Courses for Fall 2025 | Urban Studies Program

	Title	Instructors	Time	Description	Cross listings	Fulfills	Syllabus URL
URBS 0003-401	Origin and Culture of Cities	Richard L Zettler	TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	The UN estimates that 2.9 of the world's 6.1 billion people live in cities and that this percentage is rapidly increasing in many parts of the world. This course examines urban life and urban problems by providing anthropological perspectives on this distinctive form of human association and land use. First we will examine the "origin" of cities, focusing on several of the places where cities first developed, including Mesopotamia and the Valley of Mexico. We will then investigate the internal structure of non-industrial cities by looking at case studies from around the world and from connections between the cities of the past and the city in which we live and work today.	ANTH0103401, MELC0003401	History & Tradition Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
URBS 0015A-301	Civic Scholars Proseminar	Rand A Quinn Khadijah Seay	M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	The Civic Scholars Proseminar is the gateway, interdisciplinary course for first-year students in the Penn Civic Scholars Program, a four-year certificate program integrating scholarship and civic engagement. The course, open only to first-year Civic Scholars, provides context for students' future engagement, academic work, and program participation throughout their undergraduate experience.
URBS 0248-301	The Urban Food Chain	Michael P Nairn	M 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	This class explores the social, economic, ecological, and cultural dynamics of metropolitan and community food systems in U.S. cities. Field trips and assignments immerse students in various forms of experiential learning - including farming and gardening, cooking, eating, and more. After a broad introduction to global, regional, and urban food systems in our first three weeks, across most of the semester we follow the food chain (or cycle), from production to processing, distribution, cooking, consumption, and waste. Specific topics include urban agriculture, community kitchens, grocery, hunger and food assistance, restaurants, neighborhoods, food cultures, food justice, and community food security. Students will gain broad literacies in: metropolitan and neighborhood food environments; food production, processing, distribution, access, and preparation; and the relationships between food, culture, and society. Students taking this class should be open to trying new things, getting hands dirty, and working with others in various settings and activities.		Humanties & Social Science Sector	https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202530&c=URBS0248301
URBS 1000-301	The City: Introduction to Urban Studies	Domenic Vitiello	R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	This class introduces students to cities, suburbs, and the ways people study urban life. Intended for current and prospective Urban Studies majors and minors, the class surveys the history and contemporary experiences of cities around the world, comparing Philadelphia with other places. We explore urban growth and decline, colonization, migration, neighborhood change, policy and planning, race and ethnicity, gender, poverty, inequality, and social, economic, and environmental justice. Students are introduced to institutions and professions ranging from housing and urban development to public education and health – examining their research and practice across regions. Class meetings include lectures and discussion, but largely follow the structured, active, in-class learning (SAIL) format. This includes field trips, intensive group work and assignments using maps and census data, taking and curating photographs, observing and documenting neighborhoods, among other approaches to researching and analyzing cities.
URBS 1060-401	Race and Ethnic Relations	Tukufu Zuberi	TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.	AFRC1060401, ASAM1510401, LALS1060401, SOCI1060401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 1090-401	Urban Sociology	Alec Ian Gershberg	TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	This course is a comprehensive introduction to the sociological study of urban areas. This includes more general topics as the rise of cities and theories urbanism, as well as more specific areas of inquiry, including American urbanism, segregation, urban poverty, suburbanization and sprawl, neighborhoods and crime, and immigrant ghettos. The course will also devote significant attention to globalization and the process of urbanization in less developed counties.	AFRC1090401, LALS1090401, SOCI1090401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 1153-401	Transformations of Urban America: Making the Unequal Metropolis, 1945 to Today	Randall B Cebul	MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	The course traces the economic, social, and political history of American cities after World War II. It focuses on how the economic problems of the industrial city were compounded by the racial conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s and the fiscal crises of the 1970s. The last part of the course examines the forces that have led to the revitalization and stark inequality of cities in recent years.	HIST1153401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. Society Sector
URBS 1400-301	Inequity and Empowerment: Urban Financial Literacy (SNF Paideia Program Course)	Brian Peterson	M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This course provides students with a rich look at the historical and contemporary factors that have shaped America's wealth gaps. By studying the economic impacts of systemic forces such as discriminatory housing, predatory lending, and unbanking, students will develop a deep financial understanding of today's urban communities. Students will also explore their own financial awareness and exposure, creating personalized financial histories and empowerment plans. By breaking the silence on topics such as credit scores, auto purchases, renting vs. owning a home, insurance, retirement plans, debt management, and investing, Urban Financial Literacy will prepare students for a financially healthy life at Penn and beyond. The course will also explore larger financial examples and case studies, including endowment funds and major foundations, the promises and perils of sports and entertainment, start-ups and the gig economy, and more. In contrasting the opportunity and excess that is possible, with the debilitating realities of intergenerational poverty in America, the idea is that students will end the course with a robust appreciation for financial literacy, a portfolio of practical strategies, and a commitment to create new possibilities for financial wellness.
