Urban Studies

About Our Program

The Barnard–Columbia Urban Studies program enables students to explore and understand the dynamics of cities and urbanization. Students engage the city as an amalgam of social, spatial, historical, cultural, and environmental phenomena. Students study the evolution of urban forms and social structures, which create opportunities and constraints for the exercise of human agency. They examine the city in different historical and comparative contexts, as well as in the human imagination.

Majors build an intellectual foundation that combines broad, interdisciplinary coursework and in-depth focus on a particular sub-field. The core courses expose students to the diversity of urban studies as a field, while the methods and Junior Seminar requirements introduce them to the challenge of doing original research. This prepares them for their independent senior thesis project, undertaken over the entirety of their final year. We encourage our majors to use New York City as a laboratory, and many courses draw on the vast resources of the city and include an off-campus experience.