Faculty in Transnational Planning Stream
Nearly all DURP faculty are engaged in research with a focus on international
and transnational planning issues. Examples are:
- Arnab Chakraborty:
Assessing, modeling and teaching impacts of changes in land use and transportation; new planning institutions in emerging economies; India, China, Netherlands and Curacao;
- Brian Deal: Urban growth
and development modeling activities in rural Korea;
- Edward Feser: Comparative U.S.-European regional development policy;
- Stacy Harwood: Immigration and Planning in California and the Midwest, Community-based Planning and Design in Costa Rica;
- Geoffery
Hewings: Modeling of urban, regional and interregional economic
systems; U.S., Brazil, Columbia, Indonesia and Japan.
- T John Kim: Land use
and transportation modeling in Seoul, planning for cities in ubiquitous
spaces in Korea, and planning for future cities;
- Bumsoo Lee: Comparison
of travel behavior in US and European cities;
- Faranak Miraftab:
Grassroots urban movements for housing
and basic services in South Africa; immigration and multiculturalizing
rural Midwest, US; transnational community development
Mexico-US;
- Rob Olshansky:
Post-disaster redevelopment in Japan, India, Indonesia and the U.S.
(New Orleans);
- Ken Salo: Environmental
justice and environmental racism in South Africa and Illinois;
- Daniel Schneider:
Community-based ecological management Mexico and the U.S.;
- Elizabeth Sweet: Latinas
and transnational economic gardening in Chicago and Mexico and economic
development and indigenous women in Mexico and Siberia in the context
of structural adjustment and transition.
Coordination
The Department's collective efforts to expand and improve its international
and transnational curricula, programs, and offerings are led by a Transnational
Studies Coordinator, currently Professor
Faranak Miraftab. Specific courses and programs are often led by individual
faculty, as noted the descriptions below. For general questions about
international and transnational offerings in the Department or on campus,
contact Professor Miraftab at faranak@illinois.edu or
217-265-8238
Coursework
Students interested in international and transnational planning issues
can benefit from a wide range of course offerings on campus and at the
department. They can also complement their MUP concentration by
joining the Transnational Planning Stream and enroll in its recommended
courses. See Transnational
Planning Stream Course Recommendations.
Listserv
Join the TN
planning listserv to keep track of happenings in the
Department and on campus in this field. This
listserv is created to communicate with students and faculty
interested in the Transnational Planning stream in the Department
of Urban and Regional Planning. List members post information
about lectures, conferences, courses, internships and related
matters and opportunities. To join
send the "Subscribe TNPLANNING" command to listserv@listserv.illinois.edu or
email the "Transnational Planning Group" at tnplanning@listserv.illinois.edu
Internship Opportunities
Students in the Transnational Planning stream are strongly encouraged
to complement their course work with practical experience in organizations
that focus on transnational and international development work. Remunerated
or volunteer work experience with organizations located in the US or abroad
addressing development planning issues is invaluable both to students’ education
and to their career development and employment opportunities once they
graduate from our program. Towards that goal students can register in UP
590 Internship to receive credit units for their practical experience
and also apply for a newly instituted DURP
international travel grant to receive partial support for their internship
and research experience abroad. Students are encouraged to work
with the Stream’s coordinator to identify and seek internship placement
at an organization that can provide them with applied work experience
in the field. A list of potential employers and internship organizations
for TNP students will be available from the coordinator upon request.
Field-based course work and research abroad
In its teaching, DURP seeks not simply to introduce students to international
and transnational planning issues but also to enhance experiential knowledge
and learning by actively involving students in varied aspects of urban
and regional development around the world. Hence,
to enhance the global dimension of its curriculum it offers several outlets
for students to study planning and planning-related issues in different
cultural, political, and economic contexts. These
range from participation in exchange programs where students spend a semester
or a year at another institution oversees, to participation in short study
abroad courses for periods ranging from few weeks to few months or a semester;
to research based study at partner institutions through NEURUS program. In
most instances, the coursework and research undertaken through these outlets
abroad fulfill DURP graduation requirements. In other words, participation
does not extend the time needed to complete degree requirements.
