Courses for Spring 2025

Title Instructors Location Time Description Cross listings Fulfills Registration notes Syllabus Syllabus URL Course Theme
URBS 0002-401 The City in South Asia Kimberly M Noronha MEYH B13 MW 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This interdisciplinary social science course examines key topics, themes, and analytic methods in the study of South Asia by focusing on significant South Asian cities. With one-fifth of the worlds population,South Asia and its urban centers are playing an increasingly important role in recent global economic transformations, resulting in fundamental changes within both the subcontinent and the larger world. Drawing primarily on ethnographic studies of South Asia in the context of rapid historical change, the course also incorporates research drawn from urban studies, architecture, political science, and history, as well as fiction and film. Topics include globalization and new economic dynamics in South Asia; the formation of a new urban middle class; consumption and consumer culture; urban political formations, democratic institutions, and practices; criminality & the underworld; population growth, changes in the built environment, and demographic shifts; everyday life in South Asia and ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities, differences, and violence in South Asia's urban environments. This is an introductory level course appropriate for students with no background in South Asia or for those seeking to better understand South Asia's urban environments in the context of recent globalization and rapid historical changes. ANTH0002401, SAST0002401 Cross Cultural Analysis
Society Sector
URBS 0005-401 Poverty and Inequality Annette Lareau PCPE 203 T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM What does it mean to live in poverty in the "land of plenty" and experience inequality in the "land of opportunity?" This First-Year Seminar explores these questions and others related to poverty and inequality in contemporary America. The first part of this course focuses on poverty. We will examine topics such as poverty perceptions and measurement, poverty trends, causes of poverty, poverty-related outcomes, and anti poverty policy. The second part of this course focuses on inequality more broadly. We will examine how inequality is defined and what it looks like in the U.S. We will compare the “Haves" and the "Have Nots” and discuss social class, mobility, wealth, and privilege. Lastly, we will explore how different domains (e.g. education, the labor market, health, the justice system) produce, maintain, and reproduce inequalities. Throughout the semester, we will consider the roles of race/ethnicity, gender, age, and place, and how they help deepen our understanding of poverty and inequality. SOCI0001401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
Society Sector
URBS 0015B-301 Civic Scholars Proseminar Rand A Quinn
Khadijah Seay
CVHS 101 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 0180B-401 Music in Urban Spaces Molly Jean Mcglone COHN 237 F 1:45 PM-3:14 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
PCPE 203 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 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=URBS0210401
URBS 0270-401 The Immigrant City Domenic Vitiello PSYL A30 T 10:15 AM-1:14 PM This course focuses on immigrant communities in United States cities and suburbs. We survey migration and community experiences among a broad range of ethnic groups in different city and suburban neighborhoods. Class readings, discussions, and visits to Philadelphia neighborhoods explore themes including labor markets, commerce, housing, civil society, racial and ethnic relations, integration, refugee resettlement, and local, state, and national immigration policies. The class introduces students to a variety of social science approaches to studying social groups and neighborhoods, including readings in sociology, geography, anthropology, social history, and political science. Ultimately, the class aims to help students develop: 1) a broad knowledge of immigration and its impacts on U.S. cities and regions; 2) a comparative understanding of diverse migrant and receiving communities; and 3) familiarity with policies and institutions that seek to influence immigration and immigrant communities. ASAM0270401, LALS0270401, SOCI0270401 Society Sector
Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 1020-401 Iraq: Ancient Cities and Empires Richard L Zettler COLL 311F 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, MELC1000401, MELC6020401 Cross Cultural Analysis
URBS 1151-401 Comparative Cultures of Resilience and Sustainability in the Netherlands and the United States Simon J Richter WILL 316 TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Coastal and riverside cities worldwide are under increasing pressure from sea level rise and other effects of climate change. Resilience and sustainability are paradigmatic concepts for the ways in which cities address the effects associated with global warming: sea level rise, extreme weather, changing climate, and their impacts on water, food, energy, and housing. This course focuses on the cultural side of resilience and sustainability in four signature cities: Rotterdam (with areas 6 meters below sea level), Nijmegen (which has devised a new way to live with a major river), New York City (which was devastated by Hurricane Sandy), and New Orleans (one of the most vulnerable American cities). Of course, other cities (Amsterdam, Arnhem, Boston, The Hague, Houston, Miami, etc.) will also come into play. In deeply uncertain times, cities such as these confront an array of interconnected choices that involve not only infrastructural solutions, but priorities, values, and cultural predispositions. Ideally, the strategies that cities devise are generated through inclusive processes based on the understanding that resilience and sustainability should be grounded in the cultural life of their communities. When this is the case, resilience and sustainability can become unique and motivating narratives about how cities and their residents co-develop the kinds of hard, soft, and social infrastructure the climate emergency requires. With this in mind, we will analyze the cities’ climate action plans and resilience strategies; explore their cultural histories relative to flooding events; and consult with Dutch and American experts in climate adaptation, governance, community development, and design. The highlight of the course will be travel to the Netherlands during spring break for site visits and discussions with experts. GRMN1151401
URBS 1155-401 Fair Housing, Segregation and the Law Lance M Freeman MCNB 285 T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM This course introduces students to the way sociological theory intersects with and is used to enforce Fair Housing Law. At the end of the semester students will be familiar with various sociological theories that explain patterns of residential segregation in America. Students will learn about various planning and policies that have both reinforced and deepened patterns of segregation as well as various fair housing laws.
