Open to Columbia University Masters in Urban Planning Students enrolled at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP), the Regional Foodshed Resilience course takes place simultaneously at universities in four global cities: New York, Rio de Janeiro, Beijing, and Mumbai. 

In each city, a similar set of pressing and large-scale issues around land ownership and access, a growing urban-rural disconnect; food security, access, and justice; health; and food system resilience in the face of increasingly common severe weather events are filtered through a very different cultural, governmental, infrastructural, and spatial reality — but, at scales both large and small, from street vendors to macro-economic policy, the varying weaknesses, failures, opportunities, and successes of all four regions’ responses can help inform a much more nuanced understanding of the challenges at hand. 

Students taking part in the Regional Foodshed Resilience course meet with experts in the field, engage in critical learning workshops, take part in hands-on projects, and collaborate across borders. During the first semester, students examine the resilience of their respective food system as it pertains to the natural environment, built environment, equity, economic development, and human health in their city and region. Their guiding question is: How resilient is our food system in the face of changing environmental, demographic, and economic factors? To focus these efforts, the classes trace one staple food item through their entire food system. The second semester is an international collaboration between all four classes during which they learn from one another and use their combined knowledge to draw connections, compile a list of best practices, and create region-specific recommendations and global synergies.

Each city’s student cohort will be taught by local faculty within their own academic framework. In New York, the course will be co-taught by Eco Practicum Program DIrector, Eugenia Manwelyan, and Studio-X NYC Director, Nicola Twilley. Columbia University Global Centers, in partnership with the Studio X global network, will provide the physical space for the meetings with experts, international collaboration sessions, and final show to engage the community at large. Eco Practicum will provide the educational model for the course, based on democratic pedagogy, hands-on experience, and forging connections with experts in the field.

This course is taught by Eco Practicum program director, Eugenia Manwelyan is partnership with journalist and scholar Nicola Twilley.