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URW 2004-2005: Mexico City and New York
The theme of the 2004-05 workshop was "Sustainability in an International Urban Context." The workshop had two components: individual, intensive, yearlong, comparative research projects and an event series. Participants in the workshop conducted intensive field work in New York City in the fall semester. Over the winter break, participants travel to one pre-selected city to conduct comparative fieldwork. Students spent their spring semester writing a research paper based upon their fieldwork in New York and Mexico City. In addition to the research projects, students organized and attended a public bi-weekly speaker series in which experts were invited to discuss their perspectives and their own research on the workshop theme (see Speaker Series for more info). The fall semester was dedicated to examining the theoretical dimensions of the workshop theme. Over Winter break, students traveled to Mexico City (see photos below)where they met with a range of key figures who taught them about sustainable development in the local context, and engaged in specific research pertaining to their individual topics. The spring semester focused on the practical dimensions of the theme. The workshop culminated in an individual final research paper.

Speaker Series

Issues of global urbanization, environmental and economic sustainability, smart growth, infrastructural demands, and urban poverty have thrust the field to the forefront of modern discourse around the globe. The problems and promise of the world's cities demand the attention of the greatest minds. The Urban Research Workshop, in conjunction with the Center for Urban Research and Policy, thus developed the speaker series, "Sustainability in an International Urban Context." Dedicated to pursuing an understanding of how cities around the world grapple with various issues of sustainability the Center hosted an exciting line-up of speakers who are experts in the fields of sustainability, globalization, and urban. In the fall, the theoretical issues of sustainability were explored; in the spring semesters, the focus of the series was on the practical dimensions of sustainability.

In 2004-2005 guest speakers included: David Harvey, Professor of Anthropology at CUNY; Saskia Sassen, Professor of Sociology at Chicago University; Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute, Professor of Sustainable Development Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University; Peter Marcuse, Professor of Urban Planning at Columbia University; Daniel Somers Smith, Assistant Professor at Ramapao College, Nazli Choucri, Professor of Political Science at MIT and director of the Global System for Sustainable Development; Hashim Sarksis, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism in Muslim societies at the Harvard Planning School."

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