Urban Studies
The Barnard–Columbia Urban Studies program enables students to explore and understand the urban experience in all of its richness and complexity. It recognizes the city as an amalgam of diverse peoples and their social, political, economic, and cultural interactions within a distinctive built environment. Students study the evolution and variety of urban forms and governance structures, which create opportunities for, as well as constrain, the exercise of human agency, individual and collective. They explore the place of the city in different historical and comparative contexts, as well as in the human imagination.
Majors build an intellectual foundation that combines interdisciplinary coursework and a concentration of study within a single field. Through the two-semester junior colloquium, students study urban history and contemporary issues, and at the same time hone their interdisciplinary, analytical and research skills. This shared experience prepares them for their independent research project in their senior year. We encourage our majors to use New York City as a laboratory, and many courses draw on the vast resources of the city and include an off-campus experience.
The Barnard–Columbia Urban Studies program offers courses in urban sociology, science and technology in urban environments, urban case studies in spacial analysis, community building and economic development, urban development, civic engagement, and social entrepreneurship.
For questions about specific courses, contact the department.
For questions about specific courses, contact the department.
Courses
Course Number
URBS1515V001Points
3 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
Tu 11:40-12:55Th 11:40-12:55Section/Call Number
001/00160Enrollment
92 of 100Instructor
Aaron PassellRequired discussion section for URBS-UN1515 Introduction to Urban Studies.
Course Number
URBS1516V001Points
0 ptsFall 2022
Section/Call Number
001/00172Enrollment
21 of 30Instructor
. FACULTYRequired discussion section for URBS-UN1515 Introduction to Urban Studies.
Course Number
URBS1516V002Points
0 ptsFall 2022
Section/Call Number
002/00173Enrollment
2 of 30Instructor
. FACULTYRequired discussion section for URBS-UN1515 Introduction to Urban Studies.
Course Number
URBS1516V003Points
0 ptsFall 2022
Section/Call Number
003/00174Enrollment
2 of 30Instructor
. FACULTYPrerequisites: Must attend first class for instructor permission. Students create maps using ArcGIS software, analyze the physical and social processes presented in the digital model, and use the data to solve specific spatial analysis problems. Note: this course fulfills the C requirement in Urban Studies.
Course Number
URBS2200V001Points
3 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
Tu 10:10-11:25Th 10:10-11:25Section/Call Number
001/00161Enrollment
26 of 25Instructor
Christian SienerWhat is ethnography and what makes ethnography “urban”? This course explores how social scientists use ethnography to analyze questions and dilemmas often associated with urban settings. We will combine close readings of ethnographies with field-based inquiry, including our own studies of urban public space. Through both our readings and our field exercises, we will focus on the methods at the heart of ethnography: observation and participant-observation.
As we read other scholars’ work, we will ask how the author uses ethnographic tools to explore issues that are suitable for intensive fieldwork. We will assess which kinds of research problems and theoretical perspectives are a good fit with ethnography and the roles that ethnography can play in transdisciplinary research projects. You will apply what you have learned about research to design your own pilot fieldwork. The ethnographies that we read together will examine intersections of housing, race, and class in urban communities. You are welcome to extend this focus to your own fieldwork, but it’s not required to do so. This is a writing-intensive course, and we will devote a considerable portion of class time to workshop your individual projects.
Course Number
URBS3308V001Format
In-PersonPoints
3 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
We 16:10-18:00Section/Call Number
001/00798Enrollment
1 of 16Instructor
Chandler MirandaMany people don’t think of themselves as having attended segregated schools. And yet, most of us went to schools attended primarily by people who looked very much like us. In fact, schools have become more segregated over the past 30 years, even as the country becomes increasingly multiracial. In this class, we will use public schools as an example to examine the role race plays in shaping urban spaces and institutions. We will begin by unpacking the concept of racialization, or the process by which a person, place, phenomenon, or characteristic becomes associated with a certain race. Then, we will explore the following questions: What are the connections between city schools and their local contexts? What does it mean to be a “neighborhood school”? How do changes in neighborhoods change schools? We will use ethnographies, narrative non-fiction, and educational research to explore these questions from a variety of perspectives. You will apply what you have learned to your own experiences and to current debates over urban policies and public schools. This course will extend your understanding of key anthropological and sociological perspectives on urban inequality in the United States, as well as introduce you to critical theory.
