Spring 2008 courses

Please check the Registrar for the most up-to-date course information.

Syllabi not found online may be available in binders in the Urban Studies office, Room 130 McNeil Building.

URBS-009.301 Living in the City
TR 9-10:30 (Vellani)
Fulfills College Writing Requirement
Cities are the sites of people's highest aspirations as well as their nightmares of alienation and poverty. In Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly refashions her persona in the reflection of a store window on Fifth Avenue. In the same New York, Sherman McCoy experiences identity-shattering realities in Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities. Writers have used prose to create, represent and alter identities in relation to the city. How is the city signified as the location of ostentatious luxury and of utter deprivation? How do we reconcile these extremes, as well as the myriad other urban realities? Using case studies such as Philadelphia, Bombay, London and New York, and employing readings from urban studies, cultural studies and geography as well as film and music, this course will examine how competing ideas of the city influence our experiences of city living. Writing assignments include a series of short essays of varying styles, peer review and a portfolio.

URBS-009.302 Design and the City
MW 2-3:30 (Milestone)
Fulfills College Writing Requirement
syllabus
This course will explore the role of design in the city--but not primarily in the sense of urban design. Rather, we'll explore how the idea of design is shaping the notion of urbanity. For instance, what role does design play in creating the shopping experience? How is design being integrated into personal identity? What function does design play in social policies, city economies, local politics, and what it means to be an urbanite? Seeing the city as a design landscape, but also as an experience designed, and ultimately as a market for the symbolic capital of the idea of design, we will investigate the city as ethnographers, observing behavior, affect, décor, and decorum; participating in meaning, consumption, valuing, and contesting; and questioning assumptions through writing, analyzing, and re-presenting. Assignments will include several short position papers, peer review, and a final portfolio.

URBS-009.303 Europe in Los Angeles
TR 5-6:30 (Swope)
Fulfills College Writing Requirement
syllabus
American culture as we know it is unthinkable without Albert Einstein, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill and Fritz Lang. All of these tremendous individual talents spent time in Los Angeles between 1920 and 1950. They came to southern California from Germany for various reasons and their diverse experiences in the City of Angels shaped their work in different ways. They in turn shaped the culture of the city as well as its image in the rest of the United States and around the world. In regular writing assignments, students will investigate the aspects of inter-war German culture these German-speaking intellectuals, many born into central European Jewish families well outside the borders of todays Germany, brought with them to the United States. Students will write and revise a series of short essays, analyzing and responding to selected readings, film, music, and architecture. All instruction and texts will be in English.

*URBS-012.301 History and Politics of Place
M 2-5 (Schneider)
Freshman Seminar
syllabus
How do we understand the places in which we live? How do we “read” a city? What is the relationship between workplace and home, downtown and suburb, inner city and gated communities, department store and mall, row house and ranch house? How are our lives defined by place, and how do we function as both the producers and products of place? The city is a social and a spatial system, and its organization both reflects and reproduces social categories of race, class and gender. The current city is also the product of past decisions about where to locate communities and how to allocate resources. Through reading sociological, historical, theoretical, and primary texts, through studying maps and photographs, and through your ethnographic explorations, we will explore the presence of the past in the city around us, the evolution of different kinds of urban and suburban places, and the encoding of wealth and power as well as inequality and poverty in the urban landscape.

*URBS-104.401 Urban Crisis
x-list HIST-153.401
MW 12-1:30 (Stern)
syllabus
Fulfills Society Sector (All Classes)
The course traces the economic, social, and political history of American cities after World War Ii. it focuses on how the economic problems of the industrial city were compounded by the racial conflicts of the 1950s and 1960s and the fiscal crises of the 1970s. The last part of the course examines the forces that led to the revitalization of cities in recent years.

URBS-122.401 The City in South Asia
x-list ANTH-107/SAST-002
TR 3-4:30 (Mitchell)
This course surveys important themes and methods in the study of South Asia by focusing on one or more South Asian cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Lahore, Lucknow, Banaras, Kathmandu, Lhasa, Dhaka, etc. Topics to becovered include urban planning, globalization, trade, labor, development, artistic production, politics, cultural exchange, and so on. Students draw literary and scholarly studies, investigating films, memoirs, ethnographies, histories, and other sources to understand the life of one or more major metropolitan centers.

