Urban Student Group

5/21/2012 -- Field Trip to the South End of Albany

On May 21, the Mumford Urban Group did a tour of the South End of Albany. Our tour commenced at 11:30 at the Grand Street Community Arts Center where our guide, Ira McKinley, talked to us for about half an hour about the neighborhood and his film. Then we went on the walking tour -- which lasted a bit over three hours (almost all walking, no sitting, and including rain for the last half hour or so). While exhausting, it was wonderful. Among other places we visited the Grand Street Community Arts Center, housed in a church that was abandoned after the Italians left the South End ( http://grandarts.org/); The Free School, founded over 40 years ago, it is one of the oldest such schools in the U.S. (http://www.albanyfreeschool.org/); The Radix Center, sort of a cross between a greenhouse and a farm, located on a vacant lot, where they are raising vegetables, catfish, chickens, and rabbits to educate children and help feed their community (http://radixcenter.org/about/); as well as numerous community gardens and vacant lot projects sponsored by the Grand Street Arts Center. Ira was a great guide and has invited us back so he can show us more of the neighborhood! Thanks Ira!

11/18/2011 -- "Southside: The Fall and Rise of an Inner-City Neighborhood"

A documentary by sociology professor Hilary Silver, will be screened on Thursday, November 18. Dr. Silver is currently the editor of City & Community.

10/10/2010 -- Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park

We would like to invite you along on a field trip to the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park. The date is set for Sunday, October 10th with a rain date of Sunday October 17th. The tentative plan is to meet at the CSDA library around 9:45 a.m. on the 10th (or 17th if the original date is rained out) and leave for Poughkeepsie by 10 a.m. We expect to be home around 5 or 6 p.m. This will be a great opportunity to bond with fellow urbanists outside of the Sociology department or CSDA and see the fall colors!

10/08/2010 -- Meeting with Dr. Gregory Squires

Dr. Squires will be meeting with graduate students from 2-2:30pm on Friday October 8th in the Sociology conference room. This is a great opportunity to informally meet with a very influential housing policy scholar and we strongly encourage you to attend if able. The Sociology department will also be sending out reminder notices about this.