Students will collaborate with the Advocacy for Racial and Civil Justice Clinic and a community based fair housing group to address a fair housing issue. Students will collect data, gather information, and perform analyses to further a fair housing advocacy effort.
SOCI1150401
URBS 1310-401 Small Business Anthropology Gregory P Urban MUSE 328 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 1600-301 Deconstructing Isolation: Exploring the Use of Generative Third Space to Reconnect The City Kent Bream HARN M10 W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course explores the profound impact of the University of Pennsylvania on the West Philadelphia community, highlighting sustainable and respectful methods of engaging with vulnerable populations. Students will examine how creating inclusive and peer-led spaces can significantly enhance community safety and health. The curriculum emphasizes the importance of mindfulness in community engagement, encouraging students to be aware of their actions and their effects on the surrounding area. By examining the social disparities that manifest within Philadelphia, students will gain a deeper understanding of the systemic challenges faced by its residents. Students will also have the opportunity to engage in their community through volunteering weekly at the West Philadelphia Sanctuary. The course culminates in a final project where students will design their own community space blueprint, integrating the principles of inclusivity, sustainability, and social equity learned throughout the course.
URBS 1780-401 Faculty-Student Collaborative Action Seminar in Urban University-Community Rltn Ira Harkavy
Theresa E Simmonds
NRN 00 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. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=URBS1780401
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 MCNB 395 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 PCPE 203 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. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=URBS2060301
URBS 2090-401 Neighborhood Dynamics of Crime John M Macdonald CHEM B13 CANCELED Crime varies in time, space and populations as it reflects ecological structures and the routine social interactions that occur in daily life. Concentrations of crime can be found among locations, with antisocial activities like assaults and theft occurring at higher rates because of the demographic make-up of people (e.g. adolescents) or conflicts (e.g. competing gangs), for reasons examined by ecological criminology. Variation in socio-demographic structures (age, education ratios, and the concentration of poverty) and the physical environment (housing segregation, density of bars, street lighting) predicts variations between neighborhoods in the level of crime and disorder. Both ethnographic and quantitative research methods are used to explore the connections between the social and physical environment of areas and antisocial behavior. CRIM2080401
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.
URBS 2500-301 Urban Public Policy: Philadelphia -- A Case Study Donna R Cooper MCNB 309 W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of urban public policy challenges such as urban education, public safety, jobs and economic development, housing and land-use to gain an introductory understanding the basic policy frameworks associated with these challenges and the policy making process to affect these challenges, with a focus on Philadelphia and other older industrial American cities. The course relies mostly on non-academic readings to expose to examine how data, ideology, information and stakeholders influence the urban policy-making process. The course gives students practice writing effective policy memos and using data to make cogent arguments for policies. The course mid-term is a draft policy memo, and the final assignment is the final version of that memo. Students will attend one city council hearing, listen to key policy speeches of elected officials and half of the classes feature speakers with a track record of creating or implementing urban policy changes in Philadelphia. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202510&c=URBS2500301
URBS 2600-401 Asian American Food Fariha Khan COHN 337 TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM You are what you eat. Asian American Food explores the history, politics, and ethnic identity of food through a cultural lens. Growing food, eating, and sharing meals serve as intimate expressions of self and community. By examining the production and consumption of food, the course investigates the ways that Asian Americans navigate traditions, gender norms, religious dietary laws, food habits, and employment as they create lives in the United States. The course overviews the history of Asian American foodways, but has a particular focus on Philadelphia's Asian American communities. ASAM2600401, SAST2600401 Cultural Diviserity in the U.S.