URBS 1780-401	Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn	Ira Harkavy Theresa E Simmonds	W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	This seminar helps students develop their capacity to solve strategic, real-world problems by working collaboratively in the classroom, on campus, and in the West Philadelphia community. Students develop proposals that demonstrate how a Penn undergraduate education might better empower students to produce, not simply "consume," societally-useful knowledge, as well as to function as caring, contributing citizens of a democratic society. Their proposals help contribute to the improvement of education on campus and in the community, as well as to the improvement of university-community relations. Additionally, students provide college access support at Paul Robeson High School for one hour each week.	AFRC1780401, HIST0811401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 2000-301	Introduction to Urban Research	Ira J Goldstein	R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This course will examine different ways of undertaking urban research. The goal will be to link substantive research questions to appropriate data and research methods. Computer-based quantitative methods, demographic techniques, mapping / GIS and qualitative approaches will be covered in this course. Student assignments will focus on constructing a neighborhood case study of a community experiencing rapid neighborhood change.		Quantitative Data Analysis
URBS 2020-301	Urban Education	Michael C Clapper	T 3:30 PM-6:29 PM	This seminar focuses on two main questions: 1) How have US schools and urban ones in particular continued to reproduce inequalities rather than ameliorating them? 2) In the informational age, how do the systems affecting education need to change to create more successful and equitable outcomes? The course is designed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Each class session looks at issues of equity in relation to an area of practice (e.g. lesson design, curriculum planning, fostering positive student identities, classroom management, school funding, policy planning...), while bringing theoretical frames to bear from the fields of education, sociology, anthropology and psychology.		Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 2040-301	Urban Law	Dina Schlossberg	R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This course is an introduction to the laws which govern land use development and planning, and will explore timely issues of affordable housing, environmental controls, and historic preservation. Students will come away from the class with a deeper understanding of how the powers and limitations of different branches of government—legislative, judicial and executive— and of different levels of government – federal, state and local—can impact land use development within cities. This understanding will evolve primarily from the study of (a) the history and use of zoning as a tool for land regulation, (b) the evolving law of “takings” and eminent domain, and (c) the tools that communities use to shape development. Class format will include both lectures and problem-solving, and active participation in class discussions is required.		Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 2100-301	Urban Ethnography and Field Methods	Julia Mcwilliams	CANCELED	Cities can be dense, noisy, gritty and dirty. They can also have oases of calm and beauty. They are places where the unexpected is expected to occur. One thing is certain–urban settings are full of the diversity of human expressivity. Through readings, videos, guest lectures, and field trips, this course addresses the symbolic meanings and social production of urban life. The urban landscape provides an intensification of cultural processes. How humans experience them are more easily studied and understood in an urban setting. This course is a seminar with readings from Philadelphia and other urban settings introducing students to the study of the city as a site of everyday practice, introducing themes across neighborhoods, urban institutions, policy processes, and cultural change. For the semester project, students get step-by-step training in conducting an ethnographic fieldwork project on a topic of choice. They will acquire an understanding of qualitative field methods that they can employ in the service of capstone, thesis, and dissertation projects.
