Program in Urban Studies
Director
M. Christine Boyer
Executive Committee
Stanley T. Allen, Architecture
M. Christine Boyer, Architecture
Michael A. Celia, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Douglas S. Massey, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Gyan Prakash, History
Jessica L. Trounstine, Woodrow Wilson School, Politics
Associated Faculty
Jeremy I. Adelman, History
Stanley T. Allen, Architecture
Roland Benabou, Economics, Woodrow Wilson School
John W. Borneman, Anthropology
M. Christine Boyer, Architecture
Michael A. Celia, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Miguel A. Centeno, Sociology, Woodrow Wilson School
Mitchell Duneier, Sociology
Susan T. Fiske, Psychology
Mario I. Gandelsonas, Architecture
Maria Garlock, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Peter R. Jaffé, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Harold James, Woodrow Wilson School, History
Kevin M. Kruse, History
Douglas S. Massey, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Sara S. McLanahan, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Katherine S. Newman, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Devah Pager, Sociology
Catherine A. Peters, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Alejandro Portes, Sociology
Gyan Prakash, History
Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, Woodrow Wilson School, Economics
James A. Smith, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Marta Tienda, Woodrow Wilson School, Sociology
Jessica L. Trounstine, Woodrow Wilson School, Politics
Sarah M. Whiting, Architecture
The Program in Urban Studies is an interdepartmental plan of study for undergraduates that offers an interdisciplinary framework for the study of cities, metropolitan regions, and urban and suburban landscapes. With courses in diverse departments, including art and archaeology, history, music, civil and environmental engineering, sociology, and politics along with the School of Architecture and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the program encourages students to think about metropolitan centers in all their complexity—as physical spaces; social, cultural, political, and economic nexuses; and historical artifacts.
The program is offered through the Woodrow Wilson School’s Policy Research
Institute for the Region, which enables students to take advantage of its many
programs pertaining to the important urban areas in close proximity to campus.
In addition, students are advised about opportunities to acquire field
experience in urban settings through the Community-Based Learning Initiative
(CBLI) and, when appropriate, encouraged to participate in that program to gain
practical experience in urban policy and service delivery. Those students with
appropriate background and training are also encouraged to study and
conceptualize cities in a comparative, international perspective, using the
resources of Princeton’s area studies and international relations programs.
Core Courses
URB 201 Introduction to Urban Studies (also SOC 203)
Introduces students to the phenomenon of urbanism by summarizing the social structure and ecological organization of cities from their inception through the present and then presents selected aesthetic, humanistic, architectural, and philosophical reactions to cities in the 19th and 20th centuries. D. Massey
URB 262A, 262B Structures and the Urban Environment (see CEE 262A, 262B)
URB 303 Introduction to Environmental Engineering (see CEE 303)
URB 469 Special Topics in Public Affairs (see WWS 469)
URB 471 Introduction to Water Pollution Technology (see CEE 471)
Requirements for Admission
The Program in Urban Studies is open to all undergraduate students, regardless of discipline. Students apply for admission during their sophomore or junior year and are accepted into the program on the basis of interest and a coherent academic plan. In their application, students are asked to propose a tentative course of study.
Program of Study
As soon as possible after applying for admission to the program, students meet with the program director to establish an approved course of study. Every student is encouraged to take the program’s core course, Urban Studies 201, as soon as possible.
Along with URB 201, which students must pass with a grade of B or above, students must complete three electives from the list of approved urban studies electives (or a substitute course approved by the program director). This list of approved electives should be considered a starting point for the student to develop a customized course of study in consultation with the program director. Students should be aware that it is usual for special one-time-only courses to be added to a department’s course offerings to take advantage of a visiting professor. When these courses contain substantial urban content, they may be used to fulfill the requirements of the certificate program. These courses must be in addition to course work taken to fulfill the requirements of the student’s department of concentration, although they may be used to fulfill distribution requirements. Each course must be from a different division (natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, or humanities) and no elective course may come from the student’s department of concentration. To be counted toward the certificate, all courses must be taken for a grade.
While urban studies students’ senior theses are written in their home departments, their work must contain an urban component, approved by the program director. A faculty member from the student’s home department serves as the primary adviser and first reader. A member of the urban studies program faculty serves as an additional adviser and outside reader. Over the course of the senior year, students participate in a senior thesis colloquium, which brings students from different departments together to discuss their urban-related thesis research and present their work to each other and to interested faculty members. The colloquium does not carry course credit, though regular participation is required for completion of the certificate.
Approved Electives
Courses in the Humanities
AMS 201 American Places: Introduction to American Studies
ARC 304 The Historical Development of Urban Form
ARC 305 Urban Studies: Analysis of Contemporary Urban Form
ARC 401 Theories of Housing and Urbanism
ARC 492 Topics in the Formal Analysis of the Urban Structure
ART 306 Classical Athens: Art and Institutions
ART 308 Roman Cities and Countryside: Republic to Empire
ART 320 Rome, the Eternal City (also ARC 320)
ART 342 Modern Architecture (also ARC 342)
MUS 264 Urban Blues and the Golden Age of Rock
Courses in the Social Sciences
AAS 334 Educating a New Majority (also SOC 334)
AAS 356 Migration, Urban Space, and African American Culture (also AMS 356)
HIS 377 Progressive America: The United States, 1877–1920
*HIS 418 Imagined Cities
POL 331 Urban Politics
SOC 210 Urban Sociology: The City and Social Change in the Americas (also LAS 210)
SOC 336 The Sociology of Poverty
SOC 338 The Sociology of Latinos in the U.S. (also LAS 338)
WWS 310 The American City (also POL 339)
WWS 537 Social Organization of Cities (also SOC 537)
Courses in the Natural Sciences and Engineering
*CEE 215 The Urban Environment
CEE 262a,b Structures and the Urban Environment (also ARC 262a,b)
CEE 263 Rivers and the Regional Environment
*ENV 305 Topics in Environmental Studies: American Regional Planning
ORF 467 Transportation
*One-time-only course or topic