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Immersive and collaborative international learning experiences are essential to equip future professionals with the skills and sensitivity needed to tackle the urban challenges of a globalized world.
– Dr. Ashok Das, Project Lead and Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP), UH Mānoa

Urban planning scholarship in Indonesia relies on conventional western models rather than attending to contemporary urbanization processes in the Global South. Resultant models could exacerbate existing urban challenges, rather than reduce them. This project brings together emerging Indonesian urban planning scholars and UHM colleagues to develop pedagogical tools to make urban planning more inclusive and appropriate for the kinds of urbanization that characterize their country.

This series of immersive joint summer courses (2022-2024) on Resilient Communities for Sustainable Cities was conceived and designed by Dr. Ashok Das, Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning (DURP), UH Mānoa, in collaboration with program co-lead Dr. Wiwandari Handayani from the Urban and Regional Planning Department, Faculty of Engineering at Diponegoro University (UNDIP), Indonesia. During these summer courses, students attended lectures, conducted field research, and visited local neighborhoods facing unique and significant challenges. Studio-style group work enabled students to collaboratively analyze problems and propose potential solutions. They shared their findings and ideas at public presentations that concluded the program.

These summer courses provided opportunities for participants to understand urban informality, inclusion, and innovation in several villages in Semarang, and related issues on the environment, social economy, infrastructure. UHM program co-lead, Dr. Priyam Das, Assoc. Professor, also from DURP, adds that these summer courses “offered faculty and students from both universities an opportunity to share their knowledge and creativity in responding to urban environmental problems.” UH Mānoa students also learned to appreciate the challenges of urbanization, climate change and resilience in the Global South, through engaging with local communities in Semarang. These courses have also catalyzed and strengthened a range of collaborations with other Indonesian universities and NGO’s on teaching and researching urbanization.