Urban Studies

Program Director:

Joel Devine, Sociology

Faculty Associates:

Fred Buttell (Ph.D., Alabama), Social Work
Richard Campanella (MA., Geography, LSU), Center for Bioenvironmental Research
Kevin Gotham (Ph.D., Kansas), Sociology
Yuki Kato (Ph.D., University of California - Irvine ), Sociology
Shayne Lee (Ph.D., Northwestern), Sociology, African & Diaspora Studies
Ana M. López (Ph.D., Iowa), Communication, Latin American Studies
Larry Powell (Ph.D., Yale), History
Carol McMichael Reese (Ph.D., Texas), Architecture
Thomas F. Reese (Ph.D., Yale), Art History, Latin American Studies
Allison Truitt (Ph.D., Cornell), Anthropology

URBAN STUDIES MINOR

joel_devine_classroom

Joel Devine's classroom

The Urban Studies minor is intended for any undergraduate student seeking to develop a multi-disciplinary but focused exploration of cities, urban life and artifacts, and the design and organization of urban space and experience. It is designed to complement pursuit of any major(s) throughout the Liberal Arts, Science and Engineering, Architecture, Public Health, and Business and offers an excellent academic supplement to pre-professional training for many areas of law, social work, and medicine.

Requirements:*

Six courses (minimum of 18 credits) are required for the minor in Urban Studies which includes URST 201 (“The City I”) and URST 202 (“The City II”) plus four additional electives from among approved urban courses (see list below). Students must ensure that at least one elective course (3 credits) is at the 300 level or higher and that elective courses are drawn at least two departments, programs, or schools.

* Any course in which a student earns less than C- does not count toward fulfillment of the minor program. Students must achieve a C average across all required coursework.

Urban Studies (URST) Course Descriptions

URST 201 – The City I
(3 credits, fulfills Comparative Cultures and International perspectives) City I is the first semester of a two-semester-long survey introduction to the multi-disciplinary field of Urban Studies. Three broad substantive themes are explored: (1) History and Morphology of Cities and City Systems; (2) Urban Ecology & Demographics; and (3) Urban Design/ Aesthetics/ Land Use /Planning. Attention is given to historically, geographically, and culturally diverse cases in order to provide a comparative framework and backdrop to contemporary practices.

URST 202 – The City II
(3 credits, fulfills Comparative Cultures and International perspectives) City II is the second semester of a two-semester-long survey introduction to the multi-disciplinary field of Urban Studies. Four broad substantive themes are examined: (1) Urban Political Economy; (2) the Social Psychology of Cities; (3) Urban Culture and Expressive Arts; and (4) Urbanism & Urban Issues. Course employs a modular focus and historical-comparative framework, but primary emphasis will be on the contemporary era.

URST 310 - Urban Geography
(3 credits) Surveys discipline of geography with focus on how various traditions within the discipline analyze cities and other human communities as spatial environments. Students will learn the tools, techniques, and datasets geographers employ to investigate questions pertaining to the shape, form, origins, transformative processes, and interaction of the natural and built environments; how and why phenomena are distributed spatially and through time; the concept and perception of “place” and how we distinguish places from one another; and how present-day cityscapes reflect these concerns. Lectures will focus on New Orleans but be comparative and students will be required to apply these approaches to other cities and towns.

URST 330 - Urban Design Processes and Graphic Communication
(3 credits) Urban Design Processes and Graphic Communication is intended to provide immersion into the mind of the designer via lectures, readings, discussion and short lab based projects. The course is based on the premises that design is the organizing and conceiving of place, information and things; and that access to, and the manipulation of, graphic forms of information is an important precursor of the production of knowledge. For this reason the course is structured around key elements of the design process: 1) posing the question(s), 2) gathering information, 3) analysis and manipulation of information, 4) proposal, and 5) representation.

