Department: Urban Studies

Code Name Description
URBANST101A The New York City Seminar (Remote) *This class is being offered in collaboration with Stanford in New York, Bing Overseas Studies Program, and must be taken in conjunction with an internship. Registration code required. The (Remote) NYC Seminar will employ a structured, experiential e...
URBANST103C Housing Visions This course provides an introduction to American Housing practices, spanning from the Industrial Age to the present. Students will examine a range of projects that have aspired to a range of social, economic and/or environmental visions. While learn...
URBANST108B Gender in the Arab and Middle Eastern City What are the components of gendered experience in the city, and how are these shaped by history and culture? How do meanings attributed to Islam and the Middle East obscure the specificity of women¿s and men¿s lives in Muslim-majority cities? This co...
URBANST108H Housing Affordability Crisis in California: Causes, Impacts, and Solutions This course will divided into three sections that when combined provide 1) the overall narrative of the precedents and adverse impacts of the worldwide, US west coast and California housing crises and the frameworks for California to create a balance...
URBANST109 Physics of Cities An introduction to the modern study of complex systems with cities as an organizing focus. Topics will include: cities as interacting systems; cities as networks; flows of resources and information through cities; principles of organization, self-org...
URBANST110 Introduction to Urban Studies Today, for the first time in history, a majority of people live in cities. By 2050, cities will hold two-thirds of the world's population. This transformation touches everyone, and raises critical questions. What draws people to live in cities? How w...
URBANST111A The Politics of the American City This course will focus on American urban politics ¿- the distinctive nature of local government, its relationship to state government and the separation of powers between states and the federal government. Certain theories about political decision-ma...
URBANST112 The Urban Underclass (Graduate students register for 249.) Recent research and theory on the urban underclass, including evidence on the concentration of African Americans in urban ghettos, and the debate surrounding the causes of poverty in urban settings. Ethnic/racial...
URBANST113 Introduction to Urban Design: Contemporary Urban Design in Theory and Practice Comparative studies in neighborhood conservation, inner city regeneration, and growth policies for metropolitan regions. Lect-disc and research focusing on case studies from North America and abroad, team urban design projects. Two Saturday class wor...
URBANST114 Urban Culture in Global Perspective Core course for Urban Studies majors. A majority of the world's population now live in urban areas and most of the rapid urbanization has taken place in mega-cities outside the Western world. This course explores urban cultures, identities, spatial p...
URBANST115 Urban Education (Graduate students register for EDUC 212 or SOC 229X). Combination of social science and historical perspectives trace the major developments, contexts, tensions, challenges, and policy issues of urban education.
URBANST122 Ethics and Politics of Public Service Ethical and political questions in public service work, including volunteering, service learning, humanitarian assistance, and public service professions such as medicine and teaching. Motives and outcomes in service work. Connections between service...
URBANST122Z Ethics and Politics in Public Service This course examines ethical and political questions that arise in doing public service work, whether volunteering, service learning, humanitarian endeavors overseas, or public service professions such as medicine and teaching. What motives do people...
URBANST123 Designing Research for Social Justice: Writing a Community-Based Research Proposal This course will support students in designing and writing a community-engaged research proposal. In contrast to "traditional" forms of research, community-engaged research uses a social justice lens in seeking to apply research to benefit communitie...
URBANST123B Community Engaged Research - Principles, Ethics, and Design This course is designed to support students planning to participate in community engaged research experiences during the summer 2023 term. Course materials and discussions will promote deep engagement with, and reflection on, the principles, practice...
URBANST124 Spatial Approaches to Social Science This multidisciplinary course combines different approaches to how GIS and spatial tools can be applied in social science research. We take a collaborative, project oriented approach to bring together technical expertise and substantive applications...
URBANST125 Shades of Green: Exploring and Expanding Environmental Justice in Practice Historically, discussions of race, ethnicity, culture, and equity in the environment have been shaped by a limited view of the environmental justice movement, often centered on urban environmental threats and separated from other types of environment...
URBANST126A Ethics and Leadership in Public Service This course explores ethical questions that arise in public service work, as well as leadership theory and skills relevant to public service work. Through readings, discussions, in-class activities, assignments, and guest lectures, students will deve...
URBANST127A Community Organizing: People, Power & Change Organizers ask three questions: who are my people, what challenges do they face, and how can they turn their resources into the power they need to meet these challenges? Organizing requires leadership: accepting responsibility for enabling others to...
URBANST127B Leadership, Organizing and Action: Intensive Two Consecutive Weekend Course: Community Organizing makes a difference in addressing major public challenges that demand full engagement of the citizenry, especially those whose voices are marginalized. In this course you will learn and practice the...
