Matters of Urban Design Student Association (MUDSA) is engaging in collaborative partnerships to reflect on the crises unfolding this Summer 2020. Engaging the broad Taubman College community, we want to instigate a conversation on the agency of our disciplines taking action on COVID-19, climate change, racial justice, and more. Our effort is toward investigating the impacts and interrogating the implications on planning and design pedagogies, practices, and ultimately social transformation. To build this as an incremental initiative, we want to prototype in-house conversations through the summer, informing a broader platform during the school year. Attached are few posters with varying titles to spark conversation. Some of these ideas, and more, can become more permanent in the Fall taking the form of a lecture series, colloquia, etc.
So, what are we planning next? As part of summer public programming led by MUDSA to welcome and open up to MUD incoming students, we are planning on an informal “Breakfast Series” with professors about their interests, what are they up to this summer 2020 (with special attention to unfolding events), and future plans.
Entering into the Fall semester, we would like to open up the conversation beyond the hybrid classroom setting and learn from urban projects reimagining life while COVID19, bringing planning and design agency into the pursuit of racial justice, and taking climate change action. If we are able to build momentum, we could then include a symposium or conference in the Winter to extend our horizons and offer a venue for productive critique and further organizing. As student organizations, we have the power to collectively shape our education at Taubman College, in and out of the classroom setting. This summer has proven that we have the ability to come together to exercise serious changes within our education experience. To continue to build transformative change, we need to be the spaces and platforms to sustain these conversations. We call for partnership and shared leadership: it is about time.
So, what are we planning next? As part of summer public programming led by MUDSA to welcome and open up to MUD incoming students, we are planning on an informal “Breakfast Series” with professors about their interests, what are they up to this summer 2020 (with special attention to unfolding events), and future plans.
Entering into the Fall semester, we would like to open up the conversation beyond the hybrid classroom setting and learn from urban projects reimagining life while COVID19, bringing planning and design agency into the pursuit of racial justice, and taking climate change action. If we are able to build momentum, we could then include a symposium or conference in the Winter to extend our horizons and offer a venue for productive critique and further organizing. As student organizations, we have the power to collectively shape our education at Taubman College, in and out of the classroom setting. This summer has proven that we have the ability to come together to exercise serious changes within our education experience. To continue to build transformative change, we need to be the spaces and platforms to sustain these conversations. We call for partnership and shared leadership: it is about time.
