The two-credit course aims to provide students with a first hand experience of the poverty, homelessness, and violence in the city of bright lights – Los Angeles, California. A deeper study of these social, economic and political challenges will lead to a better understanding of the factors that lie underneath: racial tensions, extreme wealth, gentrification, gang violence, and other structural imbalances including those in the criminal justice system. Students will learn from different local organizations how they, through their own unique approach, work to transform these inequalities into more just and equal structures and relationships. Students will also have the opportunity to network for internships and jobs with local organizations. Partnering with Chrysalis, a Los Angles based non-profit, the course will be led by Dr. Pushpa Iyer and administered through the Center for Conflict Studies at MIIS.