URBS-136.401 Urban Politics in the US
x-list PSCI 136
TR 3-4 (Reed)
REC section 402 F 3-4: 403 F 2-3; 404 F 11-12
Fulfills Society Sector (All Classes)
This course explores the political character of contemporary urban American life. Particular attention is given to the relationship between urban politics and policy-making -- including the structural and ideological factors (e.g., dynamics of political economy, race, ethnicity, pluralism and gender) that constrain the policy context and shape the urban environment as a terrain for commingling, competition and conflict over uses of space. It makes considerable use of case studies to throw into relief the complex and sometimes subtle processes that shape urban life.

URBS 160.401 Race and Ethnic Relations
x-list SOCI/AFRC/ASAM 006
LEC TR 9-10:30 (Torres)
REC 402 F 12-1; 403 F 1-2; 404 R 2-3; 405 W 2-3
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
The course will examine how social networks, neighborhood context, culture, and notions of race affect inequality and ethnic relations. The course reviews the studies of ethnic entrepreneurship, urban segregation, labor force participation, and assimilation processes. The course emphasizes how inequality affects ethnic relations as well as the economic and social integration of different groups in society.

URBS-178.401 Urban University/Community Relations
x-list AFRC-078 / HIST-178
W 2-5 (Harkavy)
Benjamin Franklin Seminar
This seminar will provide students with an overview of major theories about the role, present condition, and likely future of local communities in modern societies. It will then focus specific attention on “the problem of American cities” in the late 20th century and consider the role of metropolitan universities in helping to alleviate these problems. Students in the seminar will identify a specific West Philadelphia/Philadelphia problem and write a paper specifying what Penn can realistically do to help solve that problem. Most students enroll in the course to combine theory with activity in local public schools.

*URBS-200.301 Introduction to Urban Research
TR 3-4:30 (Stern)
Fulfills College Quantitative Data Analysis Requirement
syllabus
This course will examine different ways of undertaking urban research. The goal will be to link substantive research questions to appropriate research methods. Microcomputer based quantitative methods, demographic techniques, and ethnographic approaches will be the primary foci of the course. In addition to classroom assignments, students will have the opportunity to undertake their own research involving micro-based statistical analysis of data files which address relevant and timely public policy issues.

*URBS-201.301 Urban Health Systems
T 4:30-7:30 (Hoerlin)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
syllabus
This course views health care from the perspective of social justice by exploring political, social, racial/ethnic, and economic factors that impact on access to care.  It incorporates a broad definition of health (beyond the medical model) and focuses on inner-city populations disproportionately affected by health care disparities.  A broad range of issues and their interrelationships are discussed; these include infant mortality, childhood asthma, violence, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS and mental illness.  Guest speakers who are key figures in the Philadelphia area are invited for class presentations.

*URBS-202.401 Urban Education
x-list EDUC 202
T 5-8 (Bach/Dhillon)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
An Academically Based Community Service Course
Download Syllabus (PDF)
This course is an introduction to and an overview of many of the key issues confronting urban public schools in America . Urban education is often the most publicized of public school experiences and frequently the least well understood. In this course, we will examine some of the historical, social, and cultural contexts of urban education, as well as look at issues and events directly affecting the Philadelphia public schools. This course will incorporate developmental perspectives on urban youth and explore how issues of developmental-environmental fit have been addressed, or, more often, overlooked by education researchers and policymakers. We will also examine and critique recent reforms and policies which have been designed to remedy the urban public school "crisis." In addition to readings and class discussions, students will have an opportunity to explore these issues through a review of popular media (e.g., films and documentaries on urban schools) and observation and participation in urban public schools.

*URBS-205.301 People and Design
R 1:30-4:30 (Berman)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
Download Syllabus (PDF)
The built environment of a city is more than a mere backdrop. The design can affect people's experiences. Environmental design focuses on the relationship between people and the built environment. It also looks at how the built environment interacts with the natural one. This course will allow students to gain a deeper understanding of how people create, perceive, and use the designed environment. We'll approach these concepts by analyzing design at a variety of scales, from products to interior design to architecture. Finally, using that knowledge, we'll conclude by analyzing urban spaces of the city.

