Urban Studies Updates

Urban Studies Chair’s Message

Dear Urban Studies community,

This will be my last newsletter as chair of the Urban Studies and it gives me great pleasure to announce that Joseph Heathcott will taking over the leadership of our program. I would like to take the opportunity to extend my gratitude to our amazing Urban Studies team including program manager Shaked Landor and program advisor Christina McElderry whose tireless dedication made my work as chair so much easier and manageable. I am also immensely grateful for the support, camaraderie, and wise counsel of my esteemed colleagues Rachel Heiman, Julia Foulkes, Marga Gutman, Alexandra Wagner, Gabrielle Bendinder-Viani, Andrea Marpillero-Colominia, Joseph Heathcott and many others who helped me manage the program. And I consider myself lucky to have such amazing faculty, students, and alumni who comprise the greater Urban Studies community!

It also gives me the bitter-sweet pleasure to say goodbye to Margarita Gutman and Aleksandra Wagner who are retiring this year and Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani who has left the university. Sweet insofar in that Aleksandra and Marga are reaching an amazing milestone since becoming Emerita is a great accomplishment and recognition of years of hard work and thus a well-deserved recognition. Bitter because we are losing three of our most important colleagues and teachers who have, over the years, shaped our program and enriched it through their amazing courses, their mentorship, and collegiality. It is also bitter that this is all occurring now without the ability to say farewell in style and in person. I promise, however, that we will have a fitting celebration as soon as we are able to get together again in person. And as Marga had said, this is just a transition as all will continue to stay involved in the urban community, just at a less involved and in a more autonomously determined fashion. So please join me in congratulating Aleksandra and Marga, say farewell to Gabrielle, and wishing them all the best, health, and happiness in the next chapters of their lives!

To bring this rather tumultuous and difficult year to a proper close, I invite you all to join me and celebrate our 2021 Urban Studies Graduates at our annual Senior Presentations on Tuesday, May 11 from 2:00 to 3:30pm (please RSVP here). To give you a sense as to what our students have been working on, please check out their project summaries at the Lang Senior Work website that Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani had started three years ago. When you see their presentations next week, you will understand why I am so proud of them for not only producing outstanding work (every one of them is an honor student) but also for doing so under such difficult circumstances. I have no doubt that this amazing group of young people will find their way and accomplish great things upon graduating!

The last three years have been a very rewarding yet challenging time as we collectively moved through the trials and tribulations of a global pandemic and the tremendous personal and institutional challenges it generated. The good news is that we are at the tail end and will come out of this relatively unscathed and, as I believe, stronger. Our program continues to grow, we have a more streamlined and customizable curriculum now, have some of the best and most accomplished students of the university (just check out the honors below), and are in the process of establishing stronger relations to our alumni. There is obviously still a lot to be done but I know that the program is in great hands with Joseph and I am looking forward to where we go from here!

I wish you all a successful conclusion of the semester, a hopefully nice and relaxing summer, and hope to see as many of you as possible next week’s celebrations!

-Jürgen

Jürgen von Mahs
Urban Studies Chair
freiherr@newschool.edu

SAVE THE DATE: VIRTUAL COMMENCEMENT 2021

The New School's 85th Annual University Commencement will be held virtually on Friday, May 14, 2021 at 11:30 a.m. EDT.
Learn more.

The Commencement team is looking for student speakers for the university wide commencement ceremony. Please visit here for more information on criteria and the audition process.