Country Sites

Site Location: The Balkans

The Balkans IFP examines the dynamic between security and society with particular attention to issues of identity and migration along the Balkan route. It traces the physical, political, legal, social, and economic terrain that structures and defines the interactions between various actors along one of the main historic migration paths. As we shift our gaze from the Turkish Aegean coast, from one island "hot spot" to another, across Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Bosnia, we engage with histories of empires and their collapse, ancient and more recent migration flows, and the cultural sediment they have left behind. Student research agendas, internships, and media projects are arranged along several thematic axes connected to broader topics of security and society; human rights and democratic governance; identity relationships, the conversations and the conflicts they spark, and the actors that make claims about them; migration, refugee issues, and policies; EU and regional politics; and the built environment, camps, spaces of confinement, and the paths and actors of mobility, as well as the institutional and legal structures  and the dominant discourses that frame these topics.

Due to the pandemic, the summer IFP could be facilitated through virtual arrangements if necessary.

Project and Partner Organizations: Various across the region

Lodging: Hotels and apartments (this does not apply to the 2021 IFP, as the program is remote)

Program Duration: June 1-July 31, 2021

Faculty: Everita Silina

Open to: Open to all students in graduate school programs and advanced undergraduates from The New School and other universities 

SGPIA Concentrations: All concentrations in International Affairs are applicable to this program.

Spring 2021 Course Requirement: Activating Rights: The Balkan Studio

Language Requirement: None

Site Location: Havana, Cuba

Cuba is witnessing profound change. The presidencies of Miguel Díaz-Canel (2018-present) and Donald Trump have dramatically redesigned the social, political, and economic reality on the island. This shifting environment positions Cuba as an ideal site to explore issues related to socialism, economic transformation, race relations, gender and sexuality, illicit/informal economies, poverty, food security and environmental risk, and urban challenges and planning as they unfold.

The objective of the Cuba IFP is to provide you with a unique research-oriented experience in which lectures and interactions with your peers from different countries provide you with a more in-depth understanding of global problems at play in a specific context. By studying the emergence of neoliberal practices in an allegedly market-less economy, of class and race disparity in a purportedly classless and post-racial society, and of gender equality in a highly gendered reality, you will acquire a political grammar that will make you a better citizen of your own country. 

Due to the pandemic, the summer IFP could be facilitated through virtual arrangements if necessary.

Project and Partner Organizations:

Havana is Cuba’s economic, touristic, and political heart and a place where you will learn as much on the streets as in the classroom and through your involvement with Cuban organizations. Given the many assumptions of people outside, the shifting landscape within, and the need for cultural mediation in between, the project is articulated around three cores. First, you will take classes with leading Cuban intellectuals, providing you with an alternative viewpoint on concepts we question from and against a neoliberal perspective in the United States. Second, you will gain hands-on experience through visits, workshops, and direct engagement with projects run by Cuban NGOs and CBOs. Third, you will have to conceive, execute, and evaluate a research project leading to a publishable paper or other final product (e.g., a documentary film) — this can be an individual or group research project. 

• CASA/Casa de Las Américas  (host institution)
• CEEC/Centro de Estudios de la Economia Cubana (macro- and micro-economy)
• CIPS/Centro de Investigación Psicológica y Social  (youth, inequality, social distortions, cuentapropismo, marginality) project in La Timba with the Nicolas Guillen Foundation
• Journal REVOLUCIÓN Y CULTURA (peer-reviewed journal: Cuban culture)
  
• Journal TEMAS (peer-reviewed journal: Cuban society)
• CEDEM/Centro de Estudios Demográficos (demography, Cuba-U.S. migration)
• FLACSO/Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales  
• JUAN MARINELLO (society, race, youth)
• ICAN (anthropology) 
  
• ISRI/Instituto Superior de Relaciones Internacionales (Cuba-U.S. relations)

Cuban and Foreign NGOs/GONGOS:

• FANJ/Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la naturaleza y el hombre  (environment, food security)
• Fundación Nicolás Guillen (marginality, race)
• OAR/Oscar Arnulfo Romero (gender, violence, marginality)
• CIERIC/Centro de Intercambio y Referencia-Iniciativa Comunitaria (culture, local development)
• CEDEL/Centro de Desarrollo Local y Comunitario (local development, decentralization)
• ANAP/Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños (food security, food production; 350,000 members)
• PUND/UNDP

Lodging: Life in Cuba is intense. The country is undergoing a profound transformation, and the reality on the ground is changing fast. You have a unique window to observe this change in the making. You will be hosted in a private home (two per room, breakfast included, with air-conditioning). (This does not apply to the 2021 IFP as the program is remote)

Program Duration: May 30-August 1, 2021

Faculty: Gabriel Vignoli

Open to: Graduate and undergraduate students from The New School and other universities. Students from outside of The New School should determine how credits will transfer to their home institution.