URBANST127C Leadership, Organizing and Action: Campaign Coaching Community Organizing makes a difference in addressing major public challenges that demand full engagement of the citizenry, especially those whose voices are marginalized. In this course you will learn and practice the leadership skills of campaign c...
URBANST130 Planning Calif: the Intersection of Climate, Land Use, Transportation & the Economy Cities and urban areas have always been transformed by major external changes like pandemics and public health crises. California is both in the midst of its greatest economic recession since the Great Depression and experiencing a pandemic that has...
URBANST131 VIP: Very Impactful People - Social Innovation & the Social Entrepreneur Engage with founders of leading social ventures, including a MacArthur "genius" Fellow, two Forbes "30 under 30" awardees, an "Illuminating Injustice" award winner, and one of Fast Company's "45 Social Entrepreneurs Who Are Changing the World". Guest...
URBANST132 Concepts and Analytic Skills for the Social Sector How to develop and grow innovative not-for-profit organizations and for-profit enterprises which have the primary goal of solving social and environmental problems. Topics include organizational mission, strategy, market/user analysis, communications...
URBANST133 Social Enterprise Workshop Social Enterprise Workshop: A team based class to design solutions to social issues. In the class students will identify issues they are interested in, such as housing, food, the environment, or college access. They will join teams of like-minded...
URBANST134 Justice and Cities Cities have most often been where struggles for social justice happen, where injustice is most glaring and where new visions of just communities are developed and tested. This class brings political theories of justice and democracy together with his...
URBANST135 Challenging the Status Quo: Social Entrepreneurs Advancing Democracy, Development and Justice This community-engaged learning class is part of a broader Program on Social Entrepreneurship at the Haas Center for Public Service. It will use practice to better inform theory about how innovation can help address societies biggest challenges. Work...
URBANST136 The Sharing Economy The rapid growth of the sharing economy, sometimes also called the peer to peer economy, is made possible by the ubiquity of smart phones, inefficiency of ownership, and measures designed to create and measure trust among participants. The course wi...
URBANST138 Smart Cities & Communities A city is essentially an organism, a complex system of systems and it inhabitants. A nexus of forces - IoT, data, systems of insight, and systems of engagement - present an unprecedented opportunity to increase the efficiency of urban systems, impro...
URBANST140F Casablanca - Algiers - Tunis : Cities on the Edge Casablanca, Algiers and Tunis embody three territories, real and imaginary, which never cease to challenge the preconceptions of travelers setting sight on their shores. In this class, we will explore the myriad ways in which these cities of North Af...
URBANST141 Gentrification Neighborhoods in the Bay Area and around the world are undergoing a transformation known as gentrification. Middle- and upper-income people are moving into what were once low-income areas, and housing costs are on the rise. Tensions between newcomers...
URBANST141A Urban Schools, Social Policy, and the Gentrifying City This course is designed to help students develop a more sophisticated understanding of educational inequality in the contemporary U.S. city. This course will survey existing literature about the intersection of gentrification and urban schooling, foc...
URBANST143 MAXIMUM CITY: Post-Colonial Mumbai at the Crossroads of Global and South Asian Culture There are few cities more emblematic of the rapid urbanization of today's global population than Mumbai, India, formerly known as Bombay. With over 20 million residents, Mumbai today stands as the most populous city in one of the world's most populou...
URBANST144U Cape to Cairo: Decolonization and African Urban Life 1940s-1960s Decolonization across Africa was complicated, messy and sometimes violent. It was also an important moment for (re) imagining and (re)structuring society resulting in fascinating historical encounters among different groups. This course explores deco...
URBANST146 Retaking the Commons: Public Space and Heritage for Sustainable Cities As cities develop and grow, green spaces, heritage sites, parks, and historic neighborhoods have come under increasing pressure. While common pool resources are held in the public trust, who governs them? Who advocates for them, and who enjoys them?...
URBANST147 Archaeology of Human Rights This introductory seminar provides a critical vantage point about human rights discourse from an archaeological perspective. The seminar is organized around four main questions: (1) Is cultural heritage a human right? (2) What are archaeologists lear...
URBANST148 Who Owns Your City?: Institutional Real Estate Seminar An intensive one-week hands-on introductory seminar designed to allow students to understand and interact with all aspects of the real estate investment process, including property development, local government interplay, value creation, [deal analys...
URBANST148A Cities and Creativity: Cultural and Architectural Interpretations of Madrid This class is being offered in collaboration with Stanford in Madrid, Bing Overseas Studies Program. Focused on the artistic and architectural aspects of cities, this course fosters students' creative sensibilities through six basic approaches: expe...
