The Urban Studies Program equips students to analyze the city and urban life in the United States and around the planet through a variety of disciplinary lenses drawn from the humanities and social sciences, applying both qualitative and quantitative methods for scholarly research and community engagement. Cities are sites of problems and promise, inequality and solidarity, conflict and community. Processes of urbanization shape the challenges and possibilities of the 21st century. Urban Studies students explore the history of cities, urban and suburban growth and transformation, the organization and design of built, social, and natural environments, urban politics and policy, and the role of cities and urbanization in art, culture, and public life. The undergraduate program emphasizes global and local perspectives to understand how diverse communities have shaped cities through time, investigates the spatial dimensions of social relations and cultural meaning, and challenges students to work towards inclusive, equitable, and sustainable places.
Through experiences both inside and outside the classroom, Urban Studies concentrators learn to analyze urban life and the built environment through a variety of disciplinary lenses, to think creatively and critically about both the problems and potential of cities, and to use evidence-based approaches to address real-world issues. Above all, our students are dedicated to understanding, envisioning and creating cities that are inclusive and sustainable. An Urban Studies degree prepares students for a wide range of careers, with our graduates going on to work in government, the non-profit sector, business, law, education, planning and design, public health and medicine, academia, media and technology, and the arts.
For a concentration, the program requires ten courses selected from four course groups:
| Introduction (choose one): | 1 | |
| The City: An Introduction to Urban Studies | ||
| Urban Life in Providence: An Introduction | ||
| Research Methods (choose one): | 1 | |
| Ethnographic Research Methods | ||
| Introduction to Probability and Statistics | ||
| Introduction to Probability and Statistics with Calculus | ||
| Introduction to Probability and Statistics with Theory | ||
| Statistical Inference II | ||
| Statistical Methods | ||
| Introduction to Econometrics | ||
| Applied Statistics for Ed Research and Policy Analysis | ||
| Essentials of Data Analysis | ||
| Political Research Methods | ||
| Methods of Social Research | ||
| Introductory Statistics for Social Research 1 | ||
| Investigating the City: Hands-on Research Methods for Urban Analysis | ||
| Core Courses (3 courses required, in at least 3 disciplines, such as American studies, anthropology, economics, education, English, history, history of art and architecture, political science, and sociology, as well as urban planning when staffing allows) | 3 | |
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis | ||
| Urban Life: Anthropology in and of the City | ||
| Anthropology of Disasters | ||
| Urban Economics | ||
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Applications | ||
| City Novels | ||
| Modernist Cities | ||
| Reading New York | ||
| Cartography and Geovisualization | ||
| Clearing the Air: Environmental Studies of Pollution | ||
| Sustainable Design in the Built Environment | ||
| Environmental Stewardship and Resilience in Urban Systems | ||
| Nineteenth-Century Architecture | ||
| Architecture of the House Through Space and Time | ||
| Introduction to Architectural Design Studio | ||
| The Other History of Modern Architecture | ||
| Architecture and Urbanism of Africa | ||
| Modern Architecture | ||
| Contemporary Architecture | ||
| City and Cinema | ||
| Cities, Landscapes, and Design in the Age of Pandemics | ||
| Cities and Inequality Since 1920: The United States | ||
| City Politics | ||
| African American Politics | ||
| Principles and Methods of Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Nineteenth-Century Architecture | ||
| The U.S. Metropolis: Cities and Suburbs in American History | ||
| Urban Life in the Global South | ||
| Fieldwork in the Urban Community | ||
| Urban Theory and Practice | ||
| The United States Metropolis, 1945-2000 | ||
| The Political Foundations of the City | ||
| Housing in America | ||
| Urban Politics and Urban Public Policy | ||
| Race, Racism, and the Urban Environment | ||
| Seminar courses (choose three) 2 | 3 | |
| Policy Implementation in Education | ||
| Urban Schools in Historical Perspective | ||
| Race in U.S. Cities and Suburbs | ||
| The Nature of Cities | ||
| Wasted: Rethinking Chemical Environments | ||