URBS 2450-401	Poverty, Race and Health	Hannah E Olson	MW 5:15 PM-6:44 PM	This course is designed to introduce students to current literature on race/ethnic difference in health and mortality in the United States, covering such topics as explanations for why some race/ethnic groups fare better than others, how inner city poverty and residential segregation may contribute to racial/ethnic differences in health outcomes, and health of immigrants versus native-born populations. Current policy debated and recent policy developments related to health are also briefly discussed. The course is organized as a seminar with a combination of lectures and class discussions.	SOCI2450401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 2850-301	Health on the urban margins: The experience of health in American cities	R. Tyson Smith	TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	In this course we will investigate the social and spatial determinants of health in contemporary urban American. We will study how cities are impacted by healthcare delivery systems and social policy in the United States, with special attention toward understanding the relationship between health disparities and structures of urban inequality related to racial discrimination, extreme poverty, and the stigma of a criminal record. We will also explore how a variety of marginalized populations from war veterans to parolees to the homeless cope with mental illness and violence-related trauma in the urban environment.
URBS 2900-301	Metropolitan Nature	Michael P Nairn	W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	In order to understand the complex and often skewed relationship between the built and natural systems, we must think in processes and examine different scales simultaneously. The course explores urban sustainability and resilience. At its core, sustainability is a radical concept that integrates the economy, equity (social justice), and the environment. Co-opted by marketing slogans, stripped of meaning and context, it has become vague and pliable. Sustainability and resilience demand a holistic systems view of the world. The course focuses on communities such as New Orleans and Eastwick where urban development has focused on economic concerns at the expense of the environment and equity resulting in unintended, and sometimes, catastrophic consequences. Students will have the opportunity to interact with community residents who have organized to develop strategies to address these ongoing issues.			https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202530&c=URBS2900301
URBS 3120-301	Stigmatized Heros: U.S. Veterans (SNF Paideia Program Course)	R. Tyson Smith	T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This course examines war, violence, health, U.S. history, and criminal justice. Over the last half century, the United States has come to lead the world in the size and influence of both its military and its criminal justice system, but despite our prominence in these areas, we have little understanding of people who live at the intersection of these influential institutions—justice-involved veterans. Students will have in-person dialog with both official and lay experts, including clinicians, combat veterans, psychologists, chaplains, and incarcerated people. The course includes field trips to the Veterans Affairs hospital and a maximum-security state prison. Healing from violence is a central theme of the course. Students will learn from those who have personally survived and coped with trauma and violence. Two innovative approaches are closely studied: Restorative justice and community-based interventions for “moral injury.” These approaches use, among other things, dialog and relationships to foster recovery and reintegration of health. As a Paideia course, we will emphasize the closing of social distance between disparate groups—such as Penn students and military service members—through dialog and understanding. As Bryan Stevenson has said, “we cannot create justice without getting close to places where injustices prevail. We have to get proximate.”
URBS 3140-401	Participatory Cities (SNF Paideia Program Course)	Marisa Lee Denker Sylvia Garcia-Garcia	T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	What is a participatory city? What has that term meant in the past, what does it mean now, and what will it mean going forward? Against the backdrop of increasing inequality and inequity, and the rise in a search for solutions, what role can citizens play in co-creating more just cities and neighborhoods? How can citizens be engaged in the decision-making processes about the places where we live, work, and play? And most importantly, how can we work to make sure that all kinds of voices are meaningfully included, and that historically muted voices are elevated to help pave a better path forward? This course will connect theory with praxis as we explore together the history, challenges, methods, and approaches, and impact of bottom up and top down approaches to community participation and stakeholder involvement in cities. Multiple opportunities will be provided to be involved in community engagement work for live projects in Philadelphia.	SOCI2960401
URBS 3300-401	GIS Applications in Social Science	Casey Ross	F 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	This course will introduce students to the principles behind Geographic Information Science and applications of (GIS) in the social sciences. Examples of GIS applications in social services, public health, criminology, real estate, environmental justice, education, history, and urban studies will be used to illustrate how GIS integrates, displays, and facilitates analysis of spatial data through maps and descriptive statistics. Students will learn to create data sets through primary and secondary data collection, map their own data, and create maps to answer research questions. The course will consist of a combination of lecture and lab.	URBS5300401	Quantitative Data Analysis
URBS 4000-301	Senior Seminar	Julia Mcwilliams	R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	Urban Studies senior research project
URBS 4000-302	Senior Seminar	Jonathan Argaman	R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	Urban Studies senior research project
URBS 4000-303	Senior Seminar	Amy E Hillier	R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	Urban Studies senior research project
URBS 4000-304	Senior Seminar	Elizabeth L Greenspan	CANCELED	Urban Studies senior research project
URBS 4120-301	Building Non-Profits: The Business of a Mission-Driven Organization	Greg H. Goldman	M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	This course will cover the basic elements of building and growing a non-profit organization, including the development of the mission and the board; needs assessment, program design, development, and management; financial management, contract compliance and understanding an audit; fundraising, public, foundation, corporate, and individual; communication and marketing; organizational administration (including staff and volunteer selection, management and development); public policy, research and advocacy. Students will make site visits and engage role play, in addition to research and writing.
URBS 4150-301	Urban Real Estate Markets	Howard Kozloff	CANCELED	Cities evolve over time, comprised of various inputs of different sizes at different stages of urban evolution. However, as cities continue to densify and navigate real estate market cycles, opportunities to redefine the urban context, while promoting the individual brand, become ever more sensitive. Projects are increasingly complex, often involving multiple partnerships among private developers, public agencies, non-profits, and community groups. Today's development professionals need to be well-versed across a variety of disciplines and property types to effectively execute in an urban environment. As an introductory course in real estate development, this course will provide the underpinnings for critical decision-making in markets that change frequently and often unevenly - whether for financing, investing, development, public policy formulation, or asset management/disposition.
URBS 4190-301	Urban Transportation in Flux	Ariel Ben-Amos	TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM	Transportation systems and networks impact everything from the literal shape ofAmerican cities to their economic vitality and the well-being of their citizens. Urban Infrastructure in Flux provides students with an over view of the political, business, and policy concerns and processes that inform how Americans get around by foot, transit, and car. URBS 419 explores the use and reuse of legacy infrastructure, and roots innovations such as driverless cars, and scooters, in a historical conflict over the right-of-way (ROW). Students will have the opportunity to meet professionals in the field and engage in primary source research and data analysis.
URBS 4200-401	Perspectives on Urban Poverty	Robert P Fairbanks	M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to 20th century urban poverty, and 20th century urban poverty knowledge. In addition to providing an historical overview of American poverty, the course is primarily concerned with the ways in which historical, cultural, political, racial, social, spatial/geographical, and economic forces have either shaped or been left out of contemporary debates on urban poverty. Of great importance, the course will evaluate competing analytic trends in the social sciences and their respective implications in terms of the question of what can be known about urban poverty in the contexts of social policy and practice, academic research, and the broader social imaginary. We will critically analyze a wide body of literature that theorizes and explains urban poverty. Course readings span the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, urban studies, history, and social welfare. Primacy will be granted to critical analysis and deconstruction of course texts, particularly with regard to the ways in which poverty knowledge creates, sustains, and constricts meaningful channels of action in urban poverty policy and practice interventions.	HIST0812401, SOCI2944401	Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 4400-401	Introduction to City Planning: History, Theory and Practice	Domenic Vitiello	MW 8:30 AM-9:59 AM	This course introduces students to the history, theories, and contemporary practice of city and regional planning. Readings, lectures, class discussion, and walking tours focus on: - The evolution of planning ideas, strategies, institutions, and powers, and of planning’s influence on cities and regions around the world; - The structure and dynamics of urban change; - The ways planners and social and environmental scientists have understood, theorized, and responded to social, economic, political, and environmental conditions and change over time; and - The development of the planning profession and its relationships with allied fields, examining various types of planning, urban development, and design.	CPLN5000401
URBS 4510-401	The Politics of Housing and Urban Development	John Kromer	W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	This course offers an exploration of how legislative action, government policymaking, and citizen advocacy influence plans for the investment of public capital in distressed urban neighborhoods. Course topics will include City of Philadelphia development policies launched during the administration of Mayor James F. Kenney, who left office in January, 2024, as well as initial policy development plans being advanced by Kenney’s successor, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker. The course will include a review and assessment of strategies for vacant property acquisition and development, downtown revitalization, housing preservation, and homelessness prevention. Currently relevant topics, such as homeless encampments, the University City Townhomes, and environmental hazards associated with Camden waterfront development will be examined in special discussion sessions.	GAFL5690402
URBS 4520-301	Community Economic Development		R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This course will examine the variety of ways that professionals work within American land and political systems to achieve development that supports historically marginalized and under-resourced communities. We will examine the most common strategies through systems and racial equity lenses, challenging students to be thoughtful about this very real professional dilemma: “How do I achieve better social outcomes while working within the white supremist and capitalist systems that created the problems of poverty and disenfranchisement in the first place?” The course will be practical in nature, focusing on real unpacking, debating, and critiquing real examples to see the implications of being a professional in this sector. Coursework will focus on domestic examples, prominently featuring Philadelphia.		Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 5300-401	GIS Applications in Social Science	Casey Ross	F 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	This course will introduce students to the principles behind Geographic Information Science and applications of (GIS) in the social sciences. Examples of GIS applications in social services, public health, criminology, real estate, environmental justice, education, history, and urban studies will be used to illustrate how GIS integrates, displays, and facilitates analysis of spatial data through maps and descriptive statistics. Students will learn to create data sets through primary and secondary data collection, map their own data, and create maps to answer research questions. The course will consist of a combination of lecture and lab.	URBS3300401
URBS 5470-401	Anthropology and Education	Alexander Posecznick	M 2:00 PM-3:59 PM	An introduction to the intent, approach, and contribution of anthropology to the study of socialization and schooling in cross-cultural perspective. Education is examined in traditional, colonial, and complex industrial societies.	ANTH5470401, EDUC5495401
URBS 6782-401	Local Media	Shannon Mattern	T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	We may be tethered to global networks, streaming content from around the planet, joining in conversation (or conspiracy) with folks from all corners of the earth, but we also live in places with local characters and concerns, among people with local needs and contributions. What happens when we lose the local media — the newspapers and broadcast outlets — that bind and inform our localized communities? In this course we’ll consider the important roles served by our place-based media, as well as what’s lost when our local modes of communication collapse. But we’ll also consider what might be gained if we think more generously about what constitutes local media — and if we imagine how they might be redesigned to better serve our communities, our broader society, and our planet. Through readings, listening and screening exercises, occasional in-class field trips and guest speakers, and low-barrier-to-entry in-class labs, we’ll study local news; local book cultures, including libraries and bookshops and independent printers; local music scenes, including performance venues and record shops and music reviewers; local infrastructures of connection and distribution, including post offices and community digital networks; local data creators and collectors; local signage and interactive public media; local emergency communication resources; local whisper networks and town gossip; and a selection of other case studies that reflect students’ interests. Students can tentatively expect to contribute brief dossiers to our class discussions; participate in a few small (and ideally enjoyable!) design workshops and group exercises; and, in lieu of a final exam, contribute a creative, research-based, illustrated entry to our collective class publication, a local media field guide that we’ll design and publish in collaboration with local makers.	ARTH7782401, CIMS6782401, ENGL6782401
URBS 9003-640	Storytelling in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction	Kathryn Watterson	W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM	This creative writing workshop will focus on how to write a good story whether it's "true" or not. By using both nonfiction and fiction writing techniques, students will ask: What kind of truth are you looking to find? What is visible? What matters that is invisible? What is most important to you and why?	AFRC9003640, ENGL9003640, GSWS9003640, MLA5003640