2021-2022 Academic Catalog

Oct 31, 2025

2021-2022 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Urban Studies Concentration

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Overview

Undergraduate Concentration

Urbanization has been one of the most powerful processes shaping the world; economically, culturally, geographically, and socially. The Urban Studies concentration offers students majoring in any field with a multi-disciplinary way to understand the “urban” and to think about cities as vital sites of human experience and innovation. At Clark we emphasize the explicit social, economic, environmental, and political challenges to the conditions of life and social relations in cities, which orient to creating societal change. We also encourage students to explore the artistic, humanistic ways people live in cities. The courses making up the concentration, therefore, expose students to a variety of ways that we observe, work, and feel cities, and to consider what produces cities and their broader environments. Urban Studies offers an exposure to a variety of disciplinary practices in understanding and analyzing cities which is compatible with any major. Urban issues span across a broad range of subjects, making the UDSC concentration as beneficial to a Biology major as it is to a Political Science or Studio Art major. Depending on the Student’s major, the Urban Studies Concentration fosters a path to Clark’s many Advanced Degree Programs (ADP), notably and most particularly, the Community Development and Planning Master’s degree in IDCE.

For more information, please visit the Urban Studies website.

Concentration Requirements

Students must take a minimum of seven courses in the concentration, including the capstone project.
The seven courses must come from three or more different departments.
One of these courses, which should be taken at the outset, must be an introductory/gateway course selected from Group A.
One of these courses must be a research methods course, which should be taken as early as possible, selected from Group B.
At least four additional courses focusing on U.S. cities must be taken (from A, B and/or C categories.) At least two of these courses must be at the 200 level.
One of the seven courses must include a culminating capstone experience, consisting of a research or internship project, done either as part of an urban-research or internship seminar or as a directed project supervised by a core faculty adviser or a participating faculty member in the urban studies concentration.
No more than two courses in the concentration can also be used to satisfy the requirements of a major, minor or other concentration (excluding courses required for the major).

Students pursuing the concentration will receive advice from one of the core faculty advisers on selecting appropriate courses for the concentration.

Courses

Group A: Introductory Courses (1 required)

Group B: Urban Research Tools & Practice (1 required)

”students may count only one of ECON 160, GEOG 110, PSCI 107, and SOC 206; these courses cover similar material”

Group C: Urban Electives (at least 2 required.)

(**) indicates that the course may be used to fulfill the capstone requirement

ARTH 114 - Ancient Cities and Sanctuaries
ARTH 201 - Art, the Public, and Worcester’s Cultural Institutions
ARTH 216 - Architecture and Democracy
ARTH 245 - Urban Art and Society in Jazz Age New York
ECON 277 - Urban Economics
EDUC 152 - Complexities of Urban Schooling
EN 177 - Health and the Urban Environment
GEOG 248 - Social Justice and the City **
GEOG 252 - Urban Design Research Lab **
GEOG 258 - Utopian Visions, Urban Realities: Planning Cities for the 21st Century **
GEOG 280 - Urban Ecology: Cities as Ecosystems **
HIST 203 - U.S. Urban History
HIST 213 - Gender and the American City
ID 108 - What is Public Health?
ID 203 - Youth Work: Practice and Social Justice
ID 221 - Food Systems: Place, Politics and Policy
ID 237 - Program Evaluation for Youth and Community Development Initiatives
ID 296 - Advanced Vector GIS
IDCE 332 - Sustainable Development Assessment and Planning **, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
IDCE 334 - Planning and Zoning for Community Developers
**, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
IDCE 344 - Going Local: Community Development and Planning **, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
IDCE 346 - Practicum in Community Development and Planning **, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
IDCE 30111 - Urban Development: Process and Change **, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
IDCE 30218 - Community Development Decision Making & Negotiations
**, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
IDCE 30240 - Community Development Planning Studio **, open to seniors on track to enter an accelerated degree program in IDCE
MCA 281 - Urban Community Journalism
MUSC 235 - Community Music and Social Action
PSCI 292 - U.S. Urban Policy - Capstone Seminar and Internship **
SOC 281 - Cities and Social Change **

Program Faculty

John Ameer, Ed.D.
Asha Best, Ph.D.
John Brown, Ph.D.
Mark Davidson, Ph.D.
Jack Delehanty, Ph.D.
Patricia Ewick, Ph.D.
John Garton, Ph.D.
Jacqueline Geoghegan, Ph.D.
Kathryn Madden, Ph.D.
Deborah Martin, Ph.D.
Deborah Merrill, Ph.D.
Sarah Michaels, Ph.D.
Constance Montross, Ph.D.
James T. Murphy, Ph.D.
Amy Richter, Ph.D.
Laurie Ross, Ph.D.
Marianne Sarkis, Ph.D.
Rhys Townsend, Ph.D.
Kristina Wilson, Ph.D.
Junfu Zhang, Ph.D.

Core Faculty

Ramon Borges-Mendez, Ph.D., Program Coordinator
John Brown, Ph.D.
Mark Davidson, Ph.D.
Deborah Martin, Ph.D.
Amy Richter, Ph.D.
Laurie Ross, Ph.D.

Courses

Courses offered within the last 2 Academic Years