*URBS-206.401Public Environment of Cities: An Introduction to the Urban Landscape
x-list CPLN-620
W 2-5 (Nairn)
Fulfills Distribution III: Arts and Letters (class of 09 and prior)
syllabus
The Public Environment of Cities explores urbanism, the study of the environmental, political, economic, socio-cultural, historical, and aesthetic conditions affecting urban life and culture. At the heart of urbanism is our public environment; the parks, squares, and sidewalks in and upon which our public life is played out. The course will explore the city through the examination of three broad themes: Democracy, Diversity, and Design. We examine in detail how contemporary issues affect our perceptions, use, and inhabitation of the public environment and how the open spaces of the city provide frameworks for the daily social life and commerce as well as the important ceremonies, celebrations, and festivities of its inhabitants .

*URBS-210.401 The City
x-list HIST-210
T 1:30-4:30 (Vitiello)
Fulfills General Requirement I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
Fulfills Hum.& Soc.Sector (new curriculum)
Download Syllabus (PDF)
This course is an introduction to major forces that shape cities and urban life in the United States.  Weekly assignments and discussions focus on the historical development of cities and on applying analytical perspectives and tools encountered in the reading to understanding cities and regions today. Prominent themes include models of urban growth, decline, and restructuring; the ecological bases of urban life; the workings of metropolitan markets; neighborhood and commercial district formation; race, class, and gender relations in urban space; migration and suburbanization; and community and regional planning.

URBS-220.401 Immigration, Race, and Cities
x-list HIST-214
M 2-5 (Katz)
Benjamin Franklin Seminar
syllabus
This seminar analyzes the intersection of immigration and race in twentieth-century American cities. Seminar sessions will be divided between discussion of readings and analyses of primary sources. Readings consist of topical overviews and case studies. Requirements consist of reading approximately one book per week, presenting analyses of primary sources, and writing both short commentary papers and a final exercise.

URBS-227.401 West Philadelphia Community History
x-list AFRC-205/HIST-204
T 1:30-4:30 (Licht/Lloyd)
An Academically Based Community Service Course
This course led by Walter Licht, Professor of History, and Mark Lloyd, University Archivist, aims at the creation of a lasting, interactive website that will grow as a collective portrait (or scrapbook) of families and individuals who have had histories in West Philadelphia. The base for such a website will be built by students in the seminar. Students will engage in research on the history of West Philadelphia and its neighborhoods, contribute critical text to the website and mount the personal history of Ruth Molloy, a long-time, active member of the community whose papers are deposited at the University Archives. The website is intended as virtual heritage museum for members of the West Philadelphia community and an educational resource to be supplemented and used by the community, especially by school teachers and students.

URBS-237.401 Berlin: History, Politics, and Culture
x-list GRMN-237
LEC TR 10:30-12 (Weissberg)
REC 402 F 10-11; 403 F 11-12; 404 F 12-1; 405 F 1-2
What do you know about Berlin’s history, architecture, culture, and political life? The present course will offer a survey of the history of Prussia, beginning with the seventeenth century, and the unification of the small towns of Berlin and Koelln to establish a new capital for this country. It will tell the story of Berlin’s rising political prominence in the eighteenth century, its transformation into an industrial city in the late nineteenth century, its rise to metropolis in the early twentieth century, its history during the Third Reich, and the post-war cold war period. The course will conclude its historical survey with a consideration of Berlin’s position as a capital in reunified Germany
The historical survey will be supplemented by a study of Berlin’s urban structure, its significant architecture from the eighteenth century (i.e. Schinkel) to the nineteenth (new worker’s housing, garden suburbs) and twentieth centuries (Bauhaus, Speer designs, postwar rebuilding, GDR housing projects, post-unification building boom). In addition, we will read literary texts about the city, and consider the visual art and music created in and about Berlin. Indeed, Berlin will be a specific example to explore German history and cultural life of the last 300 years.
The course will be interdisciplinary with the fields of German Studies, history, history of art, and urban studies. It is also designed as a preparation for undergraduate students who are considering spending a junior semester with the Penn Abroad Program in Berlin.

URBS-245.401 Global Citizenship
x-list EDUC-245
W 2-5 (Hall)
Download Syllabus [PDF]
Many have argued that in the age of globalization we need to find ways to imagine our connections to, solidarity with and responsibilities toward people in other parts of the world.  This course will examine the notion of global citizenship and the possibilities and limitations of engaging globally.  We will consider both debates about the normative basis of global citizenship as well as practical issues that emerge in projects that engage people in transnational efforts to address social problems.  We will discuss case studies of specific initiatives as well as efforts that students themselves are involved with or have participated in.  

