Stadtgeographie & Nordamerika

In the following days, we will share some impressions from our ongoing excursion to the United States and Mexico. Our first two stops were El Paso (Texas, USA) and Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, Mexico).
Located at the US-Mexican border (picture 1, 2), both El Paso (picture 3-5) and Ciudad Juárez (6, 7) have been growing constantly in terms of population, work force and urban expansion. Globalization can be considered as the main engine of this urbanization. However, while Ciudad Juarez is home to one of the major agglomerations of "Maquiladoras" on the border (picture 7), El Paso mainly offers the services (legal, financial etc.) for the "Maquiladora" industry.
The differences but also interdependencies between these two cities were the focus of the first three days of our excursion. Stay tuned!

geography

In the following days, we will share some impressions from our ongoing excursion to the United States and Mexico. Our first two stops were El Paso (Texas, USA) and Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua, Mexico).
Located at the US-Mexican border (picture 1, 2), both El Paso (picture 3-5) and Ciudad Juárez (6-7) have been growing constantly in terms of population, work force and urban expansion. Globalization can be considered as the main engine of this urbanization. However, while Ciudad Juarez is home to one of the major agglomerations of "Maquiladoras" on the border (picture 7), El Paso mainly offers the services (legal, financial etc.) for the "Maquiladora" industry.
The differences but also interdependencies between these two cities were the focus of the first three days of our excursion. Stay tuned!

AG Stadtgeographie goes Mexico!
On our 14-days field trip with 15 Geography students from Heidelberg we approached Mexico via the US. We started in El Paso, Texas, the twin city to Ciudad Juárez in Mexico to learn how deeply entangled the two cities are. It is one large agglomeration, the biggest industrial cluster in North America, but two worlds that are separated by a big fence, the US-Mexican border. While people are struggling and lining up to go North, it was easy for us to enter Mexico. Here you see a group picture in Ciudad Juárez after the border crossing.

Who picks our memorials and museums? Who decides how they are used? Who decides what they *mean?*

Log onto to HeiCo to check out this new Hauptseminar/Blockseminar taking place January and February 2024. The course will use creative formats to guide us through the long course sessions & to share our analyses of the topics covered.


See more course offerings at www.geog.uni-Heidelberg.de/HCA/lehre.html

Today we share a glimpse at Mexico City, one of the largest metropoles on earth. With 22 million inhabitants, this urban agglomeration has double the inhabitants of the state of Baden-Württemberg, where Heidelberg University is located.
What’s most appealing about Mexico City are its many layers of urban development: from the ruins of Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec city, over the remnants of the colonial period to the most recent traces of gentrification. But surrounded by volcanoes and always a site of tectonic activity, Mexico City is also worth a visit if your interests happen to be in the realm of physical geography 🤓
If this post piqued your interest and/or you always wanted to explore Mexico, sign up for our excursion to Mexico in the winter titled “Entangled Geographies”. More info can be found at https://www.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/hca/lehre.html

As the final part of the Seminar „Resilient Cities - Challenges, Risks and Response“ students from Sorbonne University (Paris), Charles University (Prague) and Heidelberg University (Heidelberg) came together in Paris to participate in a workshop last week.

Within this seminar the holistic and integrated concept of urban resilience was discussed which mainly refers to the resistance, adaptability and flexibility of the built environment, infrastructure, people and the governance. The concept of urban resilience is also linked to other important concepts and urban issues, such as sustainability, smart city, mobility, energy and social (in)justices.

In the workshop these topics were taken up again and were discussed in the context of the 4 main sites we visited in Paris: Eco-District Chlichy-Batignolles, Paris Rive Gauche, Fort d‘Aubervilliers and Porte d‘Aubervilliers. It remains to be seen if the upcoming development projects, e. g. the Olympic Village, will contribute to the urban resilience of Paris.

Habt ihr Lust, noch dieses Jahr zwei Monate in Mailand, Paris, Kopenhagen oder Warschau zu studieren? Wollt ihr Kurse in Food Economics, Migration Studies oder Geography of Sustainable Tourism belegen?

Dann bewerbt euch bis zum 08.05.2023 für den zweimonatigen 4EU+ Aufenthalt an einer unserer Partneruniversitäten und seid bereits im Oktober vor Ort! Alle Infos findet ihr im Call for Application und auf unserer Website: https://www.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/hca/index.html.

With students from Kathmandu and Delhi we worked in interdisciplinary groups on the topics of urban transformation, place making and un/belonging. An amazing week in Delhi now comes to end. We had a wonderful time working on the two sites Kishangarh and Shahjahanabad, exchanging ideas and exploring Delhi and it’s cuisine.

Kishangarh, an urban village, challenges our formal understanding of what we consider as urban.

Looking back on an amazing week in Copenhagen for the annual meeting! 🇪🇺
Engaged discussions and several insights into past achievements and future goals showed the promising path the European university is on!

Watch out for course opportunities at the seven partner universities: 🇫🇷🇨🇿🇮🇹🇩🇰🇨🇭🇵🇱🇩🇪