Courses for Spring 2024

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Syllabus Syllabus URL Course Theme
URBS 0003-401 Origin and Culture of Cities Richard L Zettler FAGN 114 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, NELC0003401 Cross Cultural Analysis
History & Tradition Sector
URBS 0015B-301 Civic Scholars Proseminar Rand A Quinn
Khadijah Seay
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 0116-401 American Race: A Philadelphia Story (SNF Paideia Program Course) Fernando Chang-Muy
Fariha Khan
This course proposes an examination of race with a three-pronged approach: one that broadly links the study of race in the United States with a multi-disciplinary approach; situates specific conversations within the immediate location of Philadelphia; and examines the international human rights context of race with Greece as a case study.
The broad historical examination advances key concepts of race and racialization, explores key theoretical methodologies, and highlights major scholarly works. Students will engage with the study of race through Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, Urban Studies, South Asia Studies, Latin American & Latinx Studies, and through international human rights law. Readings and methodologies will introduce students to critical issues in education, in literature, in sociology, and with methods in oral history, archival work, and ethnography. Most importantly, this extensive approach highlights the impact of race across multiple communities including Black Americans, immigrant populations, Asian Americans, and international communities that are marginalized to emphasize connections, relationships, and shared solidarity. Students are intellectually pushed to see the linkages and the impacts of racism across and among all Americans and from a thematic and legal perspective. As each theme is introduced a direct example from Philadelphia will be discussed.
The combination of the national discourse on race, with an intimate perspective from the City of Philadelphia and travel to Greece, engages students both intellectually and civically. The course will be led by Fariha Khan and Fernando Chang-Muy along with local activists with varied disciplinary backgrounds from local community organizations. Each guest lecturer not only brings specific disciplinary expertise, but also varied community engagement experience.
This course is a Penn Global Seminar, which includes a travel component. An application is required. For more information and to apply, visit: https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/pgs. The course is also supported by the SNF Paideia Program, the Asian American Studies Program and Africana, Latin American & Latinx Studies, Sociology, South Asia Studies, and Urban Studies.
AFRC0116401, ASAM0116401, LALS0116401, SAST0116401, SOCI0116401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 0180B-401 Music in Urban Spaces Molly Jean Mcglone COHN 237 F 3:30 PM-5:29 PM Music in Urban Spaces is a year-long experience that explores the ways in which individuals use music in their everyday lives and how music is used to construct larger social and economic networks that we call culture. We will read the work of musicologists, cultural theorists, urban geographers, sociologists and educators who work to define urban space and the role of music and sound in urban environments, including through music education. While the readings make up our study of the sociology of urban space and the way we use music in everyday life to inform our conversations and the questions we ask, it is within the context of our personal experiences working with music programs in public neighborhood schools serving economically disadvantaged students, that we will begin to formulate our theories of the contested musical micro-cultures of West Philadelphia. This course is over two-semesters where students register for .5 cus each term (for a total of 1 cu over the entire academic year) and is tied to the Music and Social Change Residential Program in Fisher Hassenfeld College House which will sponsor field trips around the city and a final concert for youth to perform here at Penn, if possible. Students are expected to volunteer in music and drama programs in Philadelphia neighborhood public schools throughout the course experience. MUSC0180B401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Humanties & Social Science Sector
URBS 0210-401 The City Nina A Johnson
Michael P Nairn
EDUC 114 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Course will focus on Baltimore using The Wire and its sequel, We Own This City, as core texts. Following the trajectory of The Wire, the course will explore the history and development of the city and its institutions with a thematic focus on the impacts of the War on Drugs and policing on Baltimore’s African American community, urban revitalization, violence and community trauma, and the role of the carceral state in American cities. HIST0810402 Humanties & Social Science Sector
URBS 0318-401 Abrahamic Faiths & Cultures: Create Community Course Talya Fishman MEYH B5 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The aim of this course is to design a Middle School curriculum on “Abrahamic Faiths and Cultures” that will subsequently be taught in local public schools. First two hours will be devoted to study and discussion of primary and secondary sources grouped in thematic units. These will explore Jewish, Christian and Islamic teachings on topics including God, worship, religious calendar, life cycle events, attitudes toward religious others; internal historical developments. During the last seminar hour, we will learn from West Philadelphia clergy members, Middle School Social Studies teachers and principals about what they regard as necessary, and incorporate their insights. During the last hour, West Philadelphia clergy members, Middle School Social Studies teachers and principals will share with us what they believe is needed to enable the course to succeed. Class participants will attend prayer services on fieldtrips to a range of West Philadelphia houses of worship. In future semesters, some class participants may teach the resulting curriculum in selected neighborhood schools. NELC0318401, RELS0318401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=URBS0318401
