Urban Studies

Urban Studies Program Outcomes

Students with a minor in Urban Studies will be able to:

• Develop a critical and interdisciplinary perspective on the multiple forces that act on individuals and communities in urban spaces, in the U.S. and globally
• Bring multiple disciplines into dialogue to critically assess the relationship between physical and architectural environments and urban life
• Articulate the impact of the arts, literature, and design on re/imagining, defining, and challenging urban environments and culture
• Identify major trends and figures in the historical development of conceptions of justice, equity, health, safety, and a sense of place that have informed both urban spaces and Urban Studies
• Explain chronologies of urban growth and evolution as they map onto histories of labor, migration, industrialization, deindustrialization, environmental and economic health, and transformation
• Envision equitable and alternative approaches to social, economic, political, institutional, and environmental challenges in urban spaces

 

Minor in Urban Studies Program Requirements

The minor requires 18 credits, which must include the following:
 

Required Foundation Course (3 credits)

• URB 201 – City Life: Introduction to Urban Studies (3 credits)
   

Content Area Breadth Requirement

At least one course (3 credits) from each of the three content areas:

• Area A: Arts and culture
• Area B: People, politics, and power
• Area C: Structures, spaces, and healthy cities

Of the 18 credits needed for the minor, 9 credits must be at or above the 300-level, and may not count toward the student’s major requirement. One 3-credit course should be equivalent to an URB capstone; whether this is a 300-level or 400-level course is largely dependent on the focus of each individual student, so the capstone will be determined in conjunction with the URB Program director.

Urban Studies electives are also sometimes offered as “topics” within variable topics courses in other departments. In these cases, courses are approved for URB credit on a topic-by-topic basis. Such courses are denoted below with asterisks.

The list of courses that fulfill URB requirements may be found below. New courses and topics are approved every semester, so students are strongly encouraged to contact the URB Program Director for the most up-to-date list. In some cases, students may find relevant courses that are not currently in the approved list of URB courses, in which case students may provide the URB Program Director with a copy of the syllabus of the course in question or their own brief written summary of the content of the course and its relevance to Urban Studies; such courses that reflect the Program outcomes may be accepted for the minor.