*URBS-250.301 Urban Public Policy
T 1:30-4:30 (Hershberg)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
syllabus
An introduction to a broad range of substantive policy areas affecting the city and an exploration into the complexities of policy formulation and implementation in a large and pluralistic metropolitan setting. The course subtitle, "Contemporary Philadelphia: A Case Study," describes our approach.

*URBS-252.301 Urban Journalism
M 5:30-8:30 (Rubin)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
syllabus
This course will examine the state of urban journalism today with special emphasis on how large newspapers are redefining themselves, and news, in an era of dwindling readership and growing corporate pressures. The course will look at local television news, photojournalism, alternative weeklies and ethics, and will discuss the techniques journalists use in reporting the news.
The course is taught by Dan Rubin, Metro columnist and former foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

*URBS-253.401 Cities, Suburbs, and Regions
x-list SOCI-254
R 1:30-4:30 (Black)
syllabus
Cities, Suburbs and their Regions:  This course will explore the political, economic, social, and demographic forces impacting development patterns in metropolitan areas, with a particular focus on Philadelphia. We will examine the government policies, economic forces, and social attitudes that affect the way a region grows and develops. Specific topics to be discussed include the factors that make a region competitive, the city's changing role in the region, evolving regional housing markets, and the effects land use and zoning laws have on the places and people that make up a region. 

*URBS-259.301 Understanding the Post-Industrial City: Media City: New Lifestyles/New Forms
M 2-5 (Thomas/Snyder)
Download Syllabus (PDF)
Urban lifestyles have a reciprocal relationship with urban form. While lifestyle might have been once determined by the circumstances of birth, limited horizons and a hierarchical society, today social and physical mobility combined with increasing affluence makes lifestyle yet another choice in the construction of a modern identity. Lifestyle choices have become an engine of urban growth and are instrumental in the transformation of urban life and form of the city.
This course will examine the underlying forces that are continuing to transform urban form and the relationship of these forces to contemporary urban lifestyles. The spatialization of contemporary life and the physical forms and fabric that support it call into question traditional definitions of 'urban life' and 'city form.' The seminar's broad context is the interface between the physical/psychological permanence of the existing traditional city and the changing spatial and cultural landscape of a new urban realm defined by consumption culture, new technologies and the media age.

URBS-260.401 The City in Colonial Spanish America
x-list HIST/LALS-205
R 1:30-4:30 (Walker)
This course will introduce students to Spanish Americas's rich urban history. The course will begin with an analysis of the role of the city in conquest society. The course will draw upon a rich body of social history on Lima, Mexico City, Quito, Bogotá and other urban centers; images of baroque and rococo architecture; city maps and street plans; travel accounts of visits to capital cities; and the material, cultural, and intellectual production made possible by the wealth and dynamism of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Through lectures, group discussions, and analytical writing assignments, this course will explore how colonial subjects lived, worked, ate, worshipped and socialized in cities that were meticulously zoned and organized around important people, places, and institutions.

*URBS-270.401 The Immigrant City
x-list SOCI-270
W 2-5 (Vitiello)
Download Syllabus (PDF)
Fulfills Society Sector (all classes)
Immigration is a controversial issue, dividing Americans from Congress to big cities to small towns. What’s at stake in these debates? What does immigration mean for cities and regions? And what roles should policy makers, planners, and community organizations play in shaping migration and its impacts? This course examines these questions in the context of immigrant, refugee, and receiving communities in the United States. It surveys public policy and community and economic development practices related to migration, at the local, regional, and trans-national scale. Class readings, discussions, and regular visits to a variety of Philadelphia’s immigrant neighborhoods explore themes including labor markets, political mobilization, social and cultural policy, and the built environment.
The first half of the course surveys migration and community development among a broad range of ethnic groups in different parts of the city and suburbs; the second half focuses on specific policy and development initiatives. After spring break, students will have opportunities to work with immigrant-serving organizations.

