(Posted January 22, 2007)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- James Howard Kunstler, a journalist and urban planning activist who came to the forefront of the urban planning debate with the publication of his book, "The Geography of Nowhere," will lecture at Juniata College at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 1, in Alumni Hall in the Brumbaugh Academic Center on the Juniata campus.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Kunstler's lectures often can contain harsh language.
"I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most people live and work," Kunstler says on his Web site biography.
Kunstler has written four books on urban planning issues, starting with "The Geography of Nowhere," which was followed by "Home From Nowhere" (1996), "The City in Mind: Notes on the Urban Condition" (2003), and "The Long Emergency" (2005). These four books, meant to be read as a series, examine the problems posed by urban blight. "Nowhere" tackled the problems faced by American communities, while "Home" offered solutions. "City in Mind" examines cities across the globe, citing examples of great and miserable cityscapes. "Emergency" takes on environmental issues and global warming.
Kunstler started his career as a newspaper journalist working as a reporter and feature writer for a number of daily newspapers after graduating from State University of New York, Brockport. He eventually joined the staff of Rolling Stone in the magazine's San Francisco offices in the 1970s and quit the magazine to write books in 1975.
He maintains an active career as a novelist, publishing nine works of fiction, including his latest, "Maggie Darling: A Modern Romance," and "Halloween Ball: An Embarrassment of Riches."
He has spoken on urban planning issues at such universities as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His journalism has appeared in such publications as the New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly and Rolling Stone.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.