Education

The Global Metropolitan Studies Program is planning several educational initiatives:

1. An Undergraduate Urban and Metropolitan Studies Minor will be offered beginning in 2008-9. The minor will be evaluatied carefully and the results of the evaluation will be used to refine plans for an undergraduate major in Global Metropolitan Studies. Both the minor and later, the major, will build on the successful Urban Studies major offered by the Department of City and Regional Planning.
    

2. An Interdisciplinary Graduate Group in Comparative Metropolitan Studies is being developed by the Departments of Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, Geography, Political Science, and Sociology, with other affiliated faculty participating. The faculty are developing a designated emphasis in Comparative Metropolitan Studies.
    

3. An Interdisciplinary Graduate Group in Infrastructure and Environment is being developed by Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, and Public Health Invitations will be extended to the Energy and Resources Group (ERG), and Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM), and the Goldman School of Public Policy to participate in the interdisciplinary graduate group.

By combining teaching resources from multiple departments, these interdisciplinary initiatives will offer educational opportunities far broader than can be achieved by a single department alone.

The organizers have developed curricula, currently under review, for the minor and the comparative global metropolitan studies designated emphasis. The infrastructure and environment designated emphasis will be developed in 2008-9. Until these programs are formally approved, students may take GMS courses through member departments.