圣路易斯華盛頓大學(xué)

The interdisciplinary major in urban studies is ideal for students drawn to serious examination of the profound issues confronting urban/metropolitan America. Urban Studies seeks to prepare students, indeed our nation's future leaders, for the challenge of solving these issues. We seek to prepare students to research and investigate issues concerned with evolving patterns of metropolitanism and the necessity for central city reconstruction; problems associated with regentrification, urban sprawl and affordable housing; crises confronting newly emerging immigrant communities and the social cleavages of urban marginalized communities; unemployment and underemployment; law and justice; HIV/AIDS and issues of public health; the economic underdevelopment of poor communities; race and inequality; the paradox of declining welfare rolls amidst escalating poverty rates; underperforming urban schools; and the in-migration and out-migration of the city and its schools, among others. All available social indices suggest that such domestic issues in our central cities will only increase in significance in the years ahead. The fact that many of the aforementioned issues are deeply embedded in cities of the world makes Urban Studies not just focused on domestic cities but global cities as well.

Urban studies is a stand-alone major. The students presently in the program are jointly pursuing study in urban studies and in pre-law, pre-medicine, political science, educational studies, environmental studies, economics, international and area studies, philosophy-neuroscience-psychology, architecture, and comparative arts, among others. Our purpose is to prepare students to critically engage the social, political and economic dilemmas facing our cities, both domestically and internationally, with intellectual rigor, integrity, sensitivity and compassion. The program draws faculty and course work from the various academic units including, but not limited to, Arts & Sciences, the Brown School (Social Work and Public Health), the School of Law, and the College of Architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. To complement our course work, Urban Studies accepts internships based locally, nationally or internationally, with appropriate support documents.

Total required units: 33 units, 21 of which must be 300-level or above. Of these 21 advanced units, no more than 6 units may be from independent study courses.

Required courses: URST 299 The Study of Cities and Metropolitan America; one introductory course in math or applied statistics; one 400-level independent study or an internship located locally, nationally or internationally; and a senior thesis (or senior seminar if offered).

Elective courses: There are five subject area concentrations in Urban Studies: neighborhoods and community development; urban education; cities of the world; public policy/social policy; and public health. Once a student declares a major in urban studies, they will be assigned a major adviser who will help the student formulate the area concentration.