URBANST149 Monitoring the Crisis A course devoted to understanding how people are faring as the country's health and economic crisis unfolds. The premise of the course is that, as important and valuable as surveys are, it's a capital mistake to presume that we know what needs to be...
URBANST150 From Gold Rush to Google Bus: History of San Francisco This class will examine the history of San Francisco from Native American and colonial settlement through the present. Focus is on social, environmental, and political history, with the theme of power in the city. Topics include Native Americans, the...
URBANST152 Building Modernity: Urban Planning and European Cities in the Twentieth Century This seminar explores the history of urban planning in twentieth-century Europe. We will discuss visions of ideal cities and attempts at their implementation in the context of democratic and authoritarian systems as well as capitalism and socialism....
URBANST153 CAPITALS: How Cities Shape Cultures, States, and People This course takes students on a trip to major capital cities, at different moments in time: Renaissance Florence, Golden Age Madrid, Colonial Mexico City, Enlightenment and Romantic Paris, Existential and Revolutionary St. Petersburg, Roaring Berlin,...
URBANST155 Just Transitions Policy Lab Building off the work of the Stanford Coalition for Planning an Equitable 2035 (SCoPE), the just transitions policy lab will address transportation justice, housing justice, and labor equity concerns that have been identified by neighboring communiti...
URBANST155A Environmental Justice Colloquium This colloquium brings the voices and vision of leading Environmental Justice (EJ) advocates to the Stanford community, in order to educate, inspire, and transform our understanding of environmental science. Environmental Justice advances a positive...
URBANST155EP Topics in Writing & Rhetoric: Introduction to Environmental Justice: Race, Class, Gender and Place Environmental justice means ensuring equal access to environmental benefits and preventing the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms for all communities regardless of gender, class, race, ethnicity or other social positions. This introducto...
URBANST156 St. Petersburg: Imagining a City, Building a City St. Petersburg, the world's most beautiful city, was designed to display an 18th-century autocrat's power and to foster ties between Russia and the West - on the tsar's terms. It went through devastating floods and a deadly siege; it birthed the "Pet...
URBANST156A The Changing American City After decades of decline, U.S. cities today are undergoing major transformations. Young professionals are flocking to cities instead of fleeing to the suburbs. Massive increases in immigration have transformed the racial and ethnic diversity of citie...
URBANST163 Land Use: Planning for Sustainable Cities Through case studies with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, guest speakers, selective readings and interactive assignments, this survey course seeks to demystify the concept of land use for the non-city planner. This introductory course will rev...
URBANST164 Sustainable Cities Community-engaged learning course that exposes students to sustainability concepts and urban planning as a tool for determining sustainable outcomes in the Bay Area. The focus will be on land use and transportation planning to housing and employment...
URBANST165 Sustainable Urban and Regional Transportation Planning Environmental, economic, and equity aspects of urban transportation in 21st-century U.S. Expanded choices in urban and regional mobility that do not diminish resources for future generations. Implications for the global environment and the livability...
URBANST166 How Cities Can Save the World In our cities, we find the greatest concentrations of the world's great problems - poverty, homelessness, violent crime, and GHG emissions, to name a few. So too, cities present many of the most innovative, impactful solutions to these challenges....
URBANST168 Race, Nature, and the City This course provides an introduction to the study of race and place within urban political ecology (UPE). Geographer Natasha Cornea defines UPE as a 'conceptual approach that understands urbanization to be a political, economic, social, and ecologica...
URBANST169 Race and Ethnicity in Urban California The course is part of an ongoing research project that examines the consequences of longterm social, economic, and political changes in ethnic and race relations in in urban California. The required readings, discussions, and service learning compone...
URBANST169B Race and Ethnicity in Urban California: Research Seminar This course is part of an ongoing research project that examines the consequences of social, demographic, economic, and political changes in ethnic and race relations in in urban California. Students taking this course will construct will investigat...
URBANST171 Urban Design Studio The practical application of urban design theory. Projects focus on designing neighborhood and downtown regions to balance livability, revitalization, population growth, and historic preservation.
URBANST172A Introduction to Urban and Regional Planning An investigation into urban planning as a democratic practice for facilitating or mitigating change in society and the built environment. We will engage in professional planning practices in focused sessions on transportation, design, housing, enviro...
URBANST173 The Urban Economy Applies the principles of economic analysis to historical and contemporary urban and regional development issues and policies. Explores themes of urban economic geography, location decision-making by firms and individuals, urban land and housing mar...
