WHY URBAN STUDIES?

When you thought about coming to Penn, the city of Philadelphia and the opportunities an urban campus offers may have been among the factors that shaped your decision. Your friends, parents, and others may have asked you why you were attracted to the city. Was it a sense of excitement and stimulation that appealed to you? Their questions also may have sounded a note of alarm because many people think of the city as a place of danger and despair.

Do you want to know why cities intrigue you, to understand what makes places exciting and stimulating, and to understand the problems of cities? You can seek answers to these questions through the field of Urban Studies. Penn's Urban Studies Program will help you shape an intellectual understanding of the feelings that initially attracted you to cities and help your refine your questions about urban life.

Some of you are attracted to a place where you can get involved, with people from various backgrounds and experiences, to try to improve the quality of life for urban dwellers. The Urban Studies Program encourages, even requires, involvement in the world outside the classroom just as the professions that Urban Studies graduates pursue demand involvement: as an active community member, a politician, a city prosecutor or public defender, as a designer, builder, or architect, as someone who works on city issues, as a researcher, or as a teacher.

Photo: Domenic Vitiello