URBS 1020-401 Iraq: Ancient Cities and Empires Richard L Zettler EDUC 114 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Iraq: Ancient Cities and Empires is a chronological survey of the ancient civilization that existed in the drainage basin of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from the early settled village farming communities of the 7th millennium BCE to the middle of the 1st millennium BCE, when Nebuchadnezzar II ruled Babylon and much of the Middle East. Though organized period by period, NELC 241 explores various social, political, economic, and ideological topics, exposing students to various strands of evidence, including settlement survey data, excavated architectural remains, artifacts, and documentary sources, as well as an eclectic mix of theoretical perspectives. The course aims to provide students with a strong foundation for the further study of the ancient and pre-modern Middle East. ANTH1020401, NELC1000401, NELC6020401 Cross Cultural Analysis
URBS 1110-401 The Big Picture: Mural Arts in Philadelphia Jane Golden Heriza
Shira Walinsky
ADDM 111 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The history and practice of the contemporary mural movement couples step by step analysis of the process of designing with painting a mural. In addition students will learn to see mural art as a tool for social change. This course combines theory with practice. Students will design and paint a large outdoor mural in West Philadelphia in collaboration with Philadelphia high school students and community groups. The class is co-taught by Jane Golden, director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, and Shira Walinsky, a mural arts painter and founder of Southeast by Southeast project, a community center for Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia. FNAR1110401, FNAR5051401, VLST3220401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 1155-401 Fair Housing, Segregation, and the Law Lance M Freeman MCNB 309 T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM This course introduces students to the variegated roles of housing in society and has three broad aims. First, the roles of housing as shelter, locus of community, financial asset, and determinant of political power and representation will be described and explored in detail. Second, the way the different functions of housing serve to create and reinforce social stratification is explored. Finally, the function and role of public policy in housing will also be examined. SOCI1150401
URBS 1170-401 Media and Popular Culture David I Grazian DRLB A4 MW 10:15 AM-11:14 AM This course relies on a variety of sociological perspectives to examine the role of media and popular culture in society, with a particular emphasis on the power of the mass media industry, the relationship between cultural consumption and status, and the social organization of leisure activities from sports to shopping. SOCI1070401 Society Sector
URBS 1310-401 Small Business Anthropology Gregory P Urban MUSE 345 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM With a focus on minority-owned small businesses in the City of Philadelphia, this class will introduce students to the work of anthropologists who have made their careers in the business world using the tools they acquired through training in anthropology. By bringing anthropological perspectives into the workplace, business anthropologists seek to promote well-being for employees and owners, as well as consumers and the communities in which businesses operate. The class will also introduce students to Philadelphia from the point of view of minority owned small businesses. One of the two class days each week will focus on business anthropology as a profession and include readings on organizational culture, design anthropology, and the role of anthropologists in marketing and advertising, as well as in globalization processes and entrepreneurship. The second of the two days each week will focus on the city of Philadelphia and the role of small businesses within it. We will study the spatial layout of the city, the kinds of small businesses that are operative within the city and where they are located, the relationship of business to ethnicity, gentrification and its impact on small business, and the role of government and community groups in relationship to small businesses and their owners and employees. As part of the class, students will engage in guided research on specific small businesses, with the aim of developing an ethnographic understanding of the experiences of owners and employees, the opportunities they have seized upon and the problems they have confronted. We hope in the course of the semester to provide an ethnographic profile of a sampling of small businesses from different industries, which can in turn contribute to understanding larger social and cultural patterns within Philadelphia. Through a class blog or other means, we hope as well to contribute to the ability of minority small business owners to voice their experiences, as well as their fears and hopes for the future, to members of the University community and beyond. ANTH1310401
URBS 1780-401 Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn Ira Harkavy
Theresa E Simmonds
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 PCPE 203 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 2010-301 Urban Health Systems Symme Trachtenberg WILL 304 M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course views health care from the perspective of social justice by exploring political, social, racial/ethnic, and economic factors that impact access to care. It incorporates a broad, ecological definition of health (beyond the medical model) and focuses on urban populations disproportionately affected by health care disparities. A broad range of issues, interventions, and interrelationships are discussed; these include infant mortality, childhood asthma, violence, substance abuse, diet-related disease, and mental illness. Guest speakers who are key figures in the Philadelphia area are invited for class presentations.
