Upcoming Events
Peer Mentoring Workshop
On August 18-19, 2015, the Futures Initiative will offer its first Peer Mentoring Workshop with graduate and undergraduate students from across the CUNY colleges.
Fall 2015 Courses
Encountering Cuba – Global Race, Postcoloniality, Cultural Expression
Kandice Chuh (Graduate Center, English) and Sujatha Fernandes (Graduate Center and Queens College, Sociology)
Global Perspectives on Language and Education
Ofelia García (Graduate Center, Urban Education and Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Languages) and Carmina Makar (City College, Teaching Learning and Culture)
Reflections and Resources
- “Why Start With Pedagogy? 4 Good Reasons, 4 Good Solutions” by Cathy N. Davidson
“If your goal is equality in a world where inequality is structural and violent and pervasive, you can at least start with your classroom as a place in which to model a better way. Rather than feeling overwhelmed and oppressed by the unfairness of the world, be an activist in the realm where you have control.”
- “Humanities Unbound: Supporting Careers and Scholarship Beyond the Tenure Track” by Katina Rogers
“Remaining wedded to outmoded systems, including a model of apprenticeship in higher education that reinforces the false assumption that professorship is the only meaningful career for humanities doctoral recipients, does a tremendous disservice to all individuals and organizations that benefit from humanistic perspectives.”
- CUNY Maps of NYC
Explore the interactive maps created by Futures Initiative Graduate Fellows, Teaching Fellows, and Scholars. Don’t miss the CUNY Flyover Tour of NYC!
- “An Ecological View of Equity” by Nichole Pinkard
In her Digital Media and Learning Conference keynote, Pinkard examines the importance of working toward equity by both strengthening individuals and fixing broken systems.
- “An Invitation Towards Social Justice in the Digital Humanities” by Danica Savonick, Roopika Risam, micha cárdenas, and participants of the “De/Post/Colonial Digital Humanities” seminar at the Humanities Intensive Learning and Teaching (HILT) institute
Join this collaborative effort to establish best practices for digital humanities work committed to social justice.
Annual Report
The Futures Initiative had an incredible first year. Read our 2014-2015 Annual Report (PDF) to learn more about how we worked toward our goal of promoting higher education as a public good in order to bring about a more equitable, innovative, and deeply rewarding system at all levels of the university. Many thanks to everyone who has supported our work!
The Futures Initiative advocates greater equity and innovation in higher education at every level of the university. Housed at the Graduate Center and reaching throughout the CUNY community, the Futures Initiative empowers the next generation of intellectual leaders with bold, public, and engaged teaching and learning. With an emphasis on student-centered practices, the Futures Initiative redefines graduate preparation to include translation of specialized research into the best undergraduate teaching, including for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Futures Initiative also fosters greater understanding of the complexities of the higher education landscape by spearheading data-driven research in areas critical to institutional change. Through HASTAC@CUNY (a hub of the online network Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory), the Futures Initiative extends its collaborative peer-to-peer practices across institutions, disciplines, national boundaries, and economic and social disparities, promoting reinvestment in higher education as a public good.