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 

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).

Program Duration: May 24 - July 23, 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: London, United Kingdom

The Drug Policy International Field Program (DP-IFP) encourages students to re-think approaches to drugs by examining existing policies and practices with the lens of human rights, social justice, sustainable development, peacebuilding and public health. This year, in response to the current historic moment, COVID’s impact, over-incarceration, over-policing, and race will be the focus of the curriculum. 

As COVID continues to cause immense disruption across the globe, the costs of criminalizing drug possession along with the over-incarceration have been pushed to the forefront. The first two persons to die of COVID in US federal prisons, were there for drug offenses. Both of them were people of color. Nearly half a million people worldwide are incarcerated for drug possession and an additional 1.7 million are in prison for other drug-related offenses.

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

Project and Partner Organizations:

The course offers students the opportunity to contribute to the dialogue on global drug policies through thoughtful, research-driven projects. Eligible students identify a relevant research topic and design individual portfolios that examine the UK's approach to drug policy, connect it to the international context, and contribute to broadening the discussion on drugs. To support their research, students spend time with several London-based drug policy organizations:

• All Party Parliamentary Group for Drug Policy Reform (APPG): a cross-party group of members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords that discusses evidence-based, health-centered policy reform on drugs
• Harm Reduction International: a leading NGO dedicated to reducing the negative health, social, and legal impacts of drug use and drug policy
• International Centre on Human Rights and Drug Policy (IDPC), University of Essex: a research center dedicated to developing and promoting innovative and high-quality legal and human rights research on issues related to drug laws, policy, and enforcement
• International Drug Policy Consortium: a global network of 192 NGOs that focus on issues related to drug production, trafficking, and use
• Release: an NGO dedicated to providing support, legal advice on drug laws, and advocates for drug policy reform
• Transform Drug Policy Foundation: a foundation dedicated to reducing the risks associated with drugs, promoting evidence-based policy, and improving the lives of those harmed by ineffective drug laws
• Choose your own organization: Students will also be encouraged to identify relevant UK organizations focusing on drug policy, harm reduction, and treatment centers.

This IFP is an opportunity for students who gravitate towards out-of-the box thinking and like to challenge their own assumptions. Students will also develop a set of valuable skills on how to meaningfully engage issues that are difficult and divisive.

Program Structure:

• Identify a current topic covered in the required Global Drug Policy Course, tailor it to your interest, and link it to UK country context
• Spend eight weeks carrying out independent research
• Take part in visits to drug policy-focused organizations in the UK, coordinated by the IFP supervisor
• Participate in group and individual mentoring remotely

Possible Project Outcome:

• Carry out an independent research aligned with and relevant to one of the six organizations you’ll visit
• Contribute to one of the six organizations’ ongoing research projects

Program Duration: June 7 - July 16, 2021

Faculty: Kasia Malinowska, PhD

Open To: All students at The New School and from other universities.

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

Spring 2021 Course Requirement: Global Drug Policy

Language requirement: English

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 and Kenya, 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 Maasai Mara University and 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 via a scorecard and qualitative data. 

Kenya: Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Awareness and Behavior Change: A Kenyan NGO is working with the Maasai community to induce behavior change by raising awareness of FGM and Early Childhood Marriage, and increase knowledge about sex within Kenya’s Maasai Tribal group. The primary project component is education and awareness workshops for Maasai boys and girls and their parents, and other stakeholders over a three-year period. This initiative is run by two Kenyan NGOs with extensive expertise in the subject matter, Mission With A Vision, which safeguards and educates girls fleeing FGM, and ABCs of Sex Education, which provides sex ed training to rural Kenyans. SGPIA is responsible for project Monitoring and Evaluation. Initial baseline data collection, scheduled for last Spring, was postponed due to the pandemic.

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 17 - July 2, 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 & Equity: Learning with Dalits. This  innovative program will provide distinct collaborative learning opportunities for understanding challenges and efforts in addressing the persistence of Caste-based indignities, injustices, and inequities that impacts over 240 million Dalits worldwide. The program is three weeks each in India and Nepal, and will convene intensive workshops with esteemed scholars, experts and community based Dalit change-makers to increase students’ knowledge, networks, and professional skills. Focused on Dalits’ lived experiences,  this field program will address select policy questions and debates in India and Nepal. During intensive interactions (7-10 days) in rural Nepal, students will work on a discrete project involving a new community-based Dalit women change-makers initiative that aims at engendering new narratives of Dalit women. Part of the purpose is also to examine larger connections to debates on 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 over three-decades of deep collaborations in South Asia, Prof. Ashok Gurung, a Nepal native and the former Director of India China Institute at The New School, will guide and facilitate students in the field of social justice from a transnational perspective. In addition to learning with scholars and experts, one of the most distinct feature of IFP India/Nepal (3 weeks in each place) is the rare opportunity to collaborate with select emerging Dalit Change-Makers affiliated with the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, New Delhi and Samata Foundation, Kathmandu. 

In collaboration with Dalit Change-Makers, New School students will work in teams (3-5 people) on discrete summer projects. Depending on interests and backgrounds, students will work on one of the following topics:

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

Though brief, students will have substantive interactions with Dalit communities in India and Nepal.

Lodging: Hotels and home-stay accommodation

Program Duration: July 5 - August 16, 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 complexities surrounding Caste questions, and challenges of navigating six weeks of demanding intensive field-work 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