URBS 2020-301 Urban Education Michael C Clapper WILL 304 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 2050-301 People and Design Richard Wayne Berman MUSE 329 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The built environment of a city is more than a mere backdrop; the design can actually affect people's experiences. Environmental design primarily focuses on the relationship between people and the built environment. It also looks at how the built environment interacts with the natural one (and the potential for greater sustainability). This course will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of how people create, perceive, and use the designed environment. We'll approach these concepts by analyzing design at a variety of scales, from products to interior design to architecture. Finally, using that knowledge, we'll conclude by analyzing urban spaces of the city.
URBS 2060-301 Public Environment of Cities: An Introduction to the Urban Landscape Michael P Nairn COHN 337 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course will explore the role of public spaces - streets, boulevards, parks and squares - in cities and their social uses. With the University of Pennsylvania campus and the City of Philadelphia serving as our laboratory, we will critically examine the evolution of the movement of corridors, open space and buildings of the urban landscape and their changing uses. Following the flaneur tradition of Baudelaire and Benjamin, we will walk the city to experience and understand the myriad environments and neighborhoods that comprise it.
URBS 2110-301 Restorative Justice in the City: History, Theory and Practice (SNF Paideia Program Course) Pablo Cerdera MCNB 395 MW 5:15 PM-6:44 PM Restorative Justice (RJ) is a new term to describe ancient ways of dealing with harm and being in community which centers our relationships and obligations to one another, as opposed to punishment and retribution. Increasingly popular as a response to a plethora of urban issues, from mass incarceration to gun violence to education inequality, RJ is also sometimes misunderstood or applied without fidelity. This course explores the theory, history, and practice of RJ in the urban environment. The course intersperses practical communication and facilitation skills, visits from local practitioners and advocates, and in-depth discussion of texts and media. Through readings, discussions, activities, and projects we will develop a solid theoretical basis from which to understand RJ and its implementation, including a focus on holistic engagement with self, other, and community. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=URBS2110301
URBS 2130-401 Carceral Crisis: The Question of Abolition Timothy Malone VANP 305 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM The total number of incarcerated peoples in the United States is currently around 2.1 million people, held across various carceral sites – jails, immigration detention centers, and state and federal prisons. If we include all human beings under the direct control of the criminal justice system in the tally, not just the actively incarcerated but those on probation or parole as well, that number swells to approximately eight-million adults, or one person in thirty-seven (Wacquant, 2009). The United States, in both absolute terms and as a percent of its population, is the most aggressive incarcerator of its own citizens in the world. If those under supervision of the criminal justice system were counted as a city population, it would be the second most populous in the country just behind New York City. Currently, one of every six Black men in the United States has been or is currently locked up, and one in three is destined to be at some point in their life. One in six Latinx men will similarly find themselves locked down throughout their life-course. Forty-percent of Black males from the nation’s “hyperghettos” (Wacquant) between the ages of 18 and 35 years-old are under some form of carceral control, and police and prisons are often the primary contact between young Black men and the state.