URBS 2770-401 Gender, Sex & Urban Life Alicia J Meyer VANP 625 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM How have women’s and queer communities’ desires for rights and representation and access to basic resources and social services transformed urban space? What makes a space feminist, and how has feminism understood the city? This course offers an introduction to key concepts in gender and sexuality studies and how the field has understood urban space. Throughout the semester, we will examine how feminist, queer, and transgender theory has interpreted the city. We will analyze historical case studies on design and urban planning as they relate to issues like sex work, sexual health, birth control and abortion services, pregnancy, and family and community making. Each week, we will explore these topics through hands-on archival research in Penn’s rare book and manuscript collections. Working with the archives, we will trace how feminist/queer/trans movements have been shaped and been shaped by the city. We will also interrogate the role of archives, repositories, and museums for queer/feminist/trans memory. We will experiment with poetry, creative non-fiction, critical essays, visual essays, sound and film, and more throughout the semester. Students will design creative projects rooted in their theoretical, historical, and archival practice. GSWS2770401
URBS 2999-001 Independent Study: The Power Broker Elaine L Simon 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 3000-301 Fieldwork Seminar Julia Mcwilliams 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 Rachael D Stephens 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 Jonathan Argaman 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 3300-401 GIS Applications in Social Science Casey Ross DRLB 209 F 12:00 PM-2:59 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 4010-301 Urban Studies Honors Julia Mcwilliams NRN 00 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 4080-401 Urban Studies Proseminar Robert P Fairbanks MCNB 414 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This scholar-oriented seminar explores how academic researchers from different disciplines define researchable questions, craft research designs, and contribute to knowledge through an examination of important and/or recently published books and monographs with an urban focus. Through rigorous textual analysis, the seminar explores the economic and political philosophies that have come to shape 20th and 21st century urbanism. Ultimately, it is intended to offer a range of analytic approaches to understanding urban structures and processes that urban scholars, policy planners, and community activists seek to influence. We will focus primarily on postwar Midwestern and Northeastern U.S Cities, emphasizing the political economy tradition as well as the crisis of representation. We will evaluate competing analytic trends in the social sciences, critically analyzing urban research from the disciplines of sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and social welfare. URBS6080401
URBS 4290-401 Listening to the City: Soundscapes, Music, and Place Stanley Collins JAFF 104 R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM What can we learn about a place from the sound(s) that emanate from it? In this course, we will examine sound in a range of contexts, questioning everything from notions of “quietness” -- and its frequent association with wealth and whiteness -- to how we perceive race via musical genres. Throughout the course, students will engage in several experientially based learning activities, regularly conducting ethnographic fieldwork by using Philadelphia as a social laboratory. Students will read books and scholarly articles from a range of academic disciplines, including, but not limited to, City and Regional Planning, Sociology, Black Studies, Geography, Sound Studies, and Musicology. We will also watch films and listen to songs, endeavoring to learn about place via its aural architecture. CPLN6290401
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 Sean Closkey 36MK 110 R 5:15 PM-8:14 PM 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; Students will be required to apply readings and lecture topics to develop and present full project plans, implementation schedules, and related budgets. The class will be in seminar format, mixing lecture, discussion, and technical training. Students should have a basic working knowledge of Microsoft Excel and an understanding of budgets.
URBS 4780-401 Research Seminar 21st Century Urbanism Travis Lloyd Decaminada
Yining Lei
MEYH G12 T 1:45 PM-4:44 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. CPLN5780401
URBS 4999-001 Independent Study: IUR Research Seminar Travis Lloyd Decaminada
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 5300-401 GIS Applications in Social Science Casey Ross DRLB 209 F 12:00 PM-2:59 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 Leigh Llewellyn Graham
Paula Helene Rogers
STIT 251 T 9:30 AM-11:29 AM 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 6080-401 Urban Studies Proseminar Robert P Fairbanks MCNB 414 M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This scholar-oriented seminar explores how academic researchers from different disciplines define researchable questions, craft research designs, and contribute to knowledge through an examination of important and/or recently published books and monographs with an urban focus. Through rigorous textual analysis, the seminar explores the economic and political philosophies that have come to shape 20th and 21st century urbanism. Ultimately, it is intended to offer a range of analytic approaches to understanding urban structures and processes that urban scholars, policy planners, and community activists seek to influence. We will focus primarily on postwar Midwestern and Northeastern U.S Cities, emphasizing the political economy tradition as well as the crisis of representation. We will evaluate competing analytic trends in the social sciences, critically analyzing urban research from the disciplines of sociology, history, political science, anthropology, and social welfare. URBS4080401
URBS 9013-640 Memoir Writing Kathryn Watterson BENN 322 W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM This memoir workshop will shine light on the human experience as viewed through your personal lens. We’ll see how memoir can illuminate larger cultural themes - from the inhumanity of war, to racism, misogyny, and economic inequality - as viewed through lived experiences. ENGL9013640, GSWS9013640, MLA5013640