United States (Ohio, Michigan)

Urban Planning Education through Mutual Global Learning

Through award winning capstone projects abroad, Taubman College students and client-partners in informal settlements and housing movements engage in collaborative data collection, working together to unpack complex urban problems associated with social vulnerability and segregation, and to co-produce deliverables that enhance client-partners’ capacity to promote positive change in their communities. Students develop the skills to work with, rather than work for, local partners in a global and multi-cultural context.

The urban assemblage of immigrant organizations in southeast Michigan: Documenting functionality and socio-spatial embeddedness

With the Arab American Heritage Council as community partner and Flint, Michigan as site of study, our research aims to identify, describe and examine migrant-led organizations, specifically their activities and relationship to resources, institutions, infrastructure and community within their socio-spatial location. We draw from assemblage thinking, and apply participatory and ethnographic approaches to research. Findings from this pilot study would provide foundational data for future research with broader scope and for an interactive digital space for capacity building and coalition building with migrant-led organizations in Michigan.