This pamphlet features the work of a courageous group of young people—2020 graduates of the Theories of Urban Practice and Design and Urban Ecologies program—who have completed their thesis work during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of this writing, all of us are locked-in at our homes around the country and the world, and have worked through online platforms since early March. We are convinced that five or ten years from now, when looking back at this moment in time, we will hardly believe that such a strong work, so much dedication, and such a commitment was possible in the face of a disaster we have collectively faced.

The work featured in this publication attempts to shift our understanding of the effective strategies for critical urban change. Rather than cultivating an antagonistic position in relation to urban development processes and urban growth politics–which together produce unprecedented degrees of inequality, injustice and environmental degradation–our graduates have worked hard to produce effective alternative strategies for creating a democratic, just, inclusive and resilient urban space.
The faculty who mentored DUE and TUP 2020 graduates in the 2019-20 academic year assumed that a proper response to this situation would be to introduce the work of the students by prefacing it with diary-like entries which attempt to capture the moment in time and briefly discuss possibilities for urbanism post-COVID-19.

Congratulations Class of 2020!