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 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Mo 13:10-14:25We 13:10-14:25Section/Call Number
001/00439Enrollment
0 of 60Instructor
Andreina Torres AngaritaPrerequisites: 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 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Tu 10:10-11:25Th 10:10-11:25Section/Call Number
001/00443Enrollment
0 of 24Instructor
Christian SienerThis course is a basic introduction to the field and practice of urban planning in the United States. The course will focus on key concepts in planning history, theory, and practice, including the various conflicts and dilemmas planners face, stakeholders involved in urban planning, and the tools and methods that planners use to address challenges in the built environment.
The core questions that this class will return to throughout the semester are: How does planning take place, and whose interest(s) does planning serve? How does planning (re)produce social inequities? Planning is often framed as a technical exercise to rationalize the built environment and create more “livable” cities. However, planning is not value-neutral. As we will examine throughout the course of the semester, power relations fundamentally shape the planning profession, and planning decisions have contributed to racial, economic, and gender inequalities and spatial segregation in cities throughout the United States. We will also explore debates about how to encourage more inclusive cities and engage in more ethical planning practice.
The course is divided into six sections. In Part I, we will explore foundational concepts in urban planning, such as how previous scholars have defined urban planning and urban space. In Part II, we will explore the historical context in which the planning profession emerged and key moments in planning history. In Part III, we will examine normative models of planning, or how the planning profession conceives of itself. In Part IV, we will learn about the different technical tools that planners use to regulate urban development and key debates surrounding these tools. In Part V, we will interrogate the role of the planner, the role of power relations in planning, and how planning decisions have resulted in racial, class, and gender exclusion in the built environment. In Part VI, we will contemplate future directions in planning.
Course Number
URBS2520V001Points
3 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Mo 14:40-15:55We 14:40-15:55Section/Call Number
001/00444Enrollment
0 of 30Instructor
Noah AllisonThis course explores how power structures comprising nations and cities shape people's experiences worldwide. Students will be introduced to theories and empirical situations that broadly unpack various dimensions of inequality, such as wealth, housing, infrastructure, labor, public places, mobility. To understand the multitude of ways that inequality is experienced in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, this course insists that social based oppression at all scales cannot be made sense of without attentiveness to people's multiple identity markers such as gender, race, citizenship, class, sexuality, age, ethnicity, language, religion, caste, ability, education, and diet. By focusing on the relationship between nations, urban processes, and inequality, by the end of this course, students will understand how states wield power, who benefits from it, who falls victim to it, and why.
Course Number
URBS3251V001Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Mo 09:00-10:50Section/Call Number
001/00463Enrollment
0 of 16Instructor
Noah AllisonThis seminar examines the social, economic, and political landscapes of Latin American cities through ethnographic literature. It explores key themes such as migration, urban poverty, marginality, violence, informality, urban segregation, grassroots movements, urban citizenship and neoliberal urban governance. Students will read both classic and contemporary ethnographies to gain an in-depth understanding of how cities are lived and experienced. The course also unsettles the category of Latin America, to introduce a discussion of the “Latinization” of U.S. cities. We will interrogate ethnographic and audiovisual materials (included to complement the readings) from a postcolonial perspective. We will discuss the politics of knowledge production and representation in ethnographic studies and popular culture, the impact of colonialism in transnational flows of knowledge and labor, as well as the contributions to urban theory from the perspective of cities located in the Global South.
Course Number
URBS3252V001Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Th 14:10-16:00Section/Call Number
001/00857Enrollment
0 of 15Instructor
Andreina Torres AngaritaMany 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
URBS3310V001Format
In-PersonPoints
3 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Th 16:10-18:00Section/Call Number
001/00492Enrollment
0 of 48Instructor
Fawziah QadirThis class explores how racism and racialized capitalism and politics shape the distribution of material resources among cities and suburbs in metropolitan areas and the racial and ethnic groups residing in them. Readings and discussion focus on the history of metropolitan area expansion and economic development, as well as contemporary social processes shaping racial and ethnic groups’ access to high-quality public goods and private amenities. We address racial and ethnic groups’ evolving political agendas in today’s increasingly market-driven socio-political context, noting the roles of residents; federal, state, and local governments; market institutions and actors; urban planners, activist organizations, foundations, and social scientists, among others. Here is a sample of specific topics: race/ethnicity and who “belongs” in what “place;” inequitable government and market investment across racial and ethnic communities over time and “sedimentation effects” (for example, the “redlining” of Black communities leading to their inability to access loan and credit markets and the resulting wealth gap between Blacks and Whites); gentrification processes; creating sufficient, sustainable tax bases; and suburban sprawl. Assignments will include two short response papers, mid-term and final exams, and another project to be determined.
