Center for the City
Founded in 2020, the Center for the City at the University of Cincinnati is a community of scholars who interpret and narrate the urban past and present. Using historical inquiry, observation, community engagement, storytelling, and spatial analysis, we examine cities around the globe in the pursuit of creating a more equitable and sustainable future.
The center’s goals are to:
- Examine cities from a broad range of perspectives to bring together the most complete understanding of the forces that shape them
- Highlight the spatial components of social and environmental justice, equity, and sustainability
- Gather scholarly and material resources to support the study of the city as a path to social justice, equity, and inclusion
- Facilitate cross-college and interdisciplinary student engagement with Urban Studies, Historic Preservation, and Public History
- Develop and support academic-community partnerships and community engaged research through training and allocation of resources
- Engage community partners in pursuit of community-based goals and interests that are long-term, trust-based, mutually beneficial, reciprocal, and sustainable
Together the Department of History and the School of Planning house or support a variety of interlocking urban-focus programs and the faculty that instruct them. Yet, the difficulty of cross-college collaborations has long impeded even more complete cooperation in urban research and instruction. The Center for the City bridges the divide between the university and city and facilitates cross-college cooperation, encouraging faculty and students to examine the problems and opportunities of cities – both near and far – from interdisciplinary perspectives.