Semester in Detroit
Announcing a New Academic Program for a Semester in Detroit
The Semester in Detroit, a new university program, funded by the Provost and the LSA and based in the Residential College and the Ginsberg Center, will allow Michigan undergraduates to spend a semester in residence in Detroit, while earning credit towards their degree. The first iteration of this program will take 20-25 students to Detroit in Winter term, 2009. Margaret Dewar, Ginsberg Center Director and College of Architecture and Urban Planning Professor, and Charles Bright, Residential College Director and LSA Professor of History, are the Faculty Co-Directors of Semester in Detroit for the 2008-2009 academic year.
The academic program will include a core foundations course taught by Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning Professor, Dr. June Thomas, which all students will take. Each student will also be placed in an internship with a community service or arts organization and will attend a regular seminar to reflect on and discuss this experience. In addition, students will have access to a selection of elective courses taught in Detroit to round out their semester’s schedule.
Confirmed electives include a School of Art and Design course called "Detroit Connections" taught by Assistant Professor Nick Tobier and a Residential College Urban Community Studies course taught in collaboration with Mosaic Youth Theatre by Assistant Professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, Stephen Ward. Potential additional electives such as a course called "Writing in Detroit" and others will be added in the near future.
All students enrolled in the program will live in a residential facility on the Wayne State University campus that will also provide access to meal plans, library facilities, internet, and transportation services. Students in Detroit during Winter semester will pay rent for housing there and should make arrangements accordingly for any lease obligations and rent payments they have in Ann Arbor.
As prerequisites for Semester in Detroit, all students accepted into the program will be asked to participate in a series of five workshops through the Ginsberg Center’s “Learning from the Community” (click here for last year's schedule of workshops) and to take a one-credit mini-course introduction to the City of Detroit led by Professor Reynolds Farley. Students admitted to the program in the first year should plan to do both these pre-requisites on the Ann Arbor campus during the fall semester, 2008.
Applications for the first semester in Detroit are now being accepted. The deadline for submission is September 19th, 2008.
If you have any questions about this program, please contact Semester in Detroit Associate Director, Craig Regester at regester(at)umich.edu.
**Click here for the Semester in Detroit program application.**