URBS-273.401 Writing in Concert
x-list ENGL-145/ AFRC-145
T 1:30-4:30 (Cary)
The class comprises two parts: teaching a common text and writing about the experience using memoir, reportage, and criticism. Students will learn the common text in close reading, discussion and preliminary essay exercises. The idea is to develop an intimate relationship with a text, learn about yourself as a writer from your responses to it, and then, by creating a mini-course syllabus and lesson plans, learn how to help readers at different stages in life and literacy find their own ways to enter the text. Learning the work takes three to four weeks; teaching requires four to six, with some overlap. Students teach in several urban learning sites, each with its own challenges and charisma: high school English classes, a church-based book group, adult education centers, a recovery house, and homeless shelters. In April students attend a reading by Sonia Sanchez at Art Sanctuary, a North Philadelphia arts organization at the Church of the Advocate.

*URBS-300 Fieldwork Seminar
301 M 6-8 (Dunn); 302 M 6-8 (Wolfson)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society
Majors and Minors Only
Students work 15-20 hours per week field placement and meet weekly with class and instructors. The class is intended to help students reflect from a variety of perspectives on the work that they are doing in their placement organizations. The class format is primarily discussion. Students are required to complete assigned readings, prepare written and oral presentations, and submit a final project.

URBS-322.401 Big Pictures: Mural Arts in Philadelphia
x-list FNAR-222 / FNAR-622
STU W 1-4 & F 9-12 (Golden/Gensler)
An Academically Based Community Service Course
Download Syllabus [PDF]
This class will be taught by Jane Golden, Director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. The class will explore the history of murals around the world, as well as the role that murals play today in Philadelphia neighborhoods. The capstone of the class will be a group mural project. Students will have the opportunity to see the mural process all the way through—from the wall selection—to community outreach—to design approval—to painting—to the dedication.

URBS-326.401 Tutoring in Urban Public Elementary Schools: A Child Development Perspective
x-list EDUC-326
T 6:30-9:30 (Fantuzzo)
An Academically Based Community Service Course
syllabus
Students will be studying early childhood development and learning while providing direct, one-to-one tutoring services to young students in Philadelphia public elementary schools. The course will cover foundational dimensions of the cognitive and social development of preschool and elementary school students from a multicultural perspective. The course will place a special emphasis on the multiple contexts that influence children’s development and learning and how aspects of classroom environment (i.e., curriculum and classroom management strategies) can impact children’s achievement. Also, student will consider a range of larger issues impacting urban education embedded in American society. The course structure has three major components: (1) lecture related directly to readings on early childhood development and key observation and listening skills necessary for effective tutoring, (2) weekly contact with a preschool or elementary school student as a volunteer tutor and active consideration of how to enhance the student learning, and (3) discussion and reflection of personal and societal issues related to being a volunteer tutor in a large urban public school.

URBS-327.403 Research as Public Work: A Real-World Project to Help Create a New West Phila. High School
x-list EDUC-410.403
R 1:30-4:30 (Puckett)
An Academically Based Community Service Course
This course involves Penn undergraduate students in action research and the co-development of innovative curricular resources for the creation of several new theme-based high schools in West Philadelphia, currently envisioned as separate units of a new West Philadelphia High School campus, which is projected to open in the fall of 2009. This new academically based community service course will be organized as a “think-tank” seminar and co-taught by John Puckett, associate professor at the Graduate School of Education; Richard Redding, director of community planning at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission; Elaine Simon, co-director of the Urban Studies Program and co-founder of Research for Action; and Eric Braxton, former director of the Philadelphia Student Union and community planner with the West Philadelphia High School Sustainability Circle. More specifically, as the starting point of a multiyear project, the seminar will engage Penn and West Philadelphia High School students simultaneously in identifying and mapping Penn academic resources and City Planning Commission resources that would be available to the new campus for high school studies of the American city and University-assisted public-work projects in West Philadelphia; to develop a plan for coordinating the flow of resources from the institutions to West Philadelphia High School; and to create curricular plans that would be used for teacher professional development in planning the new campus.