| Berlin: Architecture, Politics and Memory | ||
| Providence Architecture | ||
| Wealth and Poverty in the New Metropolis | ||
| Democracy and Inequality in American Cities | ||
| The Politics of Urban Transformation | ||
| Theory and Practice of Engaged Scholarship | ||
| Geographical Analysis of Society | ||
| Comparative Urban Political Economy | ||
| The Geography of Urban Inequality | ||
| Urban Ecologies: Forms, Flows and Futures | ||
| American Culture and the City | ||
| Downtown Development | ||
| Ancient Cities: From the Origins Through Late Antiquity | ||
| The Politics of Community Organizing | ||
| Jerusalem Divided: Politics and Cultural Heritage | ||
| Urban Regimes in the American Republic | ||
| The Cultural and Social Life of the Built Environment | ||
| Cities in Mind: Modern Urban Thought and Theory | ||
| Transportation: An Urban Planning Perspective | ||
| The Political Economy of Cities: American and Comparative Perspectives | ||
| Housing Justice | ||
| Heritage in the Metropolis: Remembering and Preserving the Urban Past | ||
| Berlin: Global Metropolis (1945-2020) | ||
| Urban Development and Governance in the Global South | ||
| Urban Ecologies: Forms, Flows and Futures | ||
| Urban Asia: Beyond Tradition, Modernity, and Crisis | ||
| The Right to the City: Focus on Indonesia | ||
| The Just City: Installment I, Comparative Perspectives on Juvenile Justice Reform | ||
| The Real Estate Development Process: An Entrepreneurial Lens | ||
| Complementary Curriculum (Total of 2 courses required): | 2 | |
1. Any course from the Introductory or Core Curriculum options above not used to fulfill another requirement | ||
2. OR Any of the following: | ||
| Race, Gender, and Urban Politics | ||
| Providence Housing Ecosystem, Development, Displacement and Gentrification | ||
| Making America: Twentieth-Century U.S. Immigrant/Ethnic Literature | ||
| The Archaeology of College Hill | ||
| Race and Inequality in the United States | ||
| Qualitative Methods | ||
| Social Psychology of Race, Class, and Gender | ||
| ENGL 1050S | Writing the City | 1 |
| Harlem Renaissance: The Politics of Culture | ||
| Equity and the Environment: Movements, Scholarship, Solutions | ||
| Local Food Systems and Urban Agriculture | ||
| Politics and Spectacle in the Arts of Ancient Rome | ||
| Heaven Above, Suzhou and Hangzhou Below: Urban Culture in Early Modern China | ||
| Democracy and Inequality in American Cities | ||
| Power and Prosperity in Urban America | ||
| Space, Time and Society | ||
| Imagining Moscow: Utopia and Urban Spaces in 20th-Century Russian Culture | ||
| Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the Modern World | ||
3. RISD courses approved by the Urban Studies Program each semester as applicable to the Urban Studies concentration. 3 | ||
4. Any course taken at another university in the US or abroad and approved by the Urban Studies Program each semester (2 maximum) | ||
| Total Credits | 11 | |
- 1
There are also other statistics courses offered by other departments (e.g., Applied Mathematics, Cognitive Sciences, and Psychology). On occasion, an alternative research skills course may be approved for a specific concentration.
- 2
The courses provide opportunities to undertake research or fieldwork projects and all qualify as "capstone" experiences.
- 3
No more than two may be used to satisfy the requirements of this concentration. The RISD course is identified in the student's record at Brown by a RISD course code.
Off-Campus Courses: Some courses taken outside Brown (e.g., in study abroad programs) may be used for credit towards the concentration if the material covered directly corresponds to that taught in Brown courses, or is relevant to the complementary curriculum. Such courses will be approved each semester by the concentration advisor.
Honors
Candidates for Honors shall apply for this distinction in writing to the Director of the Program by the middle of the second semester of their junior year. They shall include a cover letter with a brief statement of the intended research proposal as well as the name of the member of the Urban Studies faculty who would serve as their advisor and with whom they must work closely. Twelve courses are required for Honors concentrator, two in addition to the ten courses required for a standard program. During the Fall and Spring of the senior year, honors candidates must complete two additional courses beyond the ten courses required by the regular concentration: URBN 1981 Senior Honors Thesis I in Urban Studies(S/NC) and URBN 1972 Senior Honors Thesis II in Urban Studies (grade). The candidate's final thesis must be of outstanding quality in order to qualify for honors.