Spotlight: Jill Simone Gross

Hunter UAP Professor Jill Simone Gross was recently awarded a Fulbright Schulman European Union award to examine the implications of European Union law on migrant inclusion in cities. She studied how these laws intersect with local inclusion policies to create what appears to be a type of “urban citizenship” separate and apart from more traditional notions of national citizenship.

While in Europe, Dr. Gross divided her time between two national migrant hubs in Europe: London and Dublin, with shorter trips to Amsterdam to conduct this important research. Dr. Gross’s host institutions included: University College Dublin, where she led a seminar on Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), University of Westminster, and the City of Amsterdam’s Diversity office. In addition, Dr. Gross was invited to speak at Gothenberg University in Sweden on the governance of international migration.

As one of 17 invited international speakers, Dr. Gross traveled to Guanczhou, China in December 2011. She presented a paper on the challenges that urban regions face from as influx of international migrants and what policy makers and planners in China might do with regard to integration. Dr. Gross, an elected member of the governing board of the American Urban Affairs Association, also spent her time in China at Sun Yat Sen University to sign a memorandum of understanding in support of future relations—research, study visits, etc.