Recently Arif Khan ’16 checked in with an update about a project he was opposing: a controversial Highway 17 expansion in the Hudson Valley, where he lives with his wife, architect Sabeen Hasan, MArch ‘09. When we first spoke several years ago, he was mounting a spirited, if less than certain, resistance.

In January, Natalia Rudiak, Daniela Chacón Arias, and Jeremiah Ellison taught the J-Term course Building and Navigating Power: How Transformative City Projects Actually Happen. Its aim: to build the political literacy and ethical grounding to translate ideas into durable, democratic urban change. It was a hit with students.