The undergraduate major in Urban and Community Studies is an interdisciplinary program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a focus on educating citizens on the multiple dimensions of urban and community life and preparing students for careers in public and community service as well as graduate study in social work, public administration, law, planning, public health, or other related areas.
The major has three parts. First, students receive a broad education in the study of cities, suburbs, neighborhoods and communities through core courses in three academic subject areas drawn from Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, Public Policy, Sociology, and Urban and Community Studies. Second, students acquire a solid foundation in analytical techniques such as statistical analysis, survey research, geographic information systems, qualitative and quantitative methods or archival research. Finally, students take additional electives in order to broaden their academic training or to develop a deeper specialization in selected areas.
| GROUP I: REQUIRED CORE COURSE Two required core courses = 6 credits |
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| Introduction to Urban & Community Studies | URBN 2000 (W) |
| Understanding Your Community | URBN 4000 (W) |
| GROUP II: CORE Select three courses from three different departments = 9 credits (Cross-listed courses count towards the non-URBN dept.) |
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| Urban Development & Policy | ECON 2439 |
| Economics of Poverty | ECON 2456 |
| Urban Geography | GEOG/URBN 3200 |
| Globalization | GEOG 2000* |
| Sustainable Cities | GEOG 2400* |
| Urban & Regional Planning | GEOG 4210 |
| History of Urban America | HIST/URBN 3541 (W) |
| Immigrants & the Shaping of American History | HIST 3554 |
| African American History Since 1865 | HIST/AFRA 3564 |
| History of Latino/as in the US | HIST 3674/LLAS 3220 |
| Urban Politics | POLS 3632 (W) or URBN 3632W |
| Public Admin. or Public Admin. in Theory & Practice | POLS 3842 or PP 3031 |
| Social Policy | PP 4034 |
| Social Welfare & Social Work | SOCI 3425 |
| Urban Sociology | SOCI 3901/URBN 3275 (W) |
| Communities | SOCI 3911 |
| Urban Anthropology | URBN 3000 |
| Group III: METHODS Select one of the following courses = 3 credits |
|
| Information Technology for Economics | ECON 2327 |
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | GEOG 2500 (formerly GEOG 4500) |
| Geographic Data Analysis | GEOG 3500Q |
| Quantitative Analysis in Political Science | POLS 2072Q |
| Survey Research Methods | PP/URBN 2100 |
| Public Policy Research Methods I (Program Evaluation) | PP 3010 |
| Methods of Social Research | SOCI 3201 |
| Introduction to Statistics II | STAT 2215Q |
| Research Methods & (Quantitative) Analysis in UCS | URBN 2301Q |
| Qualitative Analysis of UCS | URBN 2302 |
| GROUP IV: SUPPORTING Select two additional courses from group II, group III or from the list below = 6 credits |
|
| Migration | ANTH 3150 (W)* |
| Applied Regional Analysis: The CT Economy | ECON 2328 (W) |
| Economics of Taxation & Government Spending | ECON 2431 |
| Public Finance | ECON 3431 (W) |
| Urban & Regional Economics | ECON 3439 (W) or URBN 3439 |
| Service Learning Through Sport & Physical Activity | EDLR 3547 (W) |
| Reading the American City | ENGL 3235W |
| Geographical Analysis of Urban Social Issues | GEOG 4200W |
| Topics in Public History | HIST 3102 |
| Social & Cultural History of CT & New England | HIST 3520 |
| Asian American Experience Since 1850 | HIST 3530/AASI 3578 |
| History of Urban Latin America | HIST/URBN 3650* |
| African American History to 1865 | HIST/AFRA/HRTS 3563 |
| Hip-Hop, Politics & Youth Culture in America | HIST/AFRA 3568 |
| Diversity Issues in Human Dev. & Family Studies | HDFS 2001 |
| Social & Community Influence on Children in the US | HDFS 3110 |
| Planning & Managing Human Service Programs | HDFS 3510 |
| Public Policy & the Family | HDFS 3530 |
| Child Welfare, Law & Social Policy | HDFS 3540 |
| Semester in Urban Problems (Urban Semester) | INTD 3584 |
| State & Local Government | POLS 2622 |
| Comparative Perspectives on Human Rights | POLS/HRTS 3212 |
| Globalization and Political Change | POLS 3406 (W)* |
| American Political Economy | POLS 3617 |
| African American Politics | POLS/AFRA 3642 |
| Latino Political Behavior | POLS 3662/LLAS 3270 |
| The Policy-making Process | POLS 3847 |
| Public Policy | PP 3001 |
| Cases in Public Policy | PP 3020 (W) |
| Race & Policy | PP 3033/AFRA 3033/POLS 3633 |
| State & Local Fiscal Problems | PP 4033 |
| Criminology | SOCI 2301 (W) |
| Sociological Perspectives on Poverty | SOCI 3429 (W) or HRTS 3429 |
| Aging in American Society | SOCI 3459/HDFS 3240 (W) |
| Ethnicity & Race | SOCI 3501 (W) or AFRA 3501 |
| Sociology of Religion | SOCI 3521 (W) |
| Sociology of Gender | SOCI 3601 (W) |
| African Americans & Social Protest | SOCI/AFRA/HRTS 3825 |
| Urban Problems | SOCI 3903 or URBN 3276 (W) |
| City Life |
SOCI 3907 (W) {SOCI 2907 (W) as of Fall 2017} |
| Internship in UCS or Urban Semester: Seminar |
URBN 3981 & 3991** or INTD 3594 (W) |
| Foreign Study | URBN 3993 |
| Special Topics | URBN 3995 |
| Variable Topics | URBN 3998 |
| Senior Thesis | URBN 4497W |
| Independent Study (With instructor consent) | URBN 4999 |
| * = Courses that have been added to the major effective academic year 2016/2017. Majors may receive credit for these courses prior to 2016/2017 with approval of their UCS academic advisor. | |
| ** = Students seeking to do an internship must take URBN 3981 and URBN 3991 concurrently. One may take up to 6 credits for the combined courses but only 3 credits can be used toward the major, all other approved internship credits will be used to meet the universities 120 credit graduation requirement. | |
| (W) = These courses may be offered by the university with or without a Writing Component. | |
| Students interested in pursuing a minor in Urban and Community Studies are advised to complete 1000-level courses in the social sciences, which are prerequisites for courses in Urban and Community Studies. These include, but are not limited to GEOG /URBN 1200; ECON 1201; POLS 1602; PP 1001; SOCI 1001, 1251; STAT 1000Q/1100Q; and URBN 1300 . They should also plan on enrolling in URBN 2000, which is open to sophomores, as soon as possible. (The minor is offered by the Urban and Community Studies Program). | |
| If you are interested in learning more about the UCS major, please contact us at (860)570-9092.
PDF’s of Degree Requirements and Final Plan of Studies: UCS Degree Requirements PDF – catalog copy 16/17 UCS DegreeRequirements PDF – catalog copy 15/16 UCS Degree Requirements PDF – catalog copy 14/15 • (UCS Final Plan of Study as of 14/15) UCS Degree Requirements PDF – catalog copy 13/14 • (UCS Final Plan of Study prior to 14/15) (For degree requirements prior to catalog copy 13/14 please contact the UCS office at (860)570-9092 or visit the undergraduate course catalog at http://www.catalog.uconn.edu/.) |
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