It was within this context that in the summer of 2020, the nation witnessed the extra-legal police executions of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Subsequent civil disobedience actions rocked the country from coast to coast with calls to “defund the police” and “end mass incarceration.” As a result, the notion of police/prison abolition has entered mainstream political discourse to a remarkable degree not witnessed in generations. And its appearance has spawned strident debate across the political spectrum about the viability of police and/or prison abolition, its potential societal effect(s) and/or abolition’s very necessity or even its desirability.
The aims of this seminar are twofold. First, we will engage a set of interdisciplinary texts (Sociological, Philosophical, Black Studies, Geographical, Autobiographical, Ethnographic etc.) to develop a broad understanding of that complex set of forces that have transformed the United States into the most rapacious incarcerator of its own citizens of any nation in the global state system. Said straightforwardly, we want to explore the questions: why do we have such a large prison system in the United States and how did it come to be? What work does the prison do on behalf of civil society and why does it deleteriously impact communities of color most profoundly?
Secondly, this seminar will work to develop a broad familiarity with abolitionist discourse not only with regards to the questions raised above, but also to develop an understanding of abolitionist perspectives/orientations on what we can, should or even must do about prisons, policing and carcerality – “mass” incarceration - more broadly. In order to realize these contextualizations, this seminar is organized across three larger themes each thinking about “mass” incarceration from a differing vantage - whether external and/or internal to the prison itself:
1. An examination of the political, social, economic and historical forces that have built contemporary carcerality in both ideology and in material fact,
2. A familiarization with abolitionist perspectives on “what must be done” to challenge racialized “mass” incarceration as well as abolitionists’ critique of mainstream political proposals on police and/or prison reform, and
3. An analysis of the carceral interior through the politicized writings of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated abolitionist thinkers as well as those scholars who take the culture/institutions internal to the prison as proper site for abolitionist intervention.
AFRC2130401, SOCI2908401
URBS 2500-301 Urban Public Policy: Philadelphia -- A Case Study Donna R Cooper
Mary L Wernecke
MCNB 414 R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM An introduction to a broad range of substantive policy areas affecting the city, and an exploration into the complexities of policy formulation and implementation in a large and pluralistic metropolitan setting. The course subtitle, "Philadelphia -- A Case Study," describes our approach. Donna Cooper leads the region's foremost child advocacy organization focused on poverty, child welfare and education issues, she formerly served as the Deputy Mayor for Policy for the City of Philadelphia, and Secretary of Policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
URBS 2520-301 Urban Journalism Craig Mccoy CANCELED Powerful forces are rocking journalism. Newspapers and networks are battling financial woes along with blizzards of misinformation and mistrust. But it's an exciting time, too. Independent news outlets are blossoming. Newsrooms are heeding calls for diversity and inclusion. And one teenager's video not only broke news -- it changed history. This course will examine some of those forces and offer direct experience in urban journalism. Students will report and write stories about Philadelphians' lives. Involvement in The Daily Pennsylvanian or other news outlets is encouraged -- let's get you published!