Course Number
URBS3310V002Format
In-PersonPoints
3 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
We 10:10-12:00Section/Call Number
002/00311Enrollment
29 of 33Instructor
Chandler MirandaWe live in an increasingly urbanized world. But what does it mean to be “urban”? As urbanization reaches more corners of the globe, its forms and processes become increasingly diverse. Urban Elsewheres is dedicated to investigating this diversity and to exploring the implications that unfamiliar urban phenomena might have for how we understand urbanization—both elsewhere in the world and in our own backyards. Through a comparative engagement with case studies drawn from around the world, this course will challenge some of our most deeply held, common sense assumptions about urbanization. Students will be asked to stretch the conceptual limits of urbanization and explore the social and political possibilities of an expanded urbanism. In doing so, the course will engage with the many of the most heated theoretical debates about urbanization, equipping students with a set of comparative analytical tools with which to explore the wider field of urban studies.
Course Number
URBS3351V001Points
4 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
Mo 14:40-15:55We 14:40-15:55Section/Call Number
001/00164Enrollment
58 of 60Instructor
Nick SmithCourse Number
URBS3352V001Points
0 ptsFall 2022
Section/Call Number
001/00175Enrollment
0 of 20Instructor
. FACULTYCourse Number
URBS3352V002Points
0 ptsFall 2022
Section/Call Number
002/00176Enrollment
0 of 20Instructor
. FACULTYCourse Number
URBS3352V003Points
0 ptsFall 2022
Section/Call Number
003/00177Enrollment
0 of 20Instructor
. FACULTYWhile some cities thrive and struggle to house the global majority, others struggle with the effects of urban shrinkage—population loss, disinvestment and abandonment. The path to urban decline is paved by social, economic and spatial forces that result in shrinking cities. This class explores how to understand and engage with urban decline. It includes a consideration of sundry efforts to reverse, live with, and rethink urban decline in a variety of locales. The hope is that this exercise will shed light not only on iconic declining places like Detroit, but also on the nature of uneven development and how it is the rule rather than the anomalous exception within capitalist urbanization.
Course materials draw on disciplines such as planning, economics, architecture, history and sociology to help understand urban decline and its outcomes from a variety of perspectives. Over the course of the semester, we will investigate larger processes—globalization, deindustrialization and socioeconomic change—to understand how cities and communities responded to the consequences of these forces. We will engage with the global literature on shrinking cities but will be focused primarily on exploring the dynamics of shrinkage in US cities. To that end, following a wide-reaching examination of nation-wide phenomena, we will study in-depth a sample of cities to understand local and regional variations and responses. How do we treat cities that do not grow? Given the constrained or complete lack of resources in these places, to what extent should some cities be allowed to “die”? What is the impact on the residents that remain in these places?
Course Number
URBS3440V001Points
3 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
Mo 11:40-12:55We 11:40-12:55Section/Call Number
001/00163Enrollment
35 of 35Instructor
Claire PanettaPrerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Introduction to the historical process and social consequences of urban growth, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present.
Course Number
URBS3545V001Points
4 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
Tu 16:10-18:00Section/Call Number
001/00165Enrollment
5 of 16Instructor
Nick SmithPrerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Introduction to the historical process and social consequences of urban growth, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present.
Course Number
URBS3545V002Points
4 ptsFall 2022
Times/Location
Tu 16:10-18:00Section/Call Number
002/00166Enrollment
14 of 16Instructor
Mary RoccoPrerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Introduction to the historical process and social consequences of urban growth, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present.