News

2023 Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History
Congratulations to URBS Professor Domenic Vitiello for receiving the Kenneth Jackson Award for Best Book in North American Urban History for his 2022 publication The Sanctuary City.

Food Access Supply Technology
Congratulations to Emily Eiler (URBS '22) for recently getting published in the Journal of Internal Medicine! The research project, which was her focus during her URBS Fieldwork course, discusses household food insecurity and finds ways health systems can address that.

URBS Students Doing The Most This Spring
As we wrap up the year, the URBS department wants to give a shout-out to our wonderful students:

Broken School Buildings
Alisa Ghura (URBS ’23), researched safety hazards in school buildings in low-income school districts and barriers to change.

URBS graduate makes 100 most influential Philly list
Big congrats to Michael Banks (URBS '14) on being one of Philly Mag's 100 Most Influential People in Philadelphia!

The Statue Podcast
Paul Farber, Monument Lab co-founder and Design faculty, reveals the history and meaning of Philadelphia's Rocky Statue as only an URBS alum can. Listen to the podcast using the link below, or go to WHYY's site: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/1133242667/the-statue

Don’t let Philly homes get abandoned. Fix them up instead.
Brand new Urban Studies major Layla Sayed got an op-ed published in the Philadephia Inquirer. Impressive! The idea: Low-income homeowners are losing their homes because they can't afford basic repairs.

Two college buds spent 19 hours riding 10 NJ Transit buses across NJ
Armed with Cheez-Its, pretzels and a whiteboard to track their journey and fares, Jeremy Zorek and Miles Taylor attempted what few — perhaps no one, at least not voluntarily — have done before.

New Article from Professor Smith
Capital-Star Opinion Editorial on how PA’s incarcerated are doing their part to fight gun violence from the inside out. Tens of thousands of Americans with criminal records are fighting to restore dignity to their communities.

Students call on Penn to drop discipline against protesters, fully divest from fossil fuels
Students unveiled a petition with more than 850 signatures, calling on Penn to drop the disciplinary charges and refrain from bringing future disciplinary action against peaceful protesters.