Urban Studies Program

The Brown Urban Studies Program is the quintessential interdisciplinary program. Our core faculty members come from 8 academic disciplines and our students draw on very diverse ideas and methods. Yet we are a cohesive intellectual group, for our studies are all focused on the city. We organize our approach around a set of basic research and teaching areas that reflect the depth and diversity of the program: urban development and economics, urban politics and community, the urban built environment, American urban history, suburbanization, and literary representations of urban space and social relations.

The demanding academic work attracts the best students, many of whom are supported with summer research fellowships and internships doing fieldwork, often followed by an honors thesis. Roughly twenty-five seniors a year graduate in Urban Studies; six-to-eight typically write an honors thesis. Our students have a distinct spirit -- reflected in their newsletter, the department undergraduate group (DUG), and student-led conferences. [Read more on Academic Profile...]