- Research based study abroad through NEURUS
- Short term study Abroad courses
- Exchange programs
Research based study abroad through NEURUS
NEURUS: Network for European-United
States Regional & Urban Studies, is an international consortium
of universities dedicated to the collaborative study of urban and regional
development issues around the globe. The origin of the acronym,
with its focus on the U.S. and Europe, derives from the consortium's
original title when first established in 1998. At that time, the
network consisted of six universities, three in Europe and three in
the United States. Today, NEURUS is a ten university consortium
with partners in the United States, Europe and Asia. A centerpiece of
the consortium is the NEURUS Fellows program, a framework of agreements
and supportive environments designed to give scholars and students flexible
opportunities to enhance their study of urban and regional issues from
comparative perspectives. NEURUS is heavily focused on applied
research as opposed to conventional student exchange. Participating
DURP students are typically in their second year of the MUP program
or a PhD candidate interested in investigating a specific comparative
issue. Often they are working with a faculty member on a comparative
research project, and might be able to receive funding in support of
their participation in NEURUS. For more information consult Professor
Edward Feser, UIUC's coordinator of NEURUS program. NEURUS
universities outside the United States include:
- Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
- University of Groningen, The Netherlands
- Jönköping International Business School, Sweden
- Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration,
Austria
- Korea University, Seoul
- University of Barcelona, Spain
- University of Pécs, Hungary
Short Study Abroad Courses
Sustainable Futures Program, Monteverde, Costa
Rica (Summer break)
The ten week Sustainable
Futures Program, directed by Stacy
Harwood, is offered every summer to planners, architects,
landscape architects,
international development specialists, natural resource
managers, and other students interested in sustainable futures.
Participants live in a rural Costa Rican rain forest community struggling
to achieve a balance between its agricultural base, the pressures
of eco-tourism, and the desire to save the rain forests. Participants
study the ecology of the area, the institutional supports
for sustainable development, ecological tourism, the origins of
urbanism, community-based planning, buffer zone management strategies,Spanish
language and Costa Rican culture.
Diversity and Integration: South Africa (Winter Break)
DURP in conjuncture with LAS offers a study abroad course (GLBL
298: Diversity and Integration: South Africa). In
this course students will map memories and contemporary
struggles against urban inequalities in post-apartheid
Cape Town. After a brief historical survey of global and
local forces producing uneven spatial and social inequalities
in South Africa, students will visit the city of Cape Town
to debate and map sites of past and contemporary struggles
against urban inequalities. The course consists of six
3 hour pre-departure lectures on the historical relation
between spatial planning practices and social inequalities
in Cape Town, South Africa and a two-week field trip to
Cape Town. The field trip will focus on debates and walking
tours with survivors of forced removals now struggling
to overcome new post-apartheid forms of social and spatial
exclusion from the city. Student grades are assigned for a daily
journal, reflective essays on assigned readings and production of
an interactive map of sites of current struggles against persistent
colonial, apartheid and neoliberal social inequalities. The course
is directed by Ken
Salo, and additional information is available at
this site. Please contact Prof. Salo for any
further questions. (flyer
here)
Study Abroad in India: Sacred Landscapes
and Sustainable Built Environments (Winter Break)
Students will undertake fieldwork in the Braj region of India
located between Delhi and Agra during an intensive 12 day visit
in January of 2010. The trip will combine visits to important
landscapes, buildings and urban environments with a project
focused on understanding the issues in planning through observation,
interaction and analysis. Urban planning students will receive
2 credits towards Spring semester. This is an opportunity to
envision solutions to urban and rural sustainability in a real-world
context.CONTACTS: Dede Ruggles - dfr1@illinois.edu,
Amita Sinha - sinha2@illinois.edu,
John Stallmeyer - stallmyr@illinois.edu,
Arnab Chakraborty - arnab@illinois.edu.
(flyer here)
Exchange Programs
UIUC has student exchange agreements with many universities
around the world. DURP’s active exchange programs
are with universities in Europe and Korea (through NEURUS)
catering to graduate students; with Mexico through Universidad
Autonoma de Sinaloa, in Culiacan (North American Studies program
at the Globalization and Regional Development Center) catering
to graduate and undergraduate students; and with British and
Australian partners primarily catering to undergraduate students. DURP
on a regular basis exchanges undergraduate students for a semester
or a year with the following UK and Australian universities:
For more information consult BAUP
Study Abroad Opportunities web site.
Other campus wide opportunities for study and research abroad
In addition to the opportunities provided directly through
DURP, students can participate in a range of study abroad and
exchange programs facilitated through the Study
Abroad Office on campus. The University has Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) with a large number of universities
around the world based on which students can pay their tuition
at UIUC but study at any of the universities with which campus
has a MOU. For a complete list of such institutions consult
the Study Abroad Office.
To pursue study and research abroad, students are encouraged
to search for other campus wide opportunities through the International
Studies Programs, area studies centers and programs and the
Center for the Global Studies. See Campus
Resources.
