International Graduate Research Program Berlin – New York – Toronto at the CMS

“The World in the City: Metropolitanism and Globalization from the 19th Century to the Present” is the title of the current Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft-funded international and interdisciplinary graduate program, based at the Technische Universität Berlin. (Director Prof. Dr. Dorothee Brantz; Co-Director Prof. Dr. Alexander Nützenadel, HU Berlin.)  The project is a cooperative effort between several Berlin (TU, FU, HU Berlin), New York (Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University, The City University of New York) and Toronto (University of Toronto, York University) universities. In the spring of 2015, 12 graduate students and 2 postdoctoral fellows began their dialogue at the cross-section of historical and interdisciplinary urban studies. While urban researchers primarily define globalization as being a current phenomenon, historians have rarely focused on the role of cities within long-term globalization processes. The IGK hopes to close this research gap and offer a relevant contribution to interdisciplinary urban research within 4 thematic areas (architecture and urban planning; migration and mobility; knowledge and communication; environment and sustainability).

 UrbanTopias: Discussing the Challenges of Changing Cities

The 5th Annual Conference of the DFG International Graduate Research Program/IGK Berlin - New York - Toronto: “The World in the City: Metropolitanism and Globalization from the Nineteenth-Century to the Present”

Cities are characterized by uncertainty and contingency. They have become the primary sites where societal transformations transpire first and where answers have to be found. Thus cities are the uneven landscapes of both fears and hopes, dystopian and utopian urban spaces, of what could be called UrbanTopias.

The 5th Annual Conference of the International Graduate Research Program Berlin-New York-Toronto “The World in the City: Metropolitanism and Globalization from the 19th Century to the Present” invites urban scholars and activists to discuss the challenges of changing cities. Throughout global history the dialectic of fear and hope has always been strongest during moments of crisis and transformation whether through political and artistic movements, technological and infrastructural innovations, or societal revolutions.

Together, we will firstly explore the multiple forces of threats and anxieties, as they shape urban reality. Secondly, we examine practices of resistance and adaptations to urban transformations. Thirdly, we investigate different conceptualizations of the urban future, and its particular relationships of time and space. Finally, a roundtable discussion concludes the conference and invites a number of panelists, together with the audience, to debate the future of urban studies.

October 27th-29th, 2016, Berlin

We are happy to announce the return of our Public Lecture Series for the Winter Semester 2016/2017. Please join us at the CMS for these exciting lectures and discussions.

Tuesdays 6 - 8 pm (30-45 minute lecture followed by a discussion)
Center for Metropolitan Studies (CMS)
Hardenbergstr. 16-18, Room 103
TU Berlin


Click here to download the program. [7]