Mission Statement:
To advance sustainability transformations in the Greater Atlanta region through education, research, partnerships, and action.
Vision:
A new generation of urban scholars and professionals equipped with the knowledge and skills to lead urban transformations in the Greater Atlanta region.
Overview:
The Center for Urban Transformations at Georgia State University is led by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and staff from across six of GSU’s academic units including the Urban Studies Institute, Public Management and Policy, Geosciences, College of Law, Neuroscience, and Public Health. Funded by the National Science Foundation’s Division of Emerging Frontiers & Multidisciplinary Activities (award # 2203718), The Center for Urban Transformations connects scholars and students at GSU with city leaders through strategic partnerships with government, business, and civic organizations to co-create research agendas and solutions to bring about more resilient, sustainable, and equitable transformations in the Greater Atlanta region. The Center seeks to empower the next generation of urban scholars and professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to help cities address complex, uncertain, and contested urban sustainability challenges — with a centering on equity and resilience for under-resourced communities.
Cultivating Transformative Capacities:
The Center’s approach and training programs are designed around cultivating specific capacities (Figure 1) that recent research has shown that scholars and professionals need to understand, collaborate, and take action to solve complex urban sustainability and resilience challenges. By focusing on developing these capacities, participants will learn how to effectively address uncertainty and adapt to ever-changing situations in urban systems, work with complex and interrelated sustainability challenges in collaborative and integrated ways and ultimately become transformational leaders through the process.