*URBS-401.301 Urban Studies Honors
TBA (Simon/Schneider)
Permission needed from instructor  

*URBS-403.401 Poverty, Race, and Crime in West Philadelphia
CPLN-506
R 3-6 TBA (Harkavy/Tomazinis/Benson/Teune/Gelles)
Benjamin Franklin Seminar
An Academically Based Community Service Course
syllabus
This seminar will have a unique structure and significant academic resources to study a real and vibrant community, West Philadelphia from the Schuylkill River to 63 rd Street, to Hook Road in Eastwick to City Line in Overbrook, an area of about 30 square miles, more than 210,000 residents, and more than 55,000 jobs.
The approach of the faculty-student research seminar will be a mix of in-class lectures and dialogues and field work by student teams, focused on four specific communities and two systemic community-wide systems, services, and processes. The six teams, with the support of seminar faculty and two or three of the collaborating scholars, will research their subject matter and present a mid-semester report on February 15, 2007. The students will also present and discuss their findings of the problems and recommendations for problem alleviation at a final jury on April 19, 2007.
The students are expected to spend considerable time in the field, visiting the target community and meeting with community and city officials. Each team will arrange additional meetings among themselves, and additional readings pertinent to their subject matter. The faculty of the seminar will assign weekly readings and will be available for consultation.
This research seminar will be inter-disciplinary with more than a dozen Departments and Programs participating, providing more than twenty-five (25) senior faculty members. The seminars will be a mix of actual field research work undertaken by the participating students under the guidance of experienced faculty members and theoretical discussions in the classroom with teams of faculty members.

*URBS-404.601 Philanthropy & the City -- COURSE CANCELED--
R 5:30-8:30 (Bauer/Goldman)
Fulfills Dist. 1: Society (class of 09 and prior)
CGS course

*URBS-405.601 Religion, Social Justice & Urban Development
x-list AFRC-405 / HIST-405 / RELS-439
M 6-9 (Lamas)
Fulfills Distribution II: History & Tradition (class of 09 and prior)
CGS course
Urban development has been influenced by religious conceptions of social and economic justice. Progressive traditions within Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Humanism have yielded: (1) powerful critiques of oppression and hierarchy as well as (2) alternative economic frameworks for ownership, governance, production, labor, and community. Historical and contemporary case studies from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East will be considered, as we examine the ways in which religious responses to poverty, inequality, and ecological destruction have generated new forms of urban development.

URBS-426.401 Culture, Art, and Media in Urban Context
x-list SOCI-436
W 2-5 (Grazian)
The purpose of this academic-based service learning course is to examine the development of art, culture and media in cities, with an emphasis on how cultural organizations operate in the urban environment. Through classroom readings and discussions, students will explore a variety of sociological approaches to the analysis of urban culture and the creative economy, local arts and entertainment, new media technology and public policy. In addition, students will conduct several hours per week of community service in one of a variety of local nonprofit arts and other cultural institutions in Philadelphia.

URBS-428.401 Research Seminar in 21st Century Urbanism
x-list CPLN-538
W 3-5 (Staff)
Permission Needed From Instructor
A seminar run in conjunction with the Institute for Urban Research at Penn, students will learn about the range of cutting edge topics in urbanism that Penn faculty are working on and work closely with a faculty member on current research. Students will learn about new topics and methods in interdisciplinary urban research, and get first hand experience collecting urban data under the close supervision of an experienced researcher. Students and faculty jointly will present their findings for discussion. This course is a good introduction for how to frame and conduct an urban research project.

*URBS-448.601 Neighborhood Displacement and Community Power
T 6-9 (Palmer)
CGS course
syllabus
This course uses the history of black displacement to examine community power and advocacy. It examines the methods of advocacy (e.g. case, class, and legislative) and political action through which community activists can influence social policy development and community and institutional change. The course also analyzes selected strategies and tactics of change and seeks to develop alternative roles in the group advocacy, lobbying, public education and public relations, electoral politics, coalition building, and legal and ethical dilemmas in political action. Case studies of neighborhood displacement serve as central means of examining course topics.

*URBS-450.301 Urban Redevelopment
T 5:30-8:10 (Gorostiza)
Fulfills Distribution I: Society (class of 09 and prior)
This course is divided into three segments: a brief historical background on the origins and changing goals of urban redevelopment; a detailed review of contemporary housing problems and the implementation of program responses by public, private and neighborhood groups; an overview of economic development efforts with a focus on a series of contemporary projects as case studies. The format is that of a seminar, mixing lecture, discussion and guest speakers who are responsible for housing and economic development in the Philadelphia area. The focus is not only on policy choices but on the mechanics of financing, implementation, and attaining employment goals. The course requirements include a take-home, mid-term essay of 5-7 pages, a final case study; and tour of development projects in Philadelphia .