URBANST174 Defining Smart Cities: Visions of Urbanism for the 21st Century Technological innovations have and will disrupt all domains of urban life, from housing to healthcare to city management to transportation. This seminar is aimed at future technologists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and urban planners to define and e...
URBANST176 New Technologies and Urban Change Cities are always changing, most times gradually, but sometimes very rapidly and with significant effects on urban space, form, culture, and society. Among the forces that have historically driven urban change are the dynamics of immigration, both lo...
URBANST178 The Science and Practice of Effective Advocacy How can purposeful collective action change government policy, business practices and cultural norms? This course will teach students about the components of successful change campaigns and help develop the practical skills to carry out such efforts....
URBANST179 The Social Life of Neighborhoods How do neighborhoods come to be? How and why do they change? What is the role of power, money, race, immigration, segregation, culture, government, and other forces? In this course, students will interrogate these questions using literatures from soc...
URBANST180A Urban Agroecology Urban agriculture takes many forms in cities around the world and provides significant amounts of food and other resources and benefits for urban communities. This Earth Systems practicum explores the application of agroecological principles to the d...
URBANST180B Urban Agroecology Urban agriculture takes many forms in cities around the world and provides significant amounts of food and other resources and benefits for urban communities. This Earth Systems practicum explores the application of agroecological principles to the d...
URBANST181 Urban Agroecology Urban agriculture takes many forms in cities around the world and provides significant amounts of food and other resources and benefits for urban communities. This Earth Systems practicum explores the application of agroecological principles to the d...
URBANST183 Team Urban Design Studio This new class offers an exciting variation on the 'individual project' studio format. Students work as a team to propose a single consensus solution to a real-world design challenge. This collaborative studio experience more closely reflects the cre...
URBANST184 Paris: Capital of the Modern World This course explores how Paris, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, became the political, cultural, and artistic capital of the modern world. It considers how the city has both shaped and been shaped by the tumultuous events of modern his...
URBANST190A Public Service and Social Impact: Pathways to Purposeful Careers How do I translate my interests and skills into a career in public service and social impact? This course will introduce you to a wide range of roles that help shape public policy and civic life, including government, education, nonprofits, social en...
URBANST193 Directed Research in Urban Studies --
URBANST194 Internship in Urban Studies For Urban Studies majors only. Students organize an internship in an office of a government agency, a community organization, or a private firm directly relevant to the major. Reading supplements internship. Paper summarizes internship experience and...
URBANST195 Special Projects in Urban Studies No Description Set
URBANST196 Senior Research in Public Service Limited to seniors approved by their departments for honors thesis and admitted to the year-round Public Service Scholars Program sponsored by the Haas Center for Public Service. What standards in addition to those expected by the academy apply to re...
URBANST197 Directed Reading No Description Set
URBANST199 Senior Honors Thesis No Description Set
URBANST201A Capstone Internship in Urban Studies Restricted to Urban Studies majors. Students work at least 80 hours with a supervisor, establish learning goals, and create products demonstrating progress. Reflection on service and integration of internship with senior research plans. Must be compl...
URBANST202A Junior Seminar: Preparation for Research Required of all juniors in Urban Studies planning on writing an honors thesis . Students write a research prospectus and grant proposal, which may be submitted for funding. Research proposal in final assignment may be carried out in Spring or Summer...
URBANST203 Senior Seminar Conclusion of capstone sequence. Students write a substantial paper based on the research project developed in 202. Students in the honors program may incorporate paper into their thesis. Guest scholar chosen by students.
URBANST27D The Detective and the City This seminar will analyze the social reality of three historic cities (London in the 1890s, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the 1920s and 30s, and Shanghai in the 1990s) through the prism of popular crime fiction featuring four great literary detect...
URBANST27Q The Detective and the City This seminar will analyze the social reality of three historic cities (London in the 1890s, San Francisco and Los Angeles in the 1920s and 30s, and Shanghai in the 1990s) through the prism of popular crime fiction featuring four great literary detect...
URBANST65SI Transportation and the Future City What should a 'city of the future' look like? This weekly speaker series will provide a broad overview to the fields of transportation engineering and city planning and how they intersect with the overarching issues of sustainability, energy, technol...
URBANST66Q Local Government in Action The purpose of this course is to give First Years and Sophomores a better understanding of the importance and relevance of local government, as well as the knowledge, resources, confidence, and experience to explore careers in public service. It is b...
URBANST83N City, Space, Literature This course presents a literary tour of various cities as a way of thinking about space, representation, and the urban. Using literature and film, the course will explore these from a variety of perspectives. The focus will be thematic rather than ch...