Climate and Sustainability Summer Academy

• Taught by UChicago’s Faculty and advanced graduate students with specific expertise in the area of environmental and urban research. The faculty will be leading lectures and providing support for students’ writing and research. 
• Students will develop necessary academic skills to work in an intellectually intense and rigorous university research environment. 
• Students will participate in excursions and guided tours at relevant infrastructure design and technology development sites.
• Students will have daily writing assignments to be completed and submitted from home or during office hours after the daily program. Students will receive feedback on this work and are expected to continually revise and resubmit work in accordance with this feedback. This will be an intense three-week program and students are expected to devote all of their time during those weeks to the course.

• Available for current high school students who are at least 15 years old
• Students with a strong background in writing, reading, and disciplined research and work habits
• The program's medium of instruction will be in English, so students should be comfortable in an English-speaking learning environment
• Applicants must be Hong Kong residents or be eligible to study in Hong Kong during the program period

In preparation for the course, students will be expected to complete some coursework to familiarize themselves with some common concepts and theories related to the course. Students are expected to bring their own laptops to class and will also be provided with instructions on how to download and access any relevant software. 

Academic classes are held Monday through Friday. Excursions and guest speakers will be integrated into the classes throughout the program.”. Guest speakers will be integrated into the classes throughout the program.

While each day varies slightly in format, a typical day includes:

• 9:30 to 10:45 – Lecture
• 10:45 to 11:00 – Mid-morning break
• 11:00 to 12:15 – Critical reading and writing Development with emphasis on applied learning.
• 12:15 to 13:15 – Lunch
• 13:15 to 15:00 – Research method development – research project practicum.
• 15:00 to 16:00 – Campus available for optional group or individual work

Wei Zhou is a PhD student in the Sociology Department at the University of Chicago. Her research spans across environmental sociology, political sociology, and political economy using historical and computational methods. Her current work examines the origins of large-scale fossil-based infrastructure in East Asia, focusing on colonial and post-colonial contexts. Wei earned her BA in International Studies and Sociology from Johns Hopkins University and is still a research affiliate with the Arrighi Center for Global Studies. Her work on the longue durée analysis of social protest in modern China will appear in a forthcoming publication in the International Journal of Comparative Sociology.

Michael Fisch is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and affiliate of the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU). His research is situated at the intersection of sociocultural anthropology and science and technology studies and is concerned with shifting conceptualizations and practices around nature, culture, and technology. He is the author of An Anthropology of the Machine: Tokyo’s Commuter Train Network (University of Chicago Press, 2018), in which he develops a technography of collective life constituted in the interplay between humans and machines within Tokyo’s commuter train network. He has also published on topics related to media theory, environmental anthropology, and climate fiction. He is currently working on a manuscript that explores the emergence of models of experimental ecology in Japan, Israel, and the United States as sites that address issues around ecological governance and urban sustainability under the threat of climate crisis. 

Established in June 2022, the Committee on Environment, Geography and Urbanization (CEGU) is the culmination of a long-standing collaboration between the Program on the Global Environment (PGE), the Committee on Geographical Sciences (CGS), and many other faculty across the social sciences and humanities at the University of Chicago whose research and teaching address the societal and spatial dimensions of climate change, biodiversity loss, and other kinds of environmental transformation. CEGU builds upon the University’s legacies of excellence in geographical studies while providing a new divisional and inter-divisional platform for scholarship, teaching, and public events related to environment and society across time and space. With over 30 faculty affiliates drawn primarily from the Division of Social Sciences and the Division of Humanities, CEGU seeks to investigate and respond to the environmental challenges of our time not only by advancing climate change awareness, but by actively centering contemporary planetary environmental emergencies in all aspects of social research and humanistic inquiry.

CEGU is responsible for several pedagogical initiatives in environmental social science and environmental humanities, including the undergraduate major/minor and a doctoral certificate in Environment, Geography and Urbanization. Key fields of teaching and student research include urban environmental studies and sustainable urbanism; energy histories and geographies; environmental economics; environmental humanities; spatial and environmental data visualization; environmental policy, design and practice; and community engagement.

Find out more about CEGU here.

• Early Bird Application Deadline: February 22, 2025
• Regular Application Deadline: April 30, 2025

1. Latest school transcript
2. Student's statement of purpose
   • The statement of purpose should be a document of less than 700 words describing your interests as well as your background in issues and questions of urban sustainability, environmental science, urban design, and or climate change. Please note that you do not have to address each topic. 
   • Explain why you would be a good fit for the Climate and Sustainability Summer Academy. What skills and experiences do you have that would make you a good candidate?
   •  What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
   • Describe a recent text you have read or activity you have participated in that relates to the topics of this program.          
3. [Optional] English Proficiency Scores
4. [Optional] Letter of Recommendations
5. [Optional] List of extracurricular activities and personal achievements

Submit your application here

The program fee includes the course fee, use of the UChicago Campus in Hong Kong facilities, one meal and refreshments during on-campus days, excursion expenses, and shuttle buses to and from campus and Kennedy Town MTR Station. Program Fees are non-refundable once paid unless the program is canceled by the UChicago campus in Hong Kong.