*URBS-454.640 City Limits: The Impact of Urban Policy
x-list CPLN-559/SWRK-712
R 6-8:40 (Stern/Goldstein)
CGS Course
syllabus
This course assesses the changing role of public policy in American cities. In the past, government often believed that it could direct urban development. New realities - the rise of an informal labor market, global capital and labor flows, the flight of businesses and the middle class to the suburbs - have demonstrated that government must see itself as one - but only one - 'player' in a more complete, transactional process of policy making that crosses political boundaries and involves business, organized interst groups, and
citizens.
This seminar uses a case study method to study how public policy can make a difference in the revitalization of distressed American cities. The seminar is designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Seminar readings and projects will be organized around three themes: 1) history and vision, 2) data and analysis, and 3) policy and implementation. Students will be divided into project teams assigned to work on current development issues that will be reviewed by both public and private-sector experts. Extensive use will be made of real estate, economic development, and social indicator data to understand the complex forces at work in both large and small cities. Students will learn to access, analyze, and map information; to frame and interpret these date within a regional perspective; and to construct profiles of cities and neighborhoods. Students will study recent urban redevelopment initiatives in the Philadelphia region - including Philadelphia's Neighborhood Transformations Initiative and New Jersey's Camden Revitalization plans.

URBS-463.660 Brownfield Remediation
x-list ENVS-463
T 5:30-8:10 (Keene)
CGS course
This course is intended to give students an overview of the genesis of the so-called "Brownfield" problem and of the various efforts that our society is taking to try to solve, or at least, ameliorate, it. The course will place the "Brownfield" problem in the broader context of the growth and decline of the industrial base of cities like Philadelphia. Students will study the general constitutional and statutory framework within which we approach the problems of orphan, polluted sites and the disposal of contemporary solid
wastes. They will also analyze the principal actions that have been taken by federal and state government to address remediation and redevelopment of abandoned industrial sites. The course will also explore environmental equity issues.

URBS-566.401 Cross Cultural Awareness
x-list EDUC-566
TBA (Howard) Permission needed from Department
this course meets from 1/16/08 - 5/13/08
This course provides students experiential and cognitive awareness through affective exercises and readings. It explores issues of living in a diverse society through a variety of educational strategies including workshops, small group process, guest lectures, etc. It represents the seminar portion of P.A.C.E. (Programs for Awareness in Cultural Education): An "Educating the Peer Educator" Program.

URBS-610.401 Immigration and Public Policy
x-list HIST-610
T 6-9 (Katz)
Undergraduate need permission
syllabus
This seminar is required for students in the Urban Studies Graduate Certificate Program. They will be given preference for enrollment, which is limited to 15. The course is designed for Ph.D. students who intend to do urban-related research. It is not open to undergraduates. Master's Degree students will be allowed to enroll only in special circumstances and with the permission of the instructor. To earn credit for the Graduate Certificate Program, students must enroll for both fall and spring semesters. Other students may take only the fall semester. Enrollment for the spring semester alone is not permitted. In the fall, the seminar will focus on inter-disciplinary readings concerned with the history of American cities in the twentieth-century. In the spring, students will write a major research paper and meet with scholars and practitioners who exemplify a variety of careers in urban research.

URBS-672.401 Introduction to Ethnographic and Qualitative Methods
x-list EDUC-672
W 4:30-7 (Wortham)
(this class meets from 1/16/08-5/13/08)
Undergraduates need permission
A first course in ethnographic participant observational research, its substantive orientation, literature, and methods. Emphasis is on the interpretive study of social organization and culture in educational settings, formal and informal. Methods of data collection and analysis, critical review of examples of ethnographic research reports, and research design and proposal preparation are among the topics and activities included in this course. .

URBS-706.401 Culture/Power/Identities
x-list EDUC-706/COML-706/ANTH-704
W 2-4 (Lukose)
(this class meets from 1/16/08 to 5/13/08)
Undergraduates need permission
This course will introduce students to a conceptual language and the theoretical tools to analyze the complex dynamics of racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, and class differences. The students will critically examine the interrelationships between culture, power, and identities through the recent contributions in cultural studies, critical pedagogy and post-structuralist theory and will explore the usefulness of these ideas for improving their own work as researchers and as practitioners.