Urban Studies - Course Descriptions

Provides students with an introduction to the field of Social Work. Examines the range of opportunities in this career.

This course in an introduction to Public Policy and will answer the following questions: What is public policy? Who makes Public Policy? What impact does Public Policy have on our lives? The course examines the relationship between public policy and social action.

Students will broaden their awareness of the beauty and pain of the natural world, including the human community. Emphasis is placed on the greening community.

Ur151 The Contemporary City Basic
An examination of the historical development of urbanization and industrialization in America. Problems of urban growth, including housing, environment, crime, race, ethnicity, and class.

Ur152 Methods of Urban Communication
A workshop in communication skills especially geared to the needs of social service and public sector workers. Ur/So157 Introduction to the Culture of the City Introductory course for experiencing the art, music, and dance available in metropolitan New York. Involves field trips in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area as an integral component of the course.

Ur201 Contemporary Social Ideas
Course examines social ecology: the study of human as well as natural ecosystems in their interrelationships; an examination of the problems of pollution, food and hunger, nuclear power, alternative technologies such as wind and solar, and the environmental crisis. Prerequisite Ur 151.

This course studies the history of urban music from jazz to hip-hop as well as the latest urban sounds. The course concentrates on the relationship between the music and its reflection of the urban landscape.

Ur224 Afro-Puffs, Dredlocks, Doobies and Wraps: Black Hair and Identity in America
(see So224 for course description)

Ur230 Urban Architecture and Landscape
Using the city as a laboratory, the class will investigate the various shapes that form, and have formed, the urban environment. How concepts of space changed is central to this course. Prerequisite: Ur151

Ur307 Roots of Urban Politics
An assessment of the historic development of political forms and organizational structures in cities including the machines, the reform movement, ethnic, racial and class politics. Prerequisite: Ur 151.

Ur308 Analysis of Urban Social Class
Analysis of the processes leading to formation of socio-economic classes in the urban context, including the role of income, wealth, occupation, education, ethnicity, and race. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur309 Women in the Changing Urban World
An historical and contemporary examination of urban revolution as social basis for changing roles of women. Included are generational views of conflicts and possibilities. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur310 American Utopias
Explores the Utopian ideal from ancient times to the present, emphasizing the urban strand; study of urban communities, past and present, workplace ownership, land trusts, co-ops, and garden cities. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur311 Strategies for Urban Change
Focuses on two levels of strategies directed at social and economic change in American cities: government strategies and strategies employed by urban groups seeking change. Prerequisite: Ur 151.

Ur/Cu312 Media and the Urban Environment
Effect of mass media on the urban environment. Emphasis on television, film, radio, and journalism. Impact of new electronic media including computers.

Ur313 Business and City
A review of the relationship between urban development and growth and American business, with particular attention to the historic and present day impact of business involvement in cities.

Ur/Dp315 Computers for Public Policy
Course is designed to give public sector workers computer literacy with special emphasis on word processing, spread sheet analysis, computer graphics, etc.

Ur/As320 Urban Legal Issues
Study of housing, crime, welfare, education, etc., as issues pertinent to modern urban living; the role of the legal system in designing, directing and maintaining the present conditions of these urban services and institutions.

Ur325 Violence and Social Change
This course will examine the role that violence and social change has played in human affairs over the past century. It will look at this process as a meditation on struggling humanity, through a series of case studies and theories of social change, focused primarily on the United States. It will include a critical look at human prospects in the twenty-first century. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

This course examines community organizing in terms of what it is, its impact and the obstacles to change. The course focused on how to bring groups together for collective change. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur328 Social Work in Urban Systems
Focuses on the major social welfare systems in America and the field of social work as the profession charged with implementing social welfare today. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur330 Urban Neighborhoods
An examination of the ecology of neighborhoods: the neighborhood as a social and political unit; urban planning and the neighborhood movement; community organization. Prerequisite: Ur 151.

Ur331 Issues and Forces Shaping Urban Areas
An historical examination of the economic, social, and demographic forces which have shaped American cities, with emphasis on older, industrial cities. Prerequisite: Ur 151.

Ur332 Contemporary Urban Cultures
A study of the subcultures of the city, utilizing techniques of urban anthropology. The economic and political orientations of Black, Hispanic, Asian, White ethnic, and youth cultures. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur/As333 Black Community and the Law
An examination of the role of the American legal process in African- American history from 1619 to the present, with concentration on laws and their application during the slavery and post-slavery era, the early and mid 1900’s, and in modern rural and urban life. Topics include civil rights, constitutional, property, and criminal law.

Ur/So370 Urban Anthropology
An exploration of the emergence of urban culture in its present form from its neolithic roots. Emphasis on urban life in the New Jersey area, with reference to the peoples and cultures in urban environments world-wide. Prerequisite: Ur 151 or So 121.

Ur/So/As/Ls 412 Ethnicity and Race in Urban History
Includes the African, Asian and European immigrant/migrant experiences in the United States, the effects of slavery, racism and class structure of cities. The major focus of this course is on the historical events that have shaped the foundation for the current ethnic and racial composition of our urban world.

Ur413 Dynamics of Urban Development
Focuses on various aspects of urban living: housing, neighborhood movements, the future of the city.

Ur428 The Literature, Culture and Social Issues of West Africa (see Ed428 for course description). Values Course

Ur451 Social Issues in Public Policy, I
An historical examination of social forces and responses, particularly at the grassroots level, which have contributed to our present institutional arrangements. Particular emphasis is given to the effect of social forces on public policy.

Ur452 Social Issues in Public Policy, II
An investigation of public policy issues affecting constituencies in need of social services, such as older citizens, the homeless and those inadequately housed, and those in need of medical care.

Ur/As460 The United States Civil Rights Movement
Analysis of the origins processes, and outcomes of the twentieth century black American Civil Rights struggle.

Ur481-482 Senior Thesis Workshop, I and II (6)
Assists students in the formation of appropriate topics and of research methods for the preparation of a thesis.

Ur490 Urban Field Work
Introductory level of field work emphasizing synthesis of social theories with work experience. Seminars held and an evaluation paper required.

Ur491 Advanced Urban Field Work
Advanced level of field work emphasizing synthesis of social theories with work experience. Seminars held and an evaluation paper required.

Ur/So492 Urban Internship
Advanced levels of field work emphasizing synthesis of social theories with work experience. Seminars held and an evaluation paper required.

Ur/So493 Advanced Urban Internship
Advanced levels of field work emphasizing synthesis of social theories with work experience. Seminars held and an evaluation paper required.

Ur/Th496 Theology and Urban Problems (See Theology Department for course description.)

Ur/Th499 Theology and Contemporary Public Issues (See Theology Department for course description.)