Funding opportunities
DURP International Travel Grant
Recognizing the educational value of field based research and
work experience yet the financial limitations students face to pursue
this in contexts outside the United States, DURP has instituted an International
Travel Grant. This fund provides up to $500 to one or two students
who have identified exceptional opportunities for internship
and/or research abroad to support their travel expenses. The competition
for this grant is open to students in all degree programs at
DURP but priority is given to students in the Transnational Planning
Stream. Deadline
for the applications is February 1. For more information
contact Professor Miraftab (faranak@illinois.edu)
Students are encouraged to use this small grant with the funding they
obtain through other sources, on- or off-campus. Other on-campus funding
opportunities include:
International visiting fellows and exchange students
DURP, in line with UIUC's vision, highly values internationalization
of its education not only through curriculum but also through international
students’ admissions and exchanges. In addition to full time
students who join the program from around the world every year,
DURP hosts visiting fellows and students from an array of institutions
overseas.
Current and past international visiting fellows:
2009-2010
Adriana Moreno Martinez, Master’s student, North American Studies program at the Globalization and Regional
Development Center of the Universidad Autonoma de Sinaloa,
in Culiacan, Mexico.
Carmina Martínez Valdez, Master’s
student, North American Studies program at the Globalization
and Regional Development Center of the Universidad Autonoma
de Sinaloa, in Culiacan, Mexico.
Christoph Gruhn, (NEURUS Fellow), Vienna
University of Business and Economics, Vienna, Austria
Ying Jiang (NEURUS Fellow) Public Administration,
Korea University, Seoul, South Korea
Undergraduate Exchange Students
Marc Cooper, University of Sheffield, United
Kingdom
Gmma Moonsey, University of Sheffield, United
Kingdom
2008-2009
Ihsan Cetin,
Fulbright PhD fellow, Department
of Sociology, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey
Jeong Im Hwang, post doctoral scholar, Rural
Development Agency of Republic of Korea
Jorge Ibarra, Ph.D visiting fellow, North
American Studies program at the Globalization and Regional
Development Center of the Universidad
Autonoma de Sinaloa,
in Culiacan, Mexico
Diego Angulo, Master's Student, North American
Studies program at the Globalization and Regional Development
Center of the Universidad Autonoma de
Sinaloa, in Culiacan,
Mexico
Dilger Ulrich (NEURUS Fellow), Humboldt
University, Berlin, Germany
Kim Eun Jung (NEURUS Fellow), Korea University,
Seoul
Tschirf Thomas (NEURUS Fellow), Vienna University of
Economics and Business Administration, Austria
Undergraduate Exchange students (Fall
2008):
Carvel Stuart, University of Manchester, UK
Entwisle Hollie, University of Manchester,
UK
Bottomley, Michael, University of Sheffield,
UK
Smith Jacob, University of Sheffield, UK
Reading Group
Occasionally UIUC faculty and graduate students form a multi disciplinary
reading group on transnational issues. In the past (academic years
06-07 and 07-08) these reading groups focused on Transnational Urbanism
and were funded by the Illinois
Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH). The
Transnational Urbanism Reading Groups bring together faculty and graduate
students with interests in transnational studies to collectively examine
the complexity of urban development, urban life and citizenship in a transnational
era. It calls for reconsidering how cultural, political and economic
urban processes are shaped locally and trans-locally. To propose
new funded reading groups and for information on other reading groups
on campus see IPRH
reading groups.
Campus Resources
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign has a number of nation-leading
programs and area studies centers, including the Office
of Study Abroad, the Center
for Global Studies, the Center
for African Studies, the Center
for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, the Center
for East Asian and Pacific Studies, the Women
and Gender in Global Perspectives program, the Center
for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Russian,
East European and Eurasian Center, the European
Union Center, and International
Programs and Studies. Many of these units award travel grants
and other kinds of support on a competitive basis to BAUP, MUP
and PhD students in DURP working on international and transnational
issues. Also, students may wish to develop a deeper understanding
of a specific region and culture by securing language training
through generous funding provided by the Foreign
Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) program. FLAS
is an important source of funding for students interested in
specializing in a specific region of the world. The CIC
Foreign Language Enhancement Program (FLEP) provides scholarships
to help graduate students take advantage of language offerings
not available at their home university, but available at another
CIC member university. Scholarships are intended to cover living
expenses incurred while attending another CIC host institution
during the summer session. DURP students could also consider
receiving a GRID certificate from the Women
and Gender in Global Perspectives Program (WGGP),
which is an academic unit in the International
Programs and Studies (IPS) division, aimed at promoting the study of global
human security and gender equity. Students should also check
out the Office of Scholarships
for International Studies for information about support through
programs such as Fulbright, Gates Cambridge, Mitchell, Marshall,
Rhodes, and others.
Registered
Student Organizations
Programs & Centers
Lectures, Seminars & Workshops on Campus
Support services
International students joining DURP and UIUC can make their transition
easier by taking advantage of the following resources:
Other Useful Links
|
