Welcome to the online hub for urban graduate programs at Parsons School of Design—Design and Urban Ecologies and Theories of Urban Practice.
At Urban@Parsons, we reframe the study of urbanism, design, urban policy and social justice, and configure critical courses of action and research which attempt to redefine cities and urbanization in fundamental ways.
We believe this is a critical moment to examine the global situation which is affecting every aspect of urban life from food, education, and housing, to jobs, mobility, and urban infrastructure. There is an unprecedented urgency to engage, through design and research, in the conceptualization and implementation of radically new approaches that can transform the socially, economically and environmentally unsustainable forms of urbanization that have dominated policy and politics for decades.
Urban@Parsons is a very unique design-based graduate learning environment with a committed engagement with the city, which places questions of social, spatial, and environmental justice at its forefront. Therefore, we believe we are in the best position to tackle the ongoing and ever-changing challenges of cities and, most importantly, the role that citizens and residents play in making cities more resilient and sustainable through collective action.
Our students, faculty, and researchers work across New York City with local grassroots initiatives, community-based groups, not-for-profit organizations and city agencies, in areas facing rapid changes and therefore challenges: waterfront development, gentrification and displacement, migration and resettlement, food justice, housing and school overcrowding, new transit-oriented development, just to mention a few. In addition, students have opportunities to be involved in a range of projects, nationally and internationally. Through our Global Intensive Studio, students and faculty have traveled and engaged in projects with universities, civil society partners, and community organizations across the world: Hong Kong, Macau, Shenzhen, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Venice, as well as in Medellin.
Documentary Screening : ” The Making of Corona Plaza Queens” Details: Friday ,December 6th 2024 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (EST) Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor, New York, NY — “The Making of Corona Plaza, Queens” documents the process of making a unique public plaza in the predominantly immigrant neighborhood of Corona,…
Abolish Rent: A dialouge with the Co-Founders of the largest Tenant Union Details: Monday,November 18th, 2024 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM (EST) Lang Cafe/ Ground Floor Eugene Lang college building 65 W 11th Street, New York, NY — Rent drives millions into debt, despair, and onto the streets. The social cost of rent is too…
Lecture by Tiffany Khan on Removing Land from the Market. Details: Wednesday, October 09th, 2024 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (EST) Room 1108, Parsons, 2W 13th Street, New York, NY. — Tiffany Khan is a Harlem-based activist focused on improving housing, health outcomes. Born in Chicago, but raised in Barbados until the age of…
Lecture by Marika Dias on Evictions, Housing Courts, and the Right to Counsel. Details: Wednesday, October 30th 2024 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM Room 1108 , Parsons 2W 13th street, New York, NY. — Marika Dias is a public interest attorney who has worked in civil legal services since 2001, in a range of legal…
Lecture by Martha Kenton on Homelessness and Housing. Details: Wednesday, October 23rd, 2024 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (EST) Room 1108, Parsons, 2W 13th Street, New York, NY. — Martha Kenton serves as the Executive Director of Federal Homeless Policy at the NYC Department of Social Services. She began her career working in…
Lecture by Emily Wiedenhof, Assistant Commissioner, Public Realm Details: Wednesday, October 23th, 2024 4:30 – 6:00 PM (EST) I-Arnold Hall, Room 531 55 W 13th Street, New York, NY. — Emily Weidenhof serves as the assistant commissioner of public realm at NYC DOT working closely with community organizations throughout the five boroughs to…
Lecture by Claudia tomateo , PhD Candidate,DUSP,MIT Details: Wednesday, October 2nd 2024 5.45 PM – 6:45 PM UL105, University Centre 63 5th Ave, New York, NY. — Claudia Tomateo is a PhD student in Urban Planning at DUSP MIT. Her research focuses on the restitution of Indigenous worlds through the construction of typological frameworks…
Lecture by Pilar Finuccio, Executive Director, Center for Urban Pedagogy. Details: Wednesday, September 5th, 2024 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM (EST) UL105, University Center, 63 5th Ave, New York, NY. — Pilar Finuccio is the Executive Director of CUP. She was born and raised to a big Cuban family in Miami, where her…
Lecture by Lydia Simas and Alicia Boyd on Community Boards development and Environmental & Climate Injustice Details: Wednesday, September 25th 2024 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM Room 1108 , Parsons 2W 13th street, New York, NY. — Lydia Simas is the Solidarity Program Offcer for Brazil at Grassroots International. Since joining Grassroots in…
Lecture by Kartik Amarnath and Kali Akuno on Environmental and Climate Justice. Details: Wednesday, September 18th, 2024 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (EST) Tishman Auditorium, University Center, 63 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. — Kartik Amarnath is the Policy Specialist for PUSH Buffalo and a MD and MPH candidate at SUNY Downstate Health…
Since colonialism’s outset as a modern political project, images have been central to extractivism, a racial practice that reduces parts of the Earth and its inhabitants to exploitable and marketable resources. How does this centrality operate in a context where visual culture itself has become an extractive industry with images as its raw material, many…
Engaging in exercises of collective envisioning is of utmost importance to incite the conceptualization and experimentation of radical urban futures that can transform the socially, economically, and environmentally unsustainable processes dominating our current urban landscapes. With a specific focus on envisioning the future of New York City in 10 years, NYC 2033 aims to reflect…
