University Times

Inquiring minds want to know: What can a student do with an urban studies major?

The answer, according to Pitt's Urban Studies Program coordinator, is up to the student. "I work with students to try to get them to understand first of all what it is they want to do, and then what the various jobs and careers you can go into are and how to structure their courses," says Carolyn Carson, who also serves as adviser for the some 55 urban studies majors.

"People do wonder what urban studies is," she acknowledges. "Most students are clueless at first. We get students who really aren't sure what direction they want to go in. Perhaps they're interested in sociology, but don't really want to major in it; all they know is they like social issues. Or they're really interested in government but don't want only political science. They may be studying biology because they want to go into public health, but it's the urban issues that attract them to us, and they want that background, too. Urban studies gives us tremendous flexibility to explore their interests — that's the beauty of it."

Urban studies students can prepare for the private, for-profit world, or the public and private non-profit sector. They can pursue careers in planning, community organization, public administration, economic development, housing, education, journalism and government. Many students continue on to graduate school in education, urban planning, public administration, public health, criminal justice, law and other disciplines.

"We are not here to simply educate students in a particular discipline. Rather our role is to open their eyes to the world, whether that world is the neighboring public housing community or a city on the other side of the globe. As they learn to think critically they will develop the ability to make change in the world and to make rational, perhaps influential, decisions in their lives and work," Carson says.

The burgeoning program at Pitt, tucked in a tiny pocket on the third floor of Posvar Hall, is intentionally not designed as a pre-professional program, Carson says. As an interdisciplinary liberal arts program, urban studies draws on courses from across the University, particularly in Arts and Sciences. The program does not have its own faculty except for Carson, who teaches the intro course and typically a summer elective course, and program director Edward K. Muller, whose primary appointment is in history.

Urban studies as an academic discipline crystallized in the 1970s, Carson says. At Pitt, the program has been growing from the 25-30 majors just a few years ago. "The program has grown enormously in the last few years. I'm not exactly sure why. The quality of students has risen dramatically, too, although that may well reflect what's going on generally at the University. I have many more honors students, and we have a significant number of double and triple majors. Students may be majoring in one area for career purposes, but they're real interested in the urban environment and urban studies is the logical double major."

Pitt's Urban Studies Program offers four concentrations: urban planning, urban management, community organization and comparative urbanism.

Majors are required to take the introductory course, which is usually the student's first exposure to urban studies, as part of the 33-credit program.

Electives are drawn mostly from the social sciences — economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, Africana studies — but also include courses in communication, legal studies, public administration, history of art and architecture, administration of justice and social work, among others.

Urban planning and community organization currently are the more popular concentrations, but Carson is working on expanding the program's comparative urbanism concentration. Last summer, she did some first-hand research in Europe, with funding from the CAS dean's office and the Western European Studies Program, studying Paris, Avignon, Nice, Provence, Rome, Florence and Venice.

She expects the concentration eventually will draw a significant number of students with the increasing popularity of study abroad programs, second-language acquisition and the growing acknowledgment of globalization.

"We will look at the city historically world-wide," Carson says. "We'll look at the city in relation to planning issues and the use of space, how the city relates to social and economic issues and how to get some sense of how world cities fit into the whole notion of globalization, of what makes a global city." She adds that, according to 1999 figures, for the first time more than half the world's population lives in an urban environment.

One of the strengths of the Urban Studies Program is the six credits of field placement, Carson says. More than 50 local sites have accepted urban studies interns over the past few years, ranging from the Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition and the Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development to the Department of City Planning and the Heinz Regional History Center.

"Some students come out of an internship finding out they really don't want to do something, but what it does is help the student find out what their strengths and weaknesses are."

The field placement internship also provides the occasional job offer from the sponsoring organization, and, more often, the networking potential to get a job. "The real point is they get experience. They can apply what they've learned in the classroom," Carson says.

Other classroom supplements include city tours and neighborhood analysis. "I have four tours in my intro class, and students have to go on at least one of them. I also have assignments where, based on readings, they have to go on their own to analyze the functions and uses of a particular public space, and to analyze the use of sidewalks at at least two different times of day, and to write essays about that."

In her summer elective course, with its 12 three-hour classes format, each class is spent in a particular neighborhood, Carson says. "We take a bus. We go to the South Side, Bloomfield, Homewood and take a walking tour of west Oakland. We go to Cranberry Township when we talk about urban sprawl issues. We've gone to Homestead, the Strip District, the Hill District, Squirrel Hill.

"The students love it. They take what they learn from their readings and go out and see it for themselves. I teach them to look for change, to look for signs of change. To understand what's really going on in the neighborhood. This isn't a historical tour. This is a tour where they're walking down the street and looking at housing and trying to understand: Is this a neighborhood that's in decline? Is this a neighborhood that's become gentrified? Who lives there? Who works there? Why? What contributes to that?

"We also meet with people in community development organizations in each neighborhood and hear from people who live there. It's the practical education that teaches students how to think critically, how to make informed choices about where they want to live and work."

And Pittsburgh is a perfect place for studying urban issues, she says. "It's a laboratory for this program, an ideal setting for study: one, because it's a manageable size; two, because it has a history to it, which is similar to other American cities; three, it's diverse — socially, ethnically, racially — and four, the neighborhoods have a lot of character and distinction.

"But we use Pittsburgh to study the city in general. Pittsburgh is not the focus. Students are not taking urban studies because they want to study Pittsburgh. They want to understand urban development, urban social issues, urban economic issues, urban political issues."

And they take urban studies because of its flexibility and career opportunities.

–Peter Hart