Metropolitan Studies (2022 - 2024)
Introductory Core
Social and Cultural Analysis 101
SCA-UA 101 Offered every year. 4 points.
Introduces theories, methods, and political trajectories central to the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA). SCA addresses how individuals and populations structure their worlds and navigate the resulting social, cultural, and political terrain. It privileges scholarly work with an intersectional approach, drawing on theoretical insights from such fields as social geography, feminism and queer studies, ethnic studies, urban and metropolitan studies, critical race theory, labor studies, and cultural studies.
Approaches to Metropolitan Studies
SCA-UA 601 Offered every fall. 4 points.
Explores the historical geography of capitalist urbanization with attention to North American and European cities, to colonial and postcolonial cities, and to the global contexts of urban development. Topics: urban politics and governance; suburban and regional development; urban social movements; urban planning; the gendering of urban space; and racial segregation in urban space.
Research Core
Advanced Research Seminar
SCA-UA 90 Prerequisite: Social and Cultural Analysis 101 (SCA-UA 101) or Approaches to Metropolitan Studies (SCA-UA 601). Offered every semester. 4 points.
Students write a 20-25 page research paper with a focus on a specific research method. Topics vary by semester; see Albert for details.
Honors Program
Senior Honors Seminar
SCA-UA 92 Prerequisites: 3.65 GPA or higher (both overall and in the major), Social and Cultural Analysis 101 (SCA-UA 101), Approaches to Metropolitan Studies (SCA-UA 601), and permission of the department. Offered every fall. 4 points.
Senior Honors Thesis
SCA-UA 93 Prerequisites: Senior Honors Seminar (SCA-UA 92), 3.65 GPA or higher (both overall and in the major), and permission of the department. Offered every spring. 4 points.
SCA Theory and Practice: The Internship Program
The 4-point internship program complements and enhances the formal course work of the metropolitan studies major. Students intern at agencies dealing with a range of issues pertaining to metropolitan studies and take a corequisite seminar that enables them to focus the work experience in meaningful academic terms. The goals of the internship are threefold: (1) to allow students to apply the theory they have gained through course work, (2) to provide students with analytical tools, and (3) to assist students in exploring professional career paths. The internship is open to juniors and seniors and requires an interview and permission of the director of internships.
SCA Theory and Practice: The Internship Program
SCA-UA 42 Requires ten hours a week of fieldwork. 4 points.
Elective Courses
Urban Cultural Life
SCA-UA 608 4 points.
Through walking tours of neighborhoods and attendance at cultural events, students explore New York from the Village to the outer boroughs. An interdisciplinary perspective on the attributes that constitute urban culture and community.
Community Empowerment
SCA-UA 613 4 points.
Empowerment is defined as those processes, mechanisms, strategies, and tactics through which people, as well as organizations and communities, improve and gain mastery over their lives. It is personal as well as institutional and organizational. We address these issues in a wide variety of community settings.
Race and the Neoliberal Metropolis
SCA-UA 614 4 points.
Traces the rise of the neoliberal city and how neoliberal policy and governance has restructured spatial and social structures in the city. Focuses on the specific ways that neoliberal urbanism is both shaped and reshaped by urban racial spaces, gentrification, and education.
Subprime Cities
SCA-UA 615 4 points.
The 2008 financial crisis in historical and global context, with particular attention to the urban crisis in housing and its wave of foreclosures and evictions. Examines property, urban land, and patterns of urbanization in producing financialized regimes of difference and inequality. Also considers the reaction of activist movements. Requires a semester-long group research project.
New York City in Film
SCA-UA 623 4 points.
Analyzes how New York has been portrayed in some classic films, as well as how these stories have helped shape the city’s image of itself. Emphasizes how each film originated at distinct moments in both the city’s history and the history of filmmaking. Combines the perspectives of urban studies and film studies and places films within their cultural, political, and artistic context.
Landscapes of Consumption
SCA-UA 625 4 points.
From the late 19th century to contemporary America. Examines classic theoretical works that probe the relationships between people, things, and cities and discusses changing forms and practices of consumption and urbanism. Empirical case studies: the development of the department store, the fashioning of the commodity city, the work of shopping, and the emergence of a thriving urban debt industry.
Cinema and Urbanism
SCA-UA 626 4 points.
Draws on a broad range of theoretical and historical texts to investigate topics such as psychogeography, landscape hacking, surveillance, and slum urbanism, while also examining