Overview
Why Study Cities in the 21st Century?
Cape Town and Buenos Aires: Through the prism of social justice, examine how global cities work and operate within the global economy. This program takes a holistic and interdisciplinary view of academic topics, drawing not only from articles and faculty lectures but also student observations, guest lectures, and excursions. Assignments typically involve written essays, oral presentations, and collaborative groupwork. Meet with thought leaders and academics, public agencies, planners, elected officials, nongovernmental organizations, and grassroots groups to see how urban citizens organize to envision, build and create more just cities. Along the way, you will focus on fieldwork methods, practice and ethics whilst completing an independent comparative project on a topic of your choice. By immersing yourself in these international cities undergoing rapid change, compare how global politics, economics, local geography, and culture shape social relations in cities across continents, and how each faces its own unique challenges.
Explore a Day in the Life of an IHP student!
Photos on this page may depict program sites from previous semesters. Please view the Program Sites section of this page to see where this program will travel in fall 2021.
Highlights
- Explore politics, economics, geography, and culture in the built environment.
- Learn how to critically “read” a city and understand interconnected systems.
- Meet renowned academics, thought leaders, elected officials, and NGOs.
- Observe community activism, media, and businesses that make a culture thrive.
- Live and study in two world cities undergoing rapid change and facing unique challenges.
Prerequisites
None, but previous college-level coursework and/or other preparation in urban studies, anthropology, sociology, political science, or other related fields is strongly recommended.