Get the skills you need to bring change to an increasingly urban and metropolitan world.
The Urban Studies Major will provide you with a solid foundation in this interdisciplinary field. You will develop your researching, writing, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving skills. With the help of the department’s Urban Action Institute and Citylab, you will go beyond the walls of Worcester State and out into the world to engage with community members near and far through fieldwork, outreach, partnerships, internships, and research.
Depending on your career goals, you can take a concentration in gerontology, intergenerational and community service, public administration and planning, or social work and social policy or take advantage of one of our 4+1 programs and earn a master’s degree in nonprofit management, public management, or public administration and policy in just five years.
WHAT YOU WILL DO
- Develop a solid foundation in the interdisciplinary field of urban studies
- Gain awareness of the interconnectedness of individual, community, and systemic power
- Become a critical thinker, creative leader, and skillful problem solver
- Engage in purposeful, ethical, and collaborative research and action in urban communities
- Cultivate the empathy, reflection, and self-advocacy needed for professional success in a globalizing world
Concentrations in Urban Studies
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Investigate the psychology of aging, current developmental theories on adulthood and old age, and current social policies in regard to elders and ways in which policies need to be altered to meet growing elder needs. Electives include courses that focus on challenges elders face because of population growth and metropolitanization and the aging process for women in urban society, particularly their great longevity, lower income status, and major caregiving role.
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Explore the necessary role of community service in civic life and learn how to harness the power of intergenerational programs to address social concerns. Courses in this concentration examine the approaches used by social work professionals in assessing and meeting the needs of increasingly diverse populations, problems faced by youth and elders in urban societies, and current policies concerning youth and elders.
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Learn how activities, programs, and policies designed to sustain and enhance the livability of an urban environment are initiated, developed, and implemented. Courses explore social power and its relation to decision making in urban communities, political behavior and perceptions in cities and towns, urban housing dilemmas, urban ecosystems and land use, and public policy related to environmental issues. The concentration also examines policy issues in areas such as immigration, population, gender equality, and organized religion in contemporary politics.
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Discover the approaches used by social work professionals in assessing and meeting the needs of increasingly diverse, complex, and complicated populations. This concentration builds upon basic social work skills to enhance your understanding about the changing concepts, terms, and theories in the field and practice of social work. Learn interviewing and counseling techniques, conflict resolution in contemporary urban settings, problems faced by youth in urban societies, the formation of policies concerning delinquency, and public policy relating to cultural diversity.
See the diverse career paths a degree in Urban Studies can prepare you for
There are countless career paths for urban studies students in a variety of fields.