URBS 2530-401 Cities, Suburbs, Regions Karen Lisa Black MCNB 414 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course will explore the political, economic, social, and demographic forces impacting development patterns in metropolitan areas, with a particular focus on Philadelphia. We will examine the government policies, economic forces, and social attitudes that affect the way a region grows, and the impact of these forces on poverty, equity and segregation. Specific topics to be discussed include the factors that make a region competitive, the city's changing role in the region, the impact place has on opportunity, and approaches to revitalizing and improving communities. SOCI2942401
URBS 2580-401 Global Urban Education Alec Ian Gershberg 36MK 111 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course examines the demographic, social, and economic trends impacting the growth of global cities--providing the context for global urban education. Through the dual lens of globalization and local urban culture, we explore relationships between urban education and economic development, democratic citizenship, social movements, social inclusion, equity, and quality of urban life. We consider key historical legacies (e.g., Colonialism), informal settlements and "slums," the rise of the "knowledge economy", and the role of international aid. Additional topics include: early childhood; gender equity; youth culture; impacts of crisis and war; urban refugees; teacher training and identity; accountability & governance; information & computer technology; religion, indigenous cultures, and language identity; & the role of the private sector and school choice. We focus on cities like Sao Paolo, Mexico City, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh City, Johannesburg, Lagos, Nairobi, Jakarta, Mumbai, Lahore, Tehran, and Cairo, and draw comparisons to cities like New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. SOCI2943401 Cross Cultural Analysis
URBS 2590-401 Nutritional Anthropology Caroline E Jones FAGN 118 MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM The course is an introduction to nutritional anthropology, an area of anthropology concerned with human nutrition and food systems in social, cultural and historical contexts. On the one hand, nutritional anthropologists study the significance of the food quest in terms of survival and health. On the other hand, they also know that people eat food for a variety of reasons that may have little, if anything, to do with nutrition, health, or survival. While the availability of food is dependent upon the physical environment, food production systems, and economic resources, food choice and the strategies human groups employ to gain access to and distribute food are deeply embedded in specific cultural patterns, social relationships, and political and economic systems. Thus, nutritional anthropology represents the interface between anthropology and the nutritional sciences, and as such, can provide powerful insights into the interactions of social and biological factors in the context of the nutritional health of individuals and populations. Because food and nutrition are quintessential biocultural issues, the course takes a biocultural approach drawing on perspectives from biological, socio-cultural and political-economic anthropology. Course content will include: a discussion of approaches to nutritional anthropology; basics of human nutrition; food systems, food behaviors and ideas; methods of dietary and nutritional assessment; and a series of case studies addressing causes and consequences to nutritional problems across the world. ANTH2590401, LALS2590401
URBS 2770-401 Gender, Sex & Urban Life: The City as a Feminist/Queer/Trans Archive Alicia J Meyer BENN 141 F 10:15 AM-1:14 PM How does the city shape our experience of gender and sexuality? How do women, non-binary, queer, and trans subjects inhabit and transform urban space? In this course, we will think about the city as an archive of feminist, queer, and trans communities, activism, and intimate life. Course sessions will be divided into two types – the first, in-class discussions of key theoretical and historical texts exploring how gender and sexuality inform, and are informed by, the design of cities around the globe. Second, we will engage Philadelphia itself as a repository of queer/feminist/trans life through experiential learning activities – from walking tours to archive and institution visits. During the experiential part of the course, we will experiment with embodied methods for interpreting the city, including autoethnography, poetry, critical essay writing, visual representation (collage, photography, design proposals, zine-making), oral history, sound capturing/production, and more. Interdisciplinary in nature, the course will draw from urban history, feminist, queer, and trans theory, architectural and planning theory, and geography, as well as from fiction, poetry, art and film. GSWS2770401
URBS 2810-301 The US Criminal Justice System in Urban Context R. Tyson Smith BENN 407 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM With over two million Americans behind bars and over seven million under some form of state supervision, the United States leads the world in incarceration. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this course will examine the special attention given to how penal issues--including the recent prison boom and the privatization of prison, white supremacy and the racial disparity of the inmate population, juvenile criminal justice, alternative sentencing, prisoner health, and the punishment of military veterans, immigrants, and women in prisons--impact urban communities and contexts. Students will hear from guest speakers who were formerly incarcerated, and attend a field trip to a facility to see first-hand examples of the criminal justice system.
