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This edited collection presents a compilation of personal essays on the role of public higher education in the lives of fourteen social scientists who are graduates of the Graduate Center, the doctoral granting institution at the City University of New York, the nation´s largest public urban university.

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1. Introduction; Deborah S. Gambs and Rose M. Kim PART I: LEARNING TO BE CRITICAL 2. The ´Children of the Whole People´ Can Be Educated; Michelle Ronda 3. Taking Refuge in the Public University: From Harvard to CUNY; Grace M. Cho 4. The Personal is Global, the Political is Communal, the Rest is Teaching and Mentoring; Laura Fantone 5. Reflections On My Public Education; Angelique Harris 6. Network Analysis: Personal Connections Within and Across Academies in NYC; Melissa Hope Ditmore PART II: BUILDING CARING COMMUNITIES 7. The Accidental Scholar: Overcoming the Odds and Succeeding through CUNY; Jennifer Pastor 8. Start Over; Start Again; Hosu Kim 9. Creating Caring Communities at the Graduate Center; Robin G. Isserles 10. Learning to Ask Life´s Big Questions; Rose M. Kim 11. My Not-At-All-Private Metamorphosis: On the Graduate Center of The City University of New York and Public School Spaces; Jean Halley PART III: BECOMING AND STAYING PUBLIC 12. Striving to Stay Public; Alia Tyner Mullings 13. Becoming Public; Deirdre Conlon 14. An Open University: Taking the Experimental Path; Deborah S. Gambs 15. An International Student´s Reflections on the CUNY Years: Far Away, So Close; Ayse Akalin

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Deborah Gambs, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, USA Rose M. Kim, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, USA Ayse Akalin, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Grace Cho, College of Staten Island, CUNY, USA Deirdre Conlon, University of Leeds, UK Melissa Ditmore, Independent Scholar & Consultant on Rights-Based Research and Programming, USA Laura Fantone, University of California, Berkeley, USA Jean Halley, College of Staten Island, CUNY, USA Angelique Harris, Marquette University, USA Robin Isserles, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, USA Hosu Kim, College of Staten Island, CUNY, USA Jennifer Pinkney Pastor, Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, USA Michelle Ronda, Marymount Manhattan College, USA Alia Tyner-Mullings, New Community College, CUNY, USA

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