SGPIA Concentrations: Cities and Social Justice, Development, Media and Culture, Governance and Rights.

Spring 2021 Required Course: Cuba: Critical Concepts

Language Requirement: Knowing Spanish is a plus, but it is not a precondition for acceptance. If not already fluent, students are encouraged to take Spanish classes at their home institution (New School students may audit fall and spring Spanish classes). Students will take Spanish classes throughout the IFP in Havana, based on the results of a language test administered upon arrival in Havana.  

Site Location: Remote Learning

The Summer Remote Monitoring and Evaluation Studio will allow students to delve into the actual M&E work of client projects in Ethiopia, designing and conducting data collection, analyzing and visualizing data, and writing an evaluation report. Studio participants will also have the opportunity to work and interact (online) with university peers from Addis Ababa University. Those local students will be, pandemic permitting, collecting data on the ground, and together you will process, analyze, and report on project results.

Project and Partner Organizations:

Ethiopia: Women’s Microsavings Groups - The Consortium of Self-help Approach Promoters (CoSAP) is a national coalition of women’s groups organizing around microsavings but experiencing other psycho-social benefits. SGPIA is also responsible for the M&E of the groups’ performance in building sustainable prosperity, measuring income, assets and other indicators through a scorecard and qualitative data.

There is also the possibility of contributing to an online skills course in monitoring and evaluation, given to Addis Ababa University students and Ethiopian NGO personnel.

Activities for Both Projects:

• Long-term strategy and plan
• Baseline data collection
• Baseline analysis

Deliverables:

• Data visualization
• Preliminary (baseline) report

Skill Sets:

• Monitoring and evaluation
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Report writing

Program Duration: May 18-July 8, 2021

Faculty: Mark Johnson

Open to: All students in graduate school programs and advanced undergraduates from The New School and other universities

SGPIA Concentrations: Development, Governance, and Rights

Spring 2021 Course Requirement: No spring requirement

Language Requirement: None

Site Location: India/Nepal

The International Field Program India/Nepal in summer 2021 will focus on the theme Social Justice for Dignity and Equity: Learning with Dalits. This innovative program will provide collaborative opportunities for learning about efforts to address the persistence of caste-based indignities, injustices, and inequities that affect more than 240 million Dalits worldwide. Consisting of three weeks each in India and Nepal, the program will convene intensive workshops with renowned scholars, experts, and community-based Dalit changemakers designed to expand students’ knowledge, networks, and professional skills. Focused on Dalits’ lived experiences, this field program will address selected policy questions and debates in India and Nepal. During intensive interactions (seven to ten days) in rural Nepal, students will work on a project involving a community-based Dalit women changemakers initiative aimed at engendering new narratives of Dalit women. The purpose is also to examine connections to broader debates on the intersectionality of race, caste, gender, and class.

Due to the pandemic, the summer IFP could be facilitated through virtual arrangements if necessary.

Project and Partner Organizations:

Building on more than three decades of intensive collaborations in South Asia, Professor Ashok Gurung, a Nepal native and the former director of the India China Institute at The New School, will guide students in the field of social justice from a transnational perspective. Participants will benefit from learning with scholars and experts and from one of the distinctive features of IFP India/Nepal (three weeks in each location): the rare opportunity to collaborate with selected emerging Dalit changemakers affiliated with the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi, and the Samata Foundation, Kathmandu. 

In collaboration with Dalit changemakers, New School students will work in teams (three to five people) on summer projects. Depending on their interests and backgrounds, students will explore one of the following topics:

• Conducting applied research on a specific caste policy question (e.g., Dalits and urban housing)
• Strengthening a caste-based social justice movement (e.g., Dalit Lives Matter)
• Strengthening strategies to fight caste and gender violence (e.g., legal services and counseling)
• Creating space for Dalit narratives (e.g., writing, arts, and media) 

Students will have brief but substantive interactions with Dalit communities in India and Nepal.

Lodging: Hotels and home-stay accommodation (This does not apply to the 2021 IFP as the program is remote)

Program Duration: June 15-August 15, 2021

Faculty: Ashok Gurung

Open to: All students in graduate school programs and advanced undergraduates from The New School and other universities

SGPIA Concentrations: All concentrations in International Affairs are applicable to this program.

Spring 2021 Course Requirement: Because of the complexities surrounding caste questions and the challenges of navigating six weeks of demanding intensive fieldwork in India and Nepal, New School students are required to take the spring seminar course Politics of Dignity and Equity: Rethinking Caste Globally or an approved course with similar content.

Language Requirement: None