URBS 2952-401 Palermo: Empires, Mafia, and Migration Domenic Vitiello PWH 108 R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM This seminar explores the history and contemporary experiences of migrant communities in Palermo, Sicily. Palermo is an important site to consider critical questions about diversity and intercultural relations, power, exploitation and opportunities for migrants, city and imperial or national politics of migration, among other important questions about migration, migrant communities, and cities. Today the fifth largest city in Italy, it was founded by Phoenician traders and over time has been one of the most “conquered” cities in the world, ruled by Carthaginians, Romans, Goths, Arabs, Normans, Germans, French, Spanish, briefly the British and Americans, and since 1860 the nation of Italy. It was also home to Greeks, Jews, and other migrants, and to slaves of various races and ethnicities. Since the mid-19th century, the province of Palermo has been the center of the Sicilian mafia, which continues to influence emigration from Sicily and the work, housing, and lives of many migrants there today. Palermo is a diverse city, with people from North and West Africa, South and East and other parts of Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, largely residing in its historic center. In the 21st century, it has been one of most welcoming cities in the world, a sanctuary city in some ways, though city politics are changing. Migrant leaders long involved in city government and civil society will be our partners in this class, helping us engage with migrant communities. The class trip over spring break will include visits to and assignments exploring historic sites and museums related to migration and contemporary migrant neighborhoods, shops, and organizations with a cultural mediator from the community. ITAL2952401
URBS 2970-401 Nature Culture Environmentalism Nikhil Anand MUSE 328 F 10:15 AM-1:14 PM Water wars, deforestation, climate change. Amidst many uncertain crises, in this course we will explore the emergent relationship between people and the environment in different parts of the world. How do people access the resources they need to live? How, when and for whom does 'nature' come to matter? Why does it matter? And what analytical tools we might use to think, mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change? Drawing together classical anthropological texts and some of the emergent debates in the field of climate studies and environmental justice, in this class we focus on the social-ecological processes through which different groups of humans imagine, produce and inhabit anthropogenic environments. ANTH2970401 Society Sector
URBS 3000-301 Fieldwork Seminar Elaine L Simon MCNB 414 T 5:15 PM-7:14 PM Students work 15 hours per week in field placement and meet weekly with class and instructors. The class is intended to help students reflect from a variety of perspectives on the work that they are doing in their placement organizations. The class format is primarily discussion. Students are required to complete assigned readings, prepare written and oral presentations, and submit a final project.
URBS 3000-302 Fieldwork Seminar Tessa D Huttenlocher MCNB 417 T 5:15 PM-7:14 PM Students work 15 hours per week in field placement and meet weekly with class and instructors. The class is intended to help students reflect from a variety of perspectives on the work that they are doing in their placement organizations. The class format is primarily discussion. Students are required to complete assigned readings, prepare written and oral presentations, and submit a final project.
URBS 3000-303 Fieldwork Seminar Ruth Ann Moyer MCNB 150 T 5:15 PM-7:14 PM Students work 15 hours per week in field placement and meet weekly with class and instructors. The class is intended to help students reflect from a variety of perspectives on the work that they are doing in their placement organizations. The class format is primarily discussion. Students are required to complete assigned readings, prepare written and oral presentations, and submit a final project.
URBS 3000-304 Fieldwork Seminar Shawnna Thomas-El MCNB 582 T 5:15 PM-7:14 PM Students work 15 hours per week in field placement and meet weekly with class and instructors. The class is intended to help students reflect from a variety of perspectives on the work that they are doing in their placement organizations. The class format is primarily discussion. Students are required to complete assigned readings, prepare written and oral presentations, and submit a final project.
URBS 3782-401 Local Media Shannon Mattern VANP 626 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. Because this new course is still in development, the assignments haven’t yet been finalized — but students can tentatively expect to write one or two short papers; share one low-pressure in-class presentation; participate in a few small (and ideally enjoyable) design workshops and group exercises; and, in lieu of a final exam, contribute a written or creative piece to a collective class publication, perhaps a local media field guide that we’ll design and publish in collaboration with local makers. ARTH3782401, CIMS3782401, ENGL2982401
URBS 4010-301 Urban Studies Honors Amy E Hillier
Elaine L Simon
MCNB 414 F 1:45 PM-3:44 PM Students in the fall Urban Studies Senior Seminar (URBS400) whose papers are exceptional and show promise for publication will be invited to participate in the spring honors seminar. If they choose to participate, honors seminar participants will revise and refine their research/papers with the goal of their work for publication in an academic journal relevant to the topic. The seminar meets periodically during the semester, structured around a set of assignments geared to facilitate the process of revision. Students will be assigned to read each other's work and meetings take the form of a workshop with students reporting on progress and providing feedback to improve and develop each other's papers. In addition to completing the revised paper for a grade, participants in the honors seminar are required to present their work to a wider Urban Studies audience in a special session at the end of the semester and to provide documentation that they have submitted their papers for publication. Students who successfully complete the honors seminar will graduate with distinction in the major, noted on their transcripts and in the graduation materials.
