Advice on Graduate School?
Maniates, Michael Fields
Dear Colleagues,
A big ask follows. If you have even a sliver of insight into one or more of these programmes, I’d greatly appreciate hearing from you. Please email me privately.
Long story short: I have an especially promising undergraduate in environmental studies/governance who has a scholarship for a masters degree programme of his choosing. He’s narrowed his options down to the three below, with explanations. None of these programmes are known personally to me. If you have any recommendations among the three (‘which programme would you recommend to your student?’), or know anything about them that could help my student make an appropriate selection, I’d love to hear from you.
Time is short. He needs to decide next week.
Gratefully yours,
Michael
~~~~~
Dear Professor Maniates,
Thank you so much for offering your assistance with my graduate school applications a couple of weeks back. Apologies for taking a while to get back to you as work took over a little.
Here are the list of programmes I’m considering, and some descriptions of what I want to learn in graduate school:
Overall, I feel like what I want to get out of graduate school is a specialization of what I’ve learnt in YNC. I think that specialization for me now is in urban governance – learning how to lead sustainability transformations specifically within urban environments like Singapore. This can manifest in engendering transport policy change, or influencing housing policies, or pushing for urban agriculture. I’d like to focus on programmes that focus on urban sustainability governance, and understanding how transformative change can really be pushed forward, with the city at its core. Below are some programmes that I believe will help me along these goals.
- Learning to lead urban transformations towards climate-neutral cities, with a focus on both climate mitigation and resilience building
- Core compulsory modules of ‘Urban Complexity’, ‘Urban Governance & Finance’ and so on provide a focusing angle into urban governance through different perspectives
- Professors in this programme include Dr Paul Rabe (studies the land-water-human nexus), Dr Alberto Gianoli (studies urban governance from the perspective of finance, and data science), and Dr Qian Ke (flood risk management and water resources)
- Being based in Rotterdam - I consider the Netherlands a deep inspiration for sustainable urban practices (with the cycling culture, availability of plant based meals etc.) that would be both a personal and professional motivator while I continue into graduate school and sharpen my focus in making these changes possible within Singapore, and possibly beyond
- Similar to the Rotterdam programme, this one focuses on the intersection of urbanism and sustainability, to learn how to lead urban sustainability transitions
- Their core modules focus on specific aspects of urban scholarship, such as mobility, sustainable housing, energy etc., taught one at a time, which allows for sequential immersion into these specific sectors
- Working with professors such as Prof Paul Chatterton (scholarship and work on social housing projects & promoting cycling & walking), Prof Milena Buchs (policies and transitions towards post-growth societies), and Dr Caroline Mullen (green transitions in mobility & transport, as well as mobility governance)
- A bigger picture programme that looks at governance more generally, and focuses on the design and possibility of novel governance arrangements
- Strong intersection of life science and governance studies, given that WUR is such a strong life and agri-science research university
- Overall, I feel like studying governance at the place at the forefront of technological research into science-based solutions will bear fruitful intersections
Important: This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify us immediately; you should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person. Thank you.