The Ph.D./M.A. Program is affiliated with several CUNY-based research centers. Three of these centers are directly associated with the program:

Center for Urban Research
Incorporating the CUNY Data Service, conducts research on such topics as economic and demographic change, immigration, political participation, crime, housing, and neighborhood development.

The Howard Samuels Center
The Howard Samuels Center, founded in 1988, is a prominent research center at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) specializing in applied and comparative research on local, regional, national and international policies and politics.  Our aim is to advance and promote democracy in communities. The Center focuses on areas of research and public policy that help marginalized groups increase their access to, and participation in, the political process, fostering equity and quality of services for minorities, immigrants, women, and other marginalized groups.  We pay special attention to the effectiveness of civic organizing to achieve these goals.

Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
Devoted to the development of scholarship on international institutions and global issues with special emphasis on the United Nations and affiliated international organizations through a program of research, seminars, conferences, and workshops.