Course Number
URBS3315V001Points
3 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Tu 14:40-15:55Th 14:40-15:55Section/Call Number
001/00753Enrollment
0 of 45Instructor
Angela SimmsWe 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 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Mo 14:40-15:55We 14:40-15:55Section/Call Number
001/00445Enrollment
0 of 60Instructor
Nick SmithCourse Number
URBS3352V001Points
0 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Th 14:10-15:00Section/Call Number
001/00446Enrollment
0 of 20Course Number
URBS3352V002Points
0 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Fr 11:00-11:50Section/Call Number
002/00447Enrollment
0 of 20Course Number
URBS3352V003Points
0 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Fr 13:10-14:00Section/Call Number
003/00448Enrollment
0 of 20Course Number
URBS3420W001Points
3 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Tu 11:40-12:55Th 11:40-12:55Section/Call Number
001/00449Enrollment
0 of 60Instructor
Aaron PassellIn this course we will explore urban environmental inequalities through the lens of environmental justice. The concept of environmental justice has risen in prominence in the language of environmental activism, politics, and policymaking. Informed by critical studies of the environment, we will address the broad question of why, for some, the environment is representational of a healthy lifestyle and source of prosperity, while for others it is a source of risk and harm. Our course of study invites students to critically analyze environmental justice case studies and to develop an understanding of the complex relationships among urban populations and the social, political, and economic processes that lead to environmental inequality. We will also explore how racism is foundational to environmental exploitation and consider why global struggles for racial justice are crucial for protecting both people and the earth. We will pay particular attention to how environmental health inequalities are linked to race, class, gender, and nation. Drawing from academic texts, films, and photo essays we will explore how urban planning and economic development policies create environmental inequalities in the US and globally.
Course Number
URBS3451V001Points
3 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Mo 18:10-19:25We 18:10-19:25Section/Call Number
001/00780Enrollment
0 of 30Instructor
Maricarmen HernandezPrerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Evaluation of current political, economic, social, cultural and physical forces that are shaping urban areas.
Course Number
URBS3546V001Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Tu 12:10-14:00Section/Call Number
001/00450Enrollment
0 of 16Instructor
Christian SienerPrerequisites: Non-majors admitted by permission of instructor. Students must attend first class. Enrollment limited to 16 students per section. Evaluation of current political, economic, social, cultural and physical forces that are shaping urban areas.
Course Number
URBS3546V002Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Fr 10:10-12:00Section/Call Number
002/00451Enrollment
0 of 16Instructor
. FACULTYPrerequisite: Successful completion of URBS UN2200 Introduction to GIS Methods, or equivalent with instructor permission.
With the veritable explosion of urban data alongside the continued proliferation of new tools for its consideration, this course allows students to develop specialized approaches to spatial analysis while introducing a series of common advanced techniques and nuanced methodological questions. Aimed at covering a variety of topics with immediate relevance to urbanism in practice and in research, the course operates with a two-fold mission: (1) to critically discuss the theories, concepts, and research methods involved in spatial analysis and (2) to learn the techniques necessary for engaging those theories and deploying those methods. The class will work to meet this mission with a dedicated focus on the urban environment and the spatial particularities and relationships that arise from the urban context.
Among others, this course takes as a foundational premise that spatial analysis within geographic information systems is an incredibly powerful and double-edged weapon: it provides both the methods for answering complex spatial questions and the means for effectively communicating the results. Like any other weapon it can serve many ends, and as such an advanced course in spatial analysis must frame its use within the developing discourse on professional practice and responsibility.
The course is designed with a combination format. Early weeks are predominantly lecture-style presentations supplemented with discussion and technical demonstration and exercises. Students are expected to complete these exercises outside of class (as homework), bringing their questions to our discussion. The latter half of the course is a project-based seminar. Seminar-style presentation and discussion will rely heavily on student participation and preparation to consider the variety of spatial methods available and their implications on urban research and intervention. Woven throughout the semester is the development of a self-driven research project, through which students will engage and compare the methodological advantages and disadvantages of several assumptions, approaches, analyses, and datasets.
Course Number
URBS3800V001Points
3 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
Mo 10:10-12:00Section/Call Number
001/00817Enrollment
0 of 24Instructor
Leah MeisterlinPrerequisites: Senior standing. Year-long course; participation is for two consecutive terms. No new students admitted for spring. Emphasizes the study of the built environment of cities and suburbs, and the related debates. Readings, class presentations, and written work culminate in major individual projects, under the supervision of faculty trained in architecture, urban design, or urban planning.
Course Number
URBS3993W001Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
We 09:00-10:50Section/Call Number
001/00452Enrollment
0 of 12Instructor
Aaron PassellPrerequisites: Senior standing. Year-long course; participation is for two consecutive terms. No new students admitted for spring. Emphasizes the study of the built environment of cities and suburbs, and the related debates. Readings, class presentations, and written work culminate in major individual projects, under the supervision of faculty trained in architecture, urban design, or urban planning.
Course Number
URBS3993W002Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
We 09:00-10:50Section/Call Number
002/00453Enrollment
0 of 12Instructor
Noah AllisonPrerequisites: Senior standing. Year-long course; participation is for two consecutive terms. No new students admitted for spring. Emphasizes the study of the built environment of cities and suburbs, and the related debates. Readings, class presentations, and written work culminate in major individual projects, under the supervision of faculty trained in architecture, urban design, or urban planning.
Course Number
URBS3993W003Points
4 ptsSpring 2025
Times/Location
We 09:00-10:50Section/Call Number
003/00454Enrollment
0 of 12Instructor
Christian SienerPrerequisites: Senior standing. Year-long course; participation is for two consecutive terms. No new students admitted for spring. Emphasizes the study of the built environment of cities and suburbs, and the related debates. Readings, class presentations, and written work culminate in major individual projects, under the supervision of faculty trained in architecture, urban design, or urban planning.