Urban Studies

Paris, the most visited city in the world, is both a historical city and a modern global capital that fashionably wears the old and the new on its sleeve. It is also home to Parisians, whose clichéd image has been shaped in cultural imaginaries from around the globe, but whose identities and cultures are increasingly plural. The city and language course poses this two-fold question: just who is this city for, and how does one unlock its levels? More than a picturesque concentration of streets and buildings, Paris's urban landscape provides a tableau upon which people have inscribed meaning, message, and significance to state, nation, and culture. To decipher these messages and gain an understanding of Paris's history and the French culture that has shaped it, this course examines the histories of the conception, construction, and public perception of Parisian sites and it places their stories within the larger context of the development of French identity. The city and language course introduces students to French history, culture, and language through team-taught instruction. In the “Pursuing Paris” sessions, students study French history and culture by visiting sites important to the evolution of the capital city—these sessions are taught in English. In the “Unlocking French” sessions, students practice targeted language skills through situational communication with opportunities to use everything they learn in daily activities.

Paris has long been recognized as a center for both revolutionary activism and innovative artistic production. This course explores the coming together of these two domains through diverse visual manifestations of social justice and advocacy produced and/or displayed in Paris from the Revolution to the present, including painting, sculpture, architecture, performance, installations, photography, video, posters, graffiti, and street art. Students explore the ways in which the urban landscape bears the scars of revolutionary destruction and serves as a showcase for politically engaged production, housed in its museums or visible to all on the streets. The instructional format consists of both lectures and group site visits throughout the city, to venues including public and private museums, which are studied both for their content, architecture, and their politics of display; galleries, artist collectives, and Parisian neighborhoods with outdoor art displays.

This course examines comprehensive and integrated building design, where the architectural whole is approached as a complex of systems (of production, technology, infrastructure and so on), in turn embedded within larger systems (of ecology, economy and so on). It develops a level of competence in design skills and thinking and involves the integration of technology with the natural environment, and urban context. Students address a generic brief by building upon it with emphasis in Urban, Environment, and/or Technological issues in a given site to demonstrate the acquisition of a level of competence in research, design thinking, operational skills and communication.

The course provides general knowledge on various aspects of urban economics. It uses microeconomic analysis to explain why cities exist, where they develop, how they grow, and how different activities are arranged within cities. Models of firm, industrial, and household location decisions form the basis in analyzing urban land use patterns and trends. Other topics covered include housing markets, the role of the government in the urban economy, and urban transportation. 

This course draws on the extensive theoretical underpinning of urban design as a means to explore approaches to appraise the character of the built environment, and, as a result, to forward practical proposals aimed at beneficially influencing the overall quality and liveability of urban space.