The Center for Urban Transformations Graduate Fellowship Application for Spring and Fall Semester 2025 is open now!

The Center for Urban Transformations represents an interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty and graduate students from the Urban Studies Institute, the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, the School of Public Health, the Geosciences Department, the Neurosciences Department, and the College of Law. Funded by a three-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Center’s overarching goal is to enable graduate students to develop and investigate novel research questions that can help promote urban transformations. To realize this objective, the Center will provide graduate students an opportunity to grapple with real-world challenges facing cities and the people who call them home, including environmental justice, climate change, urban growth, and environmental protection.

Graduate fellows will receive an annual award of $4100 (and potentially a tuition waiver) and will be expected to participate in Center commitments for Spring and Fall 2025, which will include (but are not limited to) the Center’s Transformative Leaders Speaker Series, meetings with Center fellows and faculty, and research projects relating to questions or problems outlined by the Center’s partners. Participating as a fellow promises benefits to you in your growth and development as a researcher and policy professional. The faculty members are committed to making this program an outstanding experience for you.

In addition to these core activities, fellows will be expected to enroll in a 3-credit hour  interdisciplinary graduate-level Sustainability Studio class during the Spring of 2025 on Tuesdays 12:45pm – 3:15pm in College of Law Room 347. Each studio class member should expect to spend approximately 8 to 10 hours each week — outside of class —- on studio-related assignments and projects and participating in Center-sponsored events.

The Studio will require students to work with community stakeholders (one or more nonprofit, philanthropic, or government entities) who play essential roles in advancing sustainability initiatives and provide students the opportunity to begin honing the skills and acquiring the knowledge necessary to support successful urban sustainability projects. Alongside faculty and selected community partners, the graduate student teams will work together to tackle an extant urban sustainability challenge. More specifically, the class will: (i) focus on the study of problems surrounding urban sustainability and fundamental issues in sustainability science; (ii) promote co-learning and collaboration to advance interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research; and (iii) provide opportunities for applied learning.

Students enrolled in the class are committing to:

• participating in the weekly studio class, which will run for approximately two hours and forty-five minutes over the course of the semester;

• completing assigned readings and activities; and

• working on addressing sustainability problems and challenges shared by the Center’s partner organizations.

We encourage you to learn more about the Center for Urban Transformations at the Center’s website:

https://sites.gsu.edu/centerforurbantransformations/the-center-for-urban-transformations/, and by speaking with Center faculty. For questions, please contact us at urbantransformations@gsu.edu. Review of applications will begin Tuesday, October 1, and continue until the positions have been filled.