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.
The Urban Studies curriculum provides students with the flexibility and range to craft an individualized course plan exploring their own specific interests in the urban world. These are some of the hallmarks of our program:
Interdisciplinary Approaches: A quintessentially interdisciplinary program, urban studies equips students with the tools to seek comprehensive approaches to the complex challenges facing cities today. Concentrators can choose from urban studies classes that draw upon American studies, anthropology, economics, sociology, history, political science, history of art and architecture, design, environmental studies, literature, media studies, cultural theory, education, archaeology, international affairs and public policy, and more. The program encourages students to draw from these diverse disciplines to craft an individualized concentration course plan that explores their own interests in particular urban themes; for example, cities and climate change, urban inequality and justice, or transportation planning and public space (to name just a few). In the process, students are taught to examine urban life using both qualitative and quantitative methods, to communicate their ideas clearly and convincingly, and to collaborate on both scholarly and applied projects.
Local Meets Global: Students in our program are taught to apply their knowledge and skills to urban contexts around the globe and down the street. Several courses introduce students to broader processes and diverse histories of urbanization in the United States, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America; while others offer a deep dive into urban issues and debates in our own backyard of Providence, Rhode Island. Many of our concentrators also choose to enrich their coursework at Brown by spending a semester or summer studying abroad in a new city, taking advantage of the over 130 overseas programs offered by the university and its partners.
Faculty Mentorship: Urban studies concentrators have the unique opportunity to work closely with faculty from departments across the university. In addition to teaching classes, urban studies faculty offer advising and mentorship to students pursuing independent studies, community service projects, capstone papers, and honors thesis research. All urban studies faculty serve as concentration advisors for our undergraduates, providing individualized attention to guide students in crafting a set of courses and experiences that reflect their academic and career goals. Faculty members hold frequent office hours and welcome students to discuss their interests in urban issues and the concentration.
Community Engagement: The Urban Studies Program has a close relationship with the city of Providence. Faculty members have served on local and state government commissions and lend their expertise to a wide range of community initiatives. The program assists interested students in finding summer internships with relevant local government agencies, cultural institutions, and non-profit organizations, where they can apply lessons they have learned in the classroom to real-world issues beyond campus. Students are encouraged to undertake research involving the study of Providence and nearby cities for their honors theses or capstone projects. Urban studies concentrators also have the option of pursuing an Engaged Scholarship Certificate, a program that trains students in community-oriented research methods and facilitates collaborative projects with a variety of local organizations.
Concentrators will take 10 courses drawn from four categories (Introductory, Research Methods, Core, Seminar, and Complementary) and complete either a capstone or an honors thesis.
For a concentration, the program requires ten courses selected from four course groups:
| Introduction (choose one): | 1 | |
| City Politics | ||
| The City: An Introduction to Urban Studies | ||
| Urban Life in Providence: An Introduction | ||
| Research Methods (choose one): | 1 | |
| Introduction to Probability and Statistics | ||
| Introduction to Probability and Statistics with Calculus | ||
| Statistical Inference II | ||
| Introduction to Econometrics | ||
| Essentials of Data Analysis | ||
| Political Research Methods | ||
| Methods of Social Research | ||
| Introductory Statistics for Social Research 1 | ||
| 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 | |
| Cities of Sound: Place and History in American Pop Music | ||
| 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 | ||
| Sustainable Design in the Built Environment | ||
| Environmental Stewardship and Resilience in Urban Systems | ||
| Introduction to Architectural Design Studio | ||
| The Other History of Modern Architecture | ||
| Architecture and Urbanism of Africa | ||
| Modern Architecture | ||
| Contemporary Architecture | ||
| City and Cinema | ||
| American Urban History, 1600-1870 | ||
| American Urban History, 1870-1965 (HIST 1550::American Urban History to 1870) | ||
| City Politics | ||
| African American Politics | ||
| Remaking the City | ||
| Principles and Methods of Geographic Information Systems | ||
| Social Exclusion | ||
| Nineteenth-Century Architecture | ||
| Fieldwork in the Urban Community | ||
| The United States Metropolis, 1945-2000 | ||
| The Political Foundations of the City | ||
| Housing in America | ||
| Urban Politics and Urban Public Policy | ||
| Seminar courses (choose three) 2 | 3 | |
| City of the American Century: The Culture and Politics of Urbanism in Postwar New York City | ||
| Berlin: Architecture, Politics and Memory | ||
| Providence Architecture | ||
| Theory and Practice of Engaged Scholarship | ||
| 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 | ||
| Housing Justice | ||
| Berlin: Global Metropolis (1945-2020) | ||
| 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 | ||
| African-American Life in the City | ||
| Making America: Twentieth-Century U.S. Immigrant/Ethnic Literature | ||
| Oral History and Community Memory | ||
| Charles Chapin and the Urban Public Health Movement | ||
| Inequality, Sustainability, and Mobility in a Car-Clogged World | ||
| Anthropology of Homelessness | ||
| Heritage in the Metropolis: Remembering and Preserving the Urban Past | ||
| City and Sanctuary in the Ancient World | ||
| Cities and Urban Space in the Ancient World | ||
| Cities, Colonies and Global Networks in the Western Mediterranean | ||
| City and the Festival: Cult Practices and Architectural Production in the Ancient Near East | ||
| Archaeologies of the Near East | ||
| How Houses Build People | ||
| The Archaeology of College Hill | ||
| Race and Inequality in the United States | ||
| Harlem Renaissance: The Politics of Culture | ||
| Land Use and Built Environment: An Entrepreneurial View | ||
| Wild Literature in the Urban Landscape | ||
| Environmental Law and Policy | ||
| Local Food Systems and Urban Agriculture | ||
| Painters, Builders, and Bankers in Early Modern Italy | ||
| Constructing the Eternal City: Popes and Pilgrims in Early Modern Rome | ||
| Renaissance Venice and the Veneto | ||
| Contemporary American Urbanism: City Design and Planning, 1945-2000 | ||
| Samurai and Merchants, Prostitutes and Priests: Japanese Urban Culture in the Early Modern Period | ||
| Capitalism, Land and Water: A World History: 1848 to the present | ||
| Cities and Urban Culture in China | ||
| City as Modernity:Popular Culture, Mass Consumption, Urban Entertainment in Nineteenth-Century Paris | ||
| History of Rio de Janeiro | ||
| London: 1750 to the Present | ||
| Urban History of Latin America | ||
| Program Evaluation | ||
| Word, Image and Power in Early Modern Italy | ||
| Japanese Cities: Tokyo and Kyoto | ||
| Infrastructure Policy | ||
| Power and Prosperity in Urban America | ||
| Imagining Moscow: Utopia and Urban Spaces in 20th-Century Russian Culture | ||
| The Fate of the Coast | ||
| American Heritage: Democracy, Inequality, and Public Policy | ||
| Race, Class, and Ethnicity in the Modern World | ||
| Human Needs and Social Services | ||
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 | 10 | |
- 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
The Urban Studies Honors Program is intended for students who have been highly successful in their Urban Studies concentration coursework and who want the opportunity to pursue a research project in more depth than is possible in an undergraduate seminar. Such a project requires a high degree of initiative and dedication. It also requires significant amounts of time and energy, as well as demonstrative skills in research and writing. Students must apply in the middle of the second semester of their junior year. (This applies to students who will complete the degree requirements in December, as well as May.) The student's honors application must include a brief research proposal, a list of completed urban coursework, and must be signed by a faculty member willing to serve as the student's honors advisor. During the Fall and Spring of the senior year, honors candidates must complete two additional courses beyond the ten courses required for the concentration: URBN 1971 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.