WINIR 2024 - Venue
The Ninth WINIR Conference will be held in Pittsburgh in southwest Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River, which combine to form the Ohio River. The city is known as the Steel City for its dominant role in the history of the US steel industry, the City of Bridges for its 446 bridges, and the Paris of Appalachia for its rich cultural offerings.
Long inhabited by the Shawnee and other settled groups of Native Americans, the region was claimed by the French Empire in the second half of the 17th century. In the 1750s, it was contested by the British Empire. Fort Pitt – erected by the British between 1759 and 1761 during the French and Indian War – and the surrounding villages built by settlers and traders were referred to as Pittsburg from 1758. After the American Revolutionary War in 1783, the growing town was incorporated as a borough in 1794 and a city in 1816.
Pittsburgh’s early manufacturing capability developed around boats and glass, but it was the city’s location in close proximity to a significant coalfield, at the junction of three navigable rivers, that set it down the path of industrialization. The War of 1812 cut off the supply of British goods, stimulating American industry. The arrival of steamboats boosted commerce. By 1815, Pittsburgh was producing significant quantities of iron, brass, and tin. Railroads built from the 1850s and the American Civil War in the 1860s increased the demand for iron, which by then could be produced at a significantly lower cost thanks to the Bessemer process. By the end of the war, more than half of the steel produced in America came from Pittsburgh.
The city’s industrial history is inextricably linked with the fortunes of industrialists such as Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, Andrew W. Mellon, and Henry J. Heinz, whose philanthropy shaped its cultural landscape. Carnegie left a particularly strong mark, endowing Pittsburgh with the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), alongside world-class libraries and museums. The city today offers a diverse intellectual profile, with a Cultural District boasting numerous performing arts venues, and attractions such as the Andy Warhol Museum.
We are pleased to hold this year’s conference at the University of Pittsburgh, one of the few universities and colleges established in the 18th century in the US. The conference is hosted by the Center for Governance and Markets (CGM), which is housed in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, and shares with WINIR a commitment to the study of diverse institutions and governance arrangements that affect social order and human well-being. The university is located 3 miles from downtown Pittsburgh in the Oakland neighbourhood of the city.
View the campus map here. More information about the venue coming soon.
Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) is around 20 miles from the city centre and the conference venue. The airport services around 8 million passengers annually and offers flights to more than 50 nonstop destinations on multiple carriers. Pittsburgh boasts outstanding public transportation, with cheap access to and from the airport (route 28X, see schedule here), and an extensive city network (See bus and rail schedules). Most major ride share companies, including Uber and Lyft, are available for ride requests from the airport (go to Door 4 near the baggage claim area).
There are plenty of relatively cheap accommodation options in proximity to the conference venue.