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Urban StudiesErnesto Capello, Casey Jarrin, Ruthanne Kurth-Schai, David Lanegran, Peter Rachleff, Paru Shah, Laura Smith, Daniel Trudeau (Director) The urban studies interdepartmental concentration is designed to take full advantage of Macalester’s location in the center of a flourishing metropolitan area. The region’s historical demographic base, which is comprised of African Americans, American Indians, and Euro Americans, is becoming increasingly diverse with large and growing populations of Southeast Asians, Latinos and East Africans. The program is designed for students who wish to gain an interdisciplinary perspective on urbanization and urbanism as they appear in the United States and globally. The program combines a sound theoretical and experiential base complemented by a broad range of technical competencies. The 8-course urban studies concentration is divided into two parts: a curricular portion that provides students with a theoretical base, and an applied portion that gives students first-hand experience conducting research on specific aspects of city life. Students are also expected to acquire skills that will enable them to make an effective contribution to urban studies research or vocation. Many courses listed in the concentration have action research or service learning components.
Structure of the Concentration A concentration in urban studies will consist of eight courses distributed in the following manner. Curriculum A. Geography 112 Introduction to Urban Studies. B. Four discipline-based theoretical approaches to the city drawn from the following set of courses. Courses must be selected from at least TWO disciplines. American Studies 250 (Race, Place and Space); Economics 342 (Economics of Poverty in the US); Education 340 (Race, Culture and Ethnicity in Education); Education 280 (Re-envisioning Education and Democracy); English 341 (20th Century British Novel—with approved topic); Geography 241 (Urban Geography); Geography 261 (Geography of World Urbanization); Geography 262 (Metro Analysis); Geography 341 (Urban Social Geography); Geography 488 (Cities of the 21st Century); History 232 (Immigration and Ethnicity in US History); History 233 (Introduction to the History of the US Working Class); History 258 (Jim Crow); History 249 (African Americans and the Transformation of the City); History topics course (The City in Latin American History); History topics course (Imaging the Modern City); Political Science 204 (Urban Politics); Political Science 244 (Latino Politics). A relevant course that does not appear on this list, including a course taken through a study away/study abroad opportunity, may be substituted for one of these courses, pending approval of the concentration director. C. Two applied courses drawn from the following set of courses. American Studies 300 (Junior Civic Engagement Seminar: Where Theory Meets Practice—with approved topic); Anthropology 230 (Ethnographic Interviewing); Education 210 (Urban Education in Challenging Times); Education 480 (Urban Education in Theory, Policy and Practice); Education 614 (Independent Project); Environmental Studies 340 (US Urban Environmental History); Environmental Studies 345 (Car Country: The Automobile and the American Environment); Geography 365 (Urban GIS); Geography 377 (Qualitative Research Methods in Geography); Geography topics courses (Advanced Topics, 394—various topics that will include but not be limited to issues of economic development, housing, neighborhood conservation, transportation, urban planning and design); Geography 488 (Urban Geography Field Seminar); Geography 488 (Transportation Geography Seminar); History topics course (Remembering the Modern City); History 394 (Public History); Political Science 203 (Race, Ethnicity and Politics); Political Science topics course (Politics of Urban Education). A relevant course that does not appear on this list, including a four-credit internship or a course taken through a study away/study abroad opportunity, may be substituted for one of these courses, pending approval of the concentration director. D. 401 Urban Studies Colloquium Technical Competency Urban studies students should attempt to master several of the following communication and technical skills. With their advisors they will develop goal attainment schedules for each of the required skills. All students will not be equally proficient in all skills.
A. Oral Communication—Students will be expected to be articulate and should have some experience with creative oral communication. B. Written Communication—All students will be expected to write concise, jargon-free technical reports. C. Quantitative Reasoning—All students will be expected to be able to analyze and present numerical information. Students are advised to take Mathematics 108 Quantitative Thinking for Policy Analysis and a quantitative methods course in the department in which the student majors.
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