Urban Studies Program, associate degree
Guttman Community College
Key Information
Campus location
New York, USA
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
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Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
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Application deadline
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Earliest start date
Sep 2024
Introduction
Taught by experienced, dynamic faculty, the Urban Studies Program offers an intellectually rigorous foundation in the disciplines that focus on contemporary city life, urban culture, and urbanization, emphasizing equality, diversity, inclusion, environmental sustainability, and social justice. Through the lenses of history and literature, sociology and anthropology, political science and economics, psychology and environmental science, students explore the foundations, structures, and character of cities while considering their future development. The theoretical frameworks, conceptual tools, and research methods of the Program provide a solid background for urban policy, government, law, civil/public service, administration, real estate, journalism, community organizing, and regional or urban planning.
Using New York City as its laboratory, the Program guides students in navigating urban systems such as housing, transportation, health care, and education. As they investigate municipal structures and local communities, students develop analytical and practical skills and urban development perspectives. Moreover, Urban Studies majors perform fieldwork in urban communities and the organizations serving them first-hand, allowing students to preview socially and environmentally relevant careers they can pursue upon transfer to a baccalaureate program.
Urban Studies are integral in the contemporary global context. By applying interdisciplinary analysis and research skills to the long-term vision of social change, economic development, and environmental sustainability, students learn to view cities as living organisms that have wide-ranging impacts not only on urban residents but also the population of the world and international markets, movements, and trends. This broad perspective informs the deep, nuanced understanding of modern cities and strategic, critical thinking that Urban Studies graduates carry into further higher education and public and private sector professions.
The Urban Studies Program empowers students to explore and understand the government, economics, services, and lived experiences of urban communities. Working individually and in teams, students engage with interdisciplinary concepts and practices of urban planning, social research, social justice, and the built environment. Students gain and create knowledge about how cities work so they can improve them.
Upon successful completion of the Urban Studies program, students will be able to:
Connect everyday urban experiences to theoretical perspectives/frameworks/lenses and research about cities;
Conduct quantitative, qualitative, and secondary source research to investigate urban problems using various sources (e.g., planning documents, maps, census data, journals, magazines, newspapers, textbooks, photography, interviews, surveys);
Identify significant occurrences in urban history and explain their relevance to modern cities;
Analyze how political structures, policy development, and governance processes operate in cities;
Evaluate how multiple stakeholders (individuals/communities/institutions/government agencies) are affected by a particular issue and understand their perspectives; and
Examine, analyze, and engage the interdependence of critical urban social, economic, and environmental issues, emphasizing urban social justice.