Country Sites & Remote Studios

Site Location: The Balkans

Site Context:

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.

This course can be taken as an IFP as well as a Remote Studio. Please see below for a description of the studio.

Project and Partner Organizations: Various across the region

Lodging: Hotels and apartments

Program Duration: Seven weeks within June 1-July 31, 2022

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 2022 Course Requirement: Global Governance or another class chosen in consultation with Professor Silina

Language Requirement: None

Contact Info: [email protected]

Site Location: Havana, Cuba

Country Context:

Cuba is witnessing profound change. The COVID-19 pandemic and the political changes in Cuba (with Miguel Díaz-Canel as president since 2018) and the United States (with the Trump and Biden administrations promoting a different stance on Cuba from Obama's) are dramatically redesigning 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.

Project Context:

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. 

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
• REVOLUCIÓN Y CULTURA (peer-reviewed journal: Cuban culture)
• 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 through which 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 29-July 24, 2022

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 2022 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. 

Contact Info: [email protected]

Site Location: Ethiopia

Country Context:

Ethiopia in the last few years has undergone dizzying swings in its political environment, from a controlled one-party state to dramatic but short-lived reforms and optimism under new Prime Minister Abiy, returning to more repression and finally the civil conflict of the last year. Ethiopia also struggles with poverty, and remains ranked toward the bottom in human development indices in spite of having one of the pre-pandemic world’s fastest-growing economies, aspiring to reach “middle-income status.” Nevertheless, the country is one of the world’s oldest civilizations, with a fascinating history and unique culture. 

Politics and ethnic conflict dominate the country currently. Prime Minister Abiy appeared as a transformative leader, and his first years as head of government were filled with an optimism unseen in decades. Uppermost in this was his agenda of nurturing a “pan-Ethiopian” identity rather than the previous ethnic-centered “divide and conquer” governing mode. The new openness, however, also unleashed pent-up tensions, particularly around ethnic grievances. As protest grew, so did crackdowns and political tensions that could not be controlled. In Tigray, that has escalated to military conflict, with atrocities and war crimes reportedly committed. 

Project Context: 

This IFP will be focused on Monitoring and Evaluation, specifically with two groups that we have worked with for more than a decade. The first is a national consortium of women’s microfinance groups, a project The New School has been involved with for a decade. These “Self-Help Groups” ostensibly form around small business development and income generation, but many of the women do not participate in those endeavors yet seem to reap benefits from group participation. The New School has been monitoring group members’ economic performance for five years, with significant success in raising women and their families out of poverty, and this year we would like to also do an in-depth examination of the non-financial benefits, conducting a quantitative survey on psychosocial benefits. 

The second organization is a child welfare agency that works with families living in multidimensional poverty, with interventions also in microenterprise and income generation, and also childhood education and a school nutritional program. We have conducted intensive M&E with this stakeholder group over the last few years. 

Monitoring and Evaluation is a systematic method of collecting and analyzing data on project impact and success, and a skill and profession that has developed into the development and nonprofit industry’s best means of determining results and effectiveness. We will follow Project Cycle Management and the Design phase in which the M&E system is set up, working on logical framework objectives and outcomes, attaching measurable indicators, and then collecting data. We will do this work with university peers from Addis Ababa University. 

Partner Organizations:

Consortium of Self help group Approach Promoters (CoSAP) in Ethiopia — A national coalition of approximately 13,000 women’s groups  and upwards of 250,000 members. The New School began working with CoSAP through our International Field Program in 2010 and began monitoring self-help group members’ economic performance five years later.

Wide Horizons for Children — A child welfare agency that works with impoverished families in Sidama, Addis Ababa, and Tigray on children’s education, income generation, and microenterprise.

Addis Ababa University — Building on a successful collaboration last summer, we will again join a cohort of Ethiopian students to work together on data collection and analysis. 

Program Duration: The program consists of two parts: 1) Monitoring and Evaluation Remote Studio online (3 credits), May 24-June 23, and 2) International Field Program in Ethiopia (3 credits), June 28-July 9.

Faculty: Mark Johnson

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

SGPIA Concentrations: Development, Governance, and Rights

Spring 2022 Course Requirement: Evaluating Women’s Microenterprise Groups in Ethiopia

Language Requirement: None; students will be encouraged to study Amharic.

Contact info: Mark Johnson, [email protected]

Site Location: Remote Learning

Project Context

This Remote Studio will examine the dynamic between security and society with particular attention to issues of identity, post-conflict development, and migration along the Balkan route. It will trace 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. We take the current refugee situation in this corridor as our departure point to engage with questions of state society relations in Turkey, Greece, and the former Yugoslav states. As we shift our gaze from the Turkish Aegean coast, from one island "hot spot" to another, across Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, 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 and projects will be arranged along several thematic axes connected to broader topics of state consolidation and transformation in post-conflict spaces: migration and refugee policies; EU and regional politics; genocides and identity relationships; the built environment, camps, and spaces of confinement and violence; and the discourses and representations of crises.

