture and Leisure in an All-American Town (2005) Arcadia Press. Book received a 2005 “Award of Merit” by the Illinois Association of Museums.
Articles and Chapters
"Back to the Center: Metropolitan Expansion and the New Downtowns of Culture and Urban Tourism” (forthcoming 2008). Chapter contribution in The Metropolitan Century: Los Angeles, New York , Chicago, and International Cities in Current Urban Scholarship, edited by Dennis R. Judd and Dick Simpson.
More at http://faculty.nl.edu/cspirou/publicationscv.htm.
Presentations
2008 “Revitalization and the Evolution of Urban Precincts” Paper presentation at the Annual Meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society, March 27–March 30th, St. Louis, MO.
2007 "From the White City to the Tourist City: Daniel Burnham, Richard M. Daley and the Making of Chicago" Invited Presentation at The Great Cities Institute Speakers Series, University of Illinois at Chicago, November 20, Chicago , IL.
2007 “Race, Class and the Dynamics of Social Action in Stadium Development” Invited Presentation at the City and Sport Symposium, University of Otago, November, 1-4th, Dunedin, New Zealand.
2007 “The Rise of a New Chicago School” Presentation at the Annual Joint Meetings of the Illinois Sociological Association and Illinois Political Science Association, October 26-27, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL.
2007 “Issues of Structure and Agency in Chicago’s Urban Development” Panel Organizer and Moderator at the Urban Affairs Association Meeting, April 25-28th, Seattle, WA.
2007 “The Road to Revival: Downtown Redevelopment Policy of Chicago's Satellite Industrial Cities” Paper presentation at the Urban Affairs Association Meeting, April 25-28, Seattle, WA.
2007 "Interconnected Destinies: Chicago's Primacy and the New Development Path of Culture Industries and Urban Tourism." Invited Presentation at Theorizing Cities of the Left, Right, and Third Coast: Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago in Urban Scholarship Symposium. University of Illinois at Chicago, April 10-11.
2007 “Urban Development and Policy Implications” Panel Organizer and Moderator at the Midwest Sociological Society Meeting, April 4-7 th, Chicago , IL.
2006 “Service Learning in the Urban Environment” at the Annual Meeting of the Illinois Sociological Association, October 5-6 th, Augustana College, Rock Island, IL.
2006 “Tourism and Infrastructural Development in Chicago ” Paper presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, March 7-11 th, Chicago, IL.
2006 “Cultural Policy and Urban Restructuring in Chicago ” Paper presentation at the Annual Meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society, March 30th –April 2nd, Omaha, NE.
2006 “Culture and Leisure as Economic Development at the end of the Nineteenth Century" Presented opening lecture at the 2006 St. Charles Public Lecture Series February 9. St. Charles Carnegie Library, St. Charles, IL.
Images
Video
Press Releases
Coming soon.News
Interview: Trade Shows Taking a Hit in Chicago Trade Shows Taking a Hit in Chicago (Chicago Public Radio, Eight Forty-Eight, June 2, 2009)
Interview: The Children's Museum's Effect on Navy Pier (Chicago Public Radio, Eight Forty-Eight, April 23, 2008)
Op-Ed For 2016 games boosters should take lesson from 1893 (Crain's Chicago Business, June 4, 2007)
Interview: How to Show off Chicago (Chicago Tribune, October 29, 2006)
Interview: City Savors Big Win on Trade Show (Chicago Tribune, July 21, 2006)
Op-Ed Chicago must take action to reclaim its edge in convention biz (Crain's Chicago Business, June 26, 2006)
Interview: Urban Tourism and Economic Development in Chicago (Chicago Public Radio, Eight Forty-Eight, June 7, 2006)
Op-Ed Expansion projects like McCormick can be risky business (Crain's Chicago Business, April 24, 2006)
Interview: Who’s Millennium Park for? (Chicago Public Radio, Eight Forty-Eight, July 16, 2004)
Interview: Are Chicago's Professional Sports Stadiums Good Neighboors (Chicago Tribune, April 17, 2003)
More at http://faculty.nl.edu/cspirou/media.htm.