Major Degree Requirements
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 quantitative methods (e.g., statistical analysis of survey research), qualitative methods (e.g., textual analysis of interview, observational, ethnographic and archival research), and geographic information systems . Finally, students take additional electives in order to broaden their academic training or to develop a deeper specialization in selected areas.
Degree Plan as of Academic Year 2021/2022
| GROUP I: REQUIRED CORE COURSE
Two required core courses = 6 credits |
|
| Course Title | Course Number |
| 1. Introduction to Urban & Community Studies | URBN 2000 (W) |
| 2. Understanding Your Community or Urban Semester: Seminar, or Senior Thesis (with permission of the UCS Director) | URBN 4000 or INTD 3594, or URBN 4497W |
| GROUP II: CORE
Select three courses from three different departments = 9 credits (Cross-listed courses count towards the non-URBN department) |
|
| Course Title | Course Number |
| Urban Development & Policy | ECON 2439 |
| Economics of Poverty | ECON 2456 |
| Globalization | GEOG 2000 |
| Introduction to Sustainable Cities | GEOG 2400E |
| Urban Geography | GEOG/URBN 3200 (W) |
| Urban & Regional Planning | GEOG 4210 |
| History of Urban America | HIST/URBN 2541 (W) (formerly HIST/URBN 3541) |
| 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/URBN 3632 (W) |
| 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/URBN 3901 (W) (formerly URBN 3275) |
| Group III: METHODS
Select one of the following courses = 3 credits |
|
| Course Title | Course Number |
| Information Technology for Economics | ECON 2327 |
| New Digital Worlds of Geographic Information Science | GEOG 2410 |
| Introduction to Geographic Information Systems | GEOG/CE 2500 (formerly GEOG 4500) |
| Visualizing Geographic Data | GEOG 2510 |
| Geographic Data Analysis | GEOG 3500Q |
| Quantitative Analysis in Political Science | POLS 2072Q |
| Survey Research Methods | PP/URBN 2100 |
| 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 |
|
| Course title | Course Number |
| 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 |
| Introduction to Sport Based Youth Development | EDLR 3547 (W) |
| Reading the American City | ENGL 3235W |
| Race, Sex, Space, and Place | GEOG 3000 |
| Geographical Analysis of Urban Social Issues | GEOG 4200W |
| Asian American Experience Since 1850 | HIST/AAAS 2530 (Formerly HIST 3530/AASI 3578) |
| History of Urban Latin America | HIST/URBN 2650 (Formerly HIST/URBN 3650) |
| Crime, Policing, and Punishment in the US | HIST 2810 |
| Topics in Public History | HIST 3102 |
| Social & Cultural History of CT & New England | HIST 3520 |
| African American History to 1865 | HIST/AFRA/HRTS 3563 |
| Hip-Hop, Politics & Youth Culture in America | HIST/AFRA/AMST 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 (W) |
| Seminar in Urban Problems (Urban Semester) | INTD 3584 |
| Sustainable Urban Ecosystems | NRE 3265 |
| State & Local Government | POLS 2622 |
| Comparative Perspectives on Human Rights | POLS/HRTS 3212 |
| Environmental and Climate Justice | POLS 3240E |
| 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 |
| Cases in Public Policy | PP 3020 (W) |
| Race & Policy | PP 3033/AFRA 3033/POLS 3633 |
| Criminology | SOCI 2301 (W) |
| Sociology of the Family | SOCI 2651 (W) |
| Sociology of Food | SOCI 2705E |
| Society and Climate Change | SOCI 2709WE |
| City Life | SOCI 2907 (W) (formerly SOCI 3907 (W)) |
| Sociological Perspectives on Poverty | SOCI 3429 (W) |
| 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) |
| Sociology of Sexuality | SOCI/WGSS 3621 (W) |
| African Americans & Social Protest | SOCI/AFRA/HRTS 3825 |
| Urban Problems | SOCI 3903 W or URBN 3276 (W) |
| City and Community in Film | URBN/AMST 2400 |
| Internship in UCS or Urban Semester: Seminar | URBN 3981 & 3991** or INTD 3594 (W)† |
| Foreign Study (With Department Head consent) | URBN 3993* |
| Special Topics | URBN 3995 |
| Variable Topics | URBN 3998 |
| Senior Thesis | URBN 4497W* † |
| Independent Study | URBN 4999* |
| * = Courses that require instructor consent. (URBN 3993 requires Department Head Consent.) | |
| ** = Students seeking to do an internship must take URBN 3981 and URBN 3991 concurrently. Only three internship credits can be used toward the major. Any additional credits will be used to meet the university's 120 credit graduation requirement. Internships require instructor consent.
† INTD 3594 and URBN 4497W can be counted only once to meet the requirements of the major. Majors seeking to take either course as a Core (Group I) requirement must attain UCS faculty advisor or department head approval prior to taking the course. |
|
| (W) = These courses may be offered by the university with or without a Writing Component.
E = These courses meet the Environmental literacy requirement as of catalog year 2019/2020. |
|
| Students interested in pursuing a major in Urban and Community Studies are advised to complete 1000-level courses in the social sciences, which may be 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). | |
| In October 2019, Breanna McFarlane ’22 (CLAS) attended the UConn March Against Racism. She didn’t realize that it would be a turning point in her experience with social justice. Read More... |