The studio will provide each student with a space and context in which to develop their research interests in close collaboration with the faculty, fellow students, and invited guest speakers. The studio aims to foster a collaborative environment in which students can reflect and advance their theoretical perspectives; engage with one another in critical analysis of broader social, political, and economic contexts; and craft thoughtful responses to challenges raised by the guest speakers and relevant literatures. The studio will include Zoom sessions with experts in the field.

Students in the studio participate in a weekly online class and have the option to do a virtual internship, pursue a project, or develop independent research.

Program Duration: Seven weeks within June 1-July 31, 2022

Faculty: Everita Silina

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.

Language Requirement: None

Time Commitment

Students should anticipate 15-35 hours of work per week, including 2 hours of class time and an internship (amount of work determined in consultation with the internship host, but usually 20-30 hours a week) and 3-4 hours of independent research work (on average).

Contact info: [email protected]

Site Location: Remote Learning

Project Context

Cuba is witnessing profound change. The COVID-19 pandemic and the political changes in Cuba (with Miguel Díaz-Canel as president since 2018) and the United States (with the Trump and Biden administrations promoting a different stance on Cuba from Obama's) are dramatically redesigning 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 Remote Studio is to provide you with a unique research-oriented experience in which lectures and interactions with your peers from different countries offer you 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.

Project and Partner Organizations

If the global COVID-19 pandemic makes direct travel to Cuba impossible, the online Cuba Studio will provide you with crucial tools with which to pursue research tied to environmental, racial, urban, and economic challenges through the geopolitical and analytical lens of the only socialist country remaining in the Global South. Given the many assumptions of people outside, the shifting landscape within, and the need for cultural mediation in between, the project is articulated around two 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 conceive, execute, and evaluate a research project leading to a publishable paper or other final product (e.g., an op-ed) with the support of leading Cuban specialists in the topic of research.

• 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
• REVOLUCIÓN Y CULTURA (peer-reviewed journal: Cuban culture)
• 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

Program Duration: May 29-July 24, 2022

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 2022 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. Classes in Cuba will be offered with simultaneous translation.

Time Commitment: Students should anticipate 10 to 25 hours of zoom classes per week. This includes 5 hours per day for the first week, 3 hours per day for the second week, and 9 hours per week for the remainder of the course. In addition to online classes, students will also invest time in independent research projects (3-4 hours per week on average).

Contact info: [email protected]

Site Location: Remote Learning

Project Context

The Summer Monitoring and Evaluation Remote Studio will teach you fundamentals of this important methodology and give you real experience with on-ground stakeholders and a client. We will work on projects in Ethiopia, designing and conducting data collection, analyzing and visualizing data, and writing an evaluation report. We are working with women’s microenterprise groups, composed of women living in multidimensional poverty, and trying to measure how group membership has affected their financial security. There is also evidence that some women do not form a small business yet still reap benefits from group participation, a topic we will likewise examine. 

Studio participants will also work and interact online with Addis Ababa University peers, who will, pandemic permitting, collect data on the ground, and together you will process, analyze, and report on project results. Though the global public health situation prohibited an on-ground International Field Program, this studio will nonetheless offer a rich and substantive experience. We will mix lectures, workshops, readings, and work review. It will link strongly with Ethiopia, including readings and lectures on the country’s fascinating history, unique culture, and its current combustive political situation and armed conflict. 

Monitoring and Evaluation is a systematic method of collecting and analyzing data on project impact and success, and a skill and profession that has developed into the development and nonprofit industry’s best means of determining results and effectiveness. We will follow Project Cycle Management and the Design phase in which the M&E system is set up, working on logical framework objectives and outcomes, attaching measurable indicators, and then collecting data. 

Project and Partner Organizations

Women’s Microsavings Groups—The Consortium of Self-help Approach Promoters (CoSAP) is a national coalition of approximately 13,000 women’s groups and upwards of 250,000 members. The New School began working with CoSAP through our International Field Program in 2010, and began monitoring self-help group members’ economic performance five years later. 

Addis Ababa University—Building on a successful collaboration last summer, we will again join a cohort of Ethiopian students to work together on data collection and analysis. AAU and the New School will interact synchronously in lectures and activities. AAU students will meet the women’s groups and conduct the actual data collection and then work together with New School students on analysis and findings. 

Activities:

• Logical framework—objectives, outcomes, and indicators
• Data collection design
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Reporting

Deliverables:

• Data visualizations
• Evaluation report

Skill Sets:

• Logical framework
• Data collection
• Data analysis
• Report writing

Program Duration

May 24-June 23, 2022. For students interested in continuing, the International Field Program will follow the studio with three weeks of on-the-ground data collection in Ethiopia (June 28-July 9, 2022), visiting women's microenterprise groups to conduct focus groups and members at home to collect additional quantitative data.  

Faculty: Mark Johnson 

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

SGPIA Concentrations: Development, Governance, and Rights

Spring 2022 Course Requirement: Evaluating Women’s Microenterprise Groups in Ethiopia (suggested)

Language Requirement: Students are encouraged to study Amharic.

Time Commitment

Classes and work meetings will be conducted over Zoom, with approximately seven hours per week of online time expected—two three-hour class sessions and an additional hour for meetings.

Contact info: [email protected]