URBS 4050-401 Religion, Social Justice & Urban Development Andrew T. Lamas WILL 201 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM Urban development has been influenced by religious conceptions of social and economic justice. Progressive traditions within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Baha'i, Humanism and other religions and systems of moral thought have yielded powerful critiques of oppression and hierarchy as well as alternative economic frameworks for ownership, governance, production, labor, and community. Historical and contemporary case studies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be considered, as we examine the ways in which religious responses to poverty, inequality, and ecological destruction have generated new forms of resistance and development. AFRC4050401, RELS4050401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202410&c=URBS4050401
URBS 4280-401 Undergraduate Urban Research Colloquium Travis Lloyd Decaminada
Yining Lei
MEYH G12 M 5:00 PM-7:00 PM A seminar run in conjunction with the Institute for Urban Research at Penn, students will learn about the range of cutting-edge topics in urbanism that Penn faculty are working on and work closely with a faculty member on current research. Students will learn about new topics and methods in interdisciplinary urban research, and get first hand experience collecting urban data under the close supervision of an experienced researcher. Students and faculty jointly will present their findings for discussion. This course is a good introduction for how to frame and conduct an urban research project. CPLN5280401
URBS 4350-301 The Political Economy of Urban Development Robert P Fairbanks MCNB 414 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course provides an introduction to the economic and political theories that have come to shape, for better or for worse, the spatial characteristics of late 20th century urbanism. It is intended to offer a range of analytical approaches to understanding the urban structures and processes that strategies of community-based organizers and urban policy planners seek to influence. The course focuses on postwar U.S. cities (Chicago and other Midwestern/ Northeast rust belt cities in particular), though a number of readings explore these issues in broader contexts. As a way to further understand postwar US urbanism, we will expand our focus briefly to the geopolitical/international scale during the weeks on neoliberalism and microfinance. Urban political economy refers to different theoretical traditions within the social sciences that explain urban development in terms of the relationship between markets, states, and community actors (or, civil society). Part I of the course covers four different theories of modern political economy: Neoclassical, Keynesian, Marxian, and Neoliberal. Our purpose is to provide a framework for political economic analysis and an historical foundation for understanding postwar transformation. Part II of the course grounds the foundational material of Part I by tracing the economic and political forces that have shaped post-war urban development trends in Northeastern and Midwestern cities (especially Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and NY). Particular attention will be given to issues such as race, suburbanization, deindustrialization, welfare state retrenchment, gentrification, and public housing transformation. Part III examines a range of contemporary (post 1970) approaches to urban development, focusing on processes of neoliberalization, neo-clientalism, urban informality, sub prime mortgage lending, and microfinance.
URBS 4480-401 Neighborhood Displacement and Community Power Walter D Palmer MCNB 309 T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course uses the history of black displacement to examine community power and advocacy. It examines the methods of advocacy (e.g. case, class, and legislative) and political action through which community activists can influence social policy development and community and institutional change. The course also analyzes selected strategies and tactics of change and seeks to develop alternative roles in the group advocacy, lobbying, public education and public relations, electoral politics, coalition building, and legal and ethical dilemmas in political action. Case studies of neighborhood displacement serve as central means of examining course topics. AFRC4480401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 4500-301 Urban Redevelopment CANCELED This course explores the politics and practice of urban development, examining and contrasting efforts led by government, community-based groups, and the private sector. Topics will include: the historical context, dating to the early 20th century, of contemporary practice; how decisions that shape neighborhood change are made and who makes them; technical aspects of community/economic development; and redevelopment and racial equity. The class will be in seminar format, mixing lecture, discussion, and guest speakers. The course requirements include a mid-term writing assignment, an in-class charrette, and a final presentation.
