Glasgow may be 'Scotland with Style' by why is it considered a Second City? How are Second Cities evaluated and measured? A symposium held by the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies at the University of Glasgow is set to answer these questions.

The interdisciplinary symposium on Second Cities, will be held on 30 April - 1 May at the University's Business School. Speakers from both sides of the Atlantic, in a variety of disciplines including history, politics, geography, architecture and media studies will gather to explore how 'Second Cities' are defined and what their cultural, economic and political roles have been and continue to be.

"Using Glasgow, the self-styled Second City of the British Empire, as a vantage point, the symposium will also feature other case studies such as Manchester, Cork, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles," explains Marina Moskowitz, Director of the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies.

"In a lot of cases the non-capital city of a country, or 'Second City', is more accurately representative of the country, its people and culture."

Speakers include Professor John Hepp from Wilkes University Philadelphia, who is about to conduct research comparing Glasgow and Philadelphia.

"About ten years ago, while I was a graduate student in North Carolina, at a party I played a song entitled "Beat up guitar" by a Philadelphia rock band," explains Professor Hepp, "Imagine my surprise when fellow students from Scotland informed me that there were similar lyrics in Glasgow. Ever since that chance encounter I have been fascinated by the number of similarities between the two cities and have been trying to frame a research project that would develop a meaningful and interesting comparison between them."

Beatriz Garc￭a from the Cultural Centre from Research Policy will present a paper adding to the debate through discussing Glasgow's cultural role in post-devolution Scotland, the UK and beyond.

All are welcome to attend. For further programme and registration information, please consult: Andrew Hook Home Page; if there are further queries, please contact: secondcities@hotmail.com.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

For further details contact Mike Findlay in the University Press Office on 0141 330-8593 or email: m.findlay@admin.gla.ac.uk, or contact Marina Moskowitz at the Andrew Hook Centre for American Studies on 0141 330 2962 or email: M.Moskowitz@modhist.arts.gla.ac.uk.

First published: 29 April 2004