Launched in the summer of 2006, Urbanagora was originally conceived as an ongoing debate between two students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Billy Joe Mills and Brian Pierce. Since that time, Urbanagora has transformed into a thriving community of contributors, commenters, and readers from all points on the political spectrum. Though not always successful, we try to engage each other at all times with intellectual honesty, civility, and good humor.
No topic is off-limits here and no opinion is too radical. There is no favored style or form: some of our posts will be lengthy essays on serious issues; others will be brief thoughts that pop into our heads; others will be pointers to things we think are funny. When we think a post is of particular interest for whatever reason, we’ll highlight it as a “featured post” at the top of the page.
The agora was the center of civic life in Athens. In that spirit, Urbanagora’s contributors are among the best and brightest commentators and leaders connected to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Eight were columnists for the Daily Illini, five taught courses for the University, two were elected President of the student body and one was elected Vice President, and two recently published their first books. Our writers have led a variety of campus organizations ranging from the ACLU to the Chess Club, from PRIDE to Collegians for Life, from the Campus Greens to the Federalist Society, and we’ve worked in professional politics for both Democrats and Republicans.
Several of our contributors have moved on from the University of Illinois or will do so in the next couple years. Many have migrated to Washington, DC; others to Chicago. One of us is currently living in Berlin, another in Vienna, one spends half his time in Spain, and another will soon be moving to London for a few months. Our interests and areas of expertise are just as diverse: law, economics, international relations, science, art, philosophy, sports, and more.
You can learn more about each of our contributors by going to their individual author pages linked in the sidebar, and if you want to contact us about something website related, you can email us at urbanagora at gmail dot com. Otherwise, feel free to comment – that’s what keeps the blog lively and its contributors motivated.