Approved Elective Courses for Urban Studies Minor**

Course Title	Number	School	Discipline	Credits
Urban Geography	URST 310	SLA	Urban Studies	3
Urban Design Processes and Communication	URST 330	SLA	Urban Studies
New Orleans as a Cultural System	AMST 311	SLA	American Studies	3
History of Architecture I-Survey	AHST 101, 110	TSA	Architecture	3
History of Architecture: Ancient-Medieval Architecture	AHST 310	TSA	Architecture	3
History of Architecture: Renaissance-Baroque Architecture	AHST 311	TSA	Architecture	3
History of Architecture: 19th-Century	AHST 312	TSA	Architecture	3
Modernity	AHST 320	TSA	Architecture	3
Islamic Architecture	AHST 330	TSA	Architecture	3
American Urbanism	AHST 341	TSA	Architecture	3
Representing Culture and Ethnicity in the Public Sphere	AHST 630	TSA	Architecture	3
Housing in the 20th Century	AHST 631	TSA	Architecture	3
Latin American Cities	AHST 691a	TSA	Architecture	3
Architectural Branding	APFC 491	TSA	Architecture	3
Design Urbanism	RBST 340	TSA	Architecture	3
Interpretive Urban Design	RBST 341	TSA	Architecture	3
Neighborhood Development	RBST 370	TSA	Architecture	3
Designs on Los Angeles: 20th-century Architecture, Urban Planning, and Metropolitan Imagery in the Making of America’s “Second City”	RBST 430	TSA	Architecture	3
“Tribal” New Orleans	RBST 440	TSA	Architecture	3
Architecture and the Contemporary City	RBST 640	TSA	Architecture	3
Urban Analysis + Design	RBST 641	TSA	Architecture	3
US Architecture and Urbanism	RBST 642	TSA	Architecture	3
Urban Economics	ECON 332	SLA	Economics	3
Economic History of the United States	ECON 342b	SLA	Economics	3
Medieval Cities	HISA 623	SLA	History	3
Modernity and Its Discontents in Latin America	HISL 661	SLA	History	3
Economic History of the United States	HISU 342b	SLA	History	3
African-American Cultural History	HISU 654	SLA	History	3
Power and Poverty in America	POLA 425	SLA	Political Science	3
Urban Child Development	PSYC 324	SSE	Psychology	3
Introduction to African-American Psychology	PSYC 331	SSE	Psychology	3
Urban Sociology	SOCI 106	SLA	Sociology	3
Social Problems	SOCI 109	SLA	Sociology	3
Criminology	SOCI 130	SLA	Sociology	3
Wealth, Power and Inequality	SOCI 218	SLA	Sociology	3
Race and Ethnic Relations in America	SOCI 612	SLA	Sociology	3
Gangs, Gangsters and Organized Crime: Constructing and Controlling Public Enemies	SOCI 615	SLA	Sociology	3
Problems in the Sociology of Inequality	SOCI 617	SLA	Sociology	3
Wealth, Power and Inequality	SOCI 618	SLA	Sociology	3
Urban Organization	SOCI 619	SLA	Sociology	3
Urban Organization Laboratory	SOCI 629	SLA	Sociology	1
Urban Policy and Planning	SOCI 630	SLA	Sociology	3
The Urban Experience	SOCI 631	SLA	Sociology	3
Sociology of Development in Latin America	SOCI 690	SLA	Sociology	3
Urban Latin America	SOCI 696	SLA	Sociology	3
Brazilian Society: Beyond Beaches, Bikinis, and Barracas	SOCI 698	SLA	Sociology	3
Brazilian Literature and the City	PORT 623	SLA	Spanish and Portuguese	3
Hispanic Cities	SPAN 451	SLA	Spanish and Portuguese	3

**Course Table Notes:

1. Inasmuch as course offerings change, students are advised to check with the Urban Studies Program for up-to-date listings and may petition the Urban Studies Steering Committee in advance regarding other course approvals.

2. Listed courses may have prerequisites. Prospective students should consult the catalog and/or relevant department.

a) AHST crosslisted with RBST 691
b) ECON 342 crosslisted with HISU 342