President Mark Schlissel appointed 21 faculty members and administrators to the Detroit Center for Innovation Curriculum Development Committee. The committee of 17 regular and four ex-officio members began meeting weekly recently to formulate curricula that are interdisciplinary and focused on the emerging needs of the Detroit regional economy.

According to the forecast, the city’s unemployment rate will continue to fall from 18.7% in July 2013, when the city filed for bankruptcy, to 8.6% in 2019, and to 7.9% by 2023 and 2024, improving faster than the statewide measure.

Jolly is interested in the intersection of the personal and political in the lives of black women.  Her dissertation, for example, explores the sexual lives and grassroots politics of young Jamaican women living with HIV/AIDS and their impact on transnational feminist activism and public health. Her work in Detroit complemented this research.

“…bringing “American Rhapsody” home both geographically and artistically is something that I’m really looking forward to. And I think that the Detroit audience is really going to enjoy the piece because so many of the issues are very germane to Detroit and to our community,”
~ Aaron Dworkin

Can grocery delivery improve the health of pregnant women? Are neighborhood entrepreneurship programs increasing economic mobility for low-income Detroiters? What role could a modern greenhouse play in expanding the ancient African art of bead-making in Detroit? These are research questions three teams of community and academic partners will tackle this year with support from the Detroit Urban Research Center and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan.

At the end of 50 years, Anika Goss sees a city with productive, intentional green spaces, a Detroit with economic clusters with great jobs, and neighborhoods that have diverse housing choices and transportation options and family-friendly services. 

The Detroit Partnership facilitates weekly volunteering programs within the city throughout the academic year. Approximately 60 volunteers drive weekly to the city and support Detroit-based youth organizations such as Alternatives for Girls and Racquet Up Detroit.

To commemorate the legacy of civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the University of Michigan’s 2020 MLK Symposium will focus on the complexities associated with diversity and highlighting the diversity within marginalized communities.

Woodworking equipment whirs as teens turn out the latest in creations and consumer products that have come from years of making things at the Brightmoor Maker Space in Detroit.