URBS 4760-301 Urban Housing & Community Development Policy in America Emily S Dowdall PCPE 202 W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM The government intervenes in housing markets in different ways and for different reasons, and relies on a range of partners to do so. This course explores why the federal and local governments in the U.S., along with non-profit and community-based partners, intervene in housing markets and what forms these interventions take. Specifically, students will learn about: the mechanisms that drive the supply and demand for housing; factors that affect the production, distribution, and location of housing; the social impact of housing on households and neighborhoods; civil rights and fair housing; the equity implications of housing policies and programs.
URBS 4999-001 Independent Study Yining Lei Specialized topics in Urban Studies. This course may be taken by permit only, once a faculty advisor has agreed to be the professor of record, and the scope of work has been approved in advance by the department.
URBS 5440-401 Public Environmental Humanities Bethany Wiggin HAYD 358 W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM By necessity, work in environmental humanities spans academic disciplines. By design, it can also address and engage publics beyond traditional academic settings. This seminar explores best practices in public environmental humanities. Students receive close mentoring and build collaborative community to develop and execute cross-disciplinary, public engagement projects on the environment. This spring, this broadly interdisciplinary course is designed in conjunction with the ongoing environmental humanities project, An Ecotopian Toolkit for the Anthropocene. In the framework of our seminar, students will have opportunities to work with tne project’s curators and educators as well as Toolmakers on project-based assignments that also engage wider publics around issues of climate and environmental justice. This lab-style seminar is suitable for advanced undergraduates (with permission) and fulfills the “Capstone” requirement for the Minor in Environmental Humanities. It is also open to graduate students in departments across Arts and Sciences as well as other schools at the university. ANTH5440401, COML5440401, ENVS5440401, GRMN5440401
URBS 5460-401 Global Citizenship Kathleen D. Hall STIT 357 T 11:45 AM-1:44 PM This course examines the possibilities and limitations of conceiving of and realizing citizenship on a global scale. Readings, guest lecturers, and discussions will focus on dilemmas associated with addressing issues that transcend national boundaries. In particular, the course compares global/local dynamics that emerge across different types of improvement efforts focusing on distinctive institutions and social domains, including: educational development; human rights; humanitarian aid; free trade; micro-finance initiatives; and the global environmental movement. The course has two objectives: to explore research and theoretical work related to global citizenship, social engagement, and international development; and to discuss ethical and practical issues that emerge in the local contexts where development initiatives are implemented. ANTH5460401, EDUC5431401
URBS 5470-401 Anthropology and Education Leigh Llewellyn Graham EDUC 121 M 11:45 AM-1:44 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 5999-001 Independent Study: The City Michael P Nairn Specialized topics in Urban Studies. This course may be taken by permit only, once a faculty advisor has agreed to be the professor of record, and the scope of work has been approved in advance by the department.
URBS 6999-001 Urban Studies Pro Seminar David I Grazian MCNB 417 Specialized topics in Urban Studies. This course may be taken by permit only, once a faculty advisor has agreed to be the professor of record, and the scope of work has been approved in advance by the department.
URBS 9016-640 Being Human: A Personal Approach to Race, Class & Gender Kathryn Watterson CANCELED In this workshop, we will address the ways race, class, and gender impact our lives, our work, and our culture. As a class, we will create connection and community by practicing deep listening, daily writing, deep reading, and the sharing of ideas and observations. AFRC9016640, ENGL9016640, GSWS9016640
URBS 9016-641 Being Human: A Personal Approach to Race, Class & Gender Kathryn Watterson BENN 140 R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM In this workshop, we will address the ways race, class, and gender impact our lives, our work, and our culture. As a class, we will create connection and community by practicing deep listening, daily writing, deep reading, and the sharing of ideas and observations. AFRC9016641, ENGL9016641, GSWS9016641, MLA5016641