The New School Graduate Program in International Affairs

For the first time in history most of the world’s inhabitants reside in cities. Urban centers are where change is happening – in the economy, finance, technology, culture and the environment. The rapid and unprecedented transformations force policy-makers, citizens, and communities to understand how they are linked together, and how they can be managed to promote social justice and improve the welfare of communities, cities, and nations. The Cities and Social Justice Concentration (CSJ) at GPIA trains practitioners and researchers to address these issues and produce innovative change. Using the context of history and the imperatives of current problems, the Concentration prepares students to design and lead the urban future. 

The Cities & Social Justice curriculum focuses on how global factors interact with local environments, actors, and institutions to produce new urban forms, problems, and opportunities. The coursework and practical training within the Cities and Social Justice Concentration enables students to focus on a diversity of topics and issues affecting urban centers, including urban development and infrastructure, urban governance, citizenship and human rights, technology and culture, and sustainability. Students take courses informed by economics, political science, anthropology, urban planning, and architecture. They gain skills in geographic information systems, architecture and design, urban economics and finance, impact analysis, and critical analysis.

 
Spring 2012 Courses

CSJ events

CSJ courses

Contact
Antina von Schnitzler
Faculty Concentration Chair
vonschna@newschool.edu
Oliver Sellner Vonsild
Concentration Assistant
csj@gpia.info 
 
 
CSJ students draw on the vibrant urban expertise within the wider New School community, including the Parsons School of Design, the Urban Policy Program and the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program. The New School’s location at the heart of New York City provides an invaluable backdrop and laboratory for the theoretical and practical engagement with cities. 

Career-ready CSJ students leave the program to work in urban development, environmental remediation, post-disaster rebuilding, urban policy analysis, NGO management, and consulting. Cities and Social Justice alumni follow a variety of career paths in cities around the world, including positions with UN-HABITAT, the World Bank, The Rockefeller Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, local and international NGOs. Graduates have also continued on to PhD programs at institutions like MIT, UC Berkeley, LSE, UCLA, and the New School. 

The Global Urban Futures Specialization: Connecting international and domestic studies, students can gain expertise and practical training within the recently established Global Urban Futures Specialization, combining courses at GPIA with courses in the Milano Urban Policy Program and the Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management Program. The Global Urban Futures Specialization is one of the first graduate academic specializations that brings together urban experience from around the world and the United States, combining theory and practice with field-based work in New York and other American cities, and urban centers in developing countries.

Courses at the fellow Milano programs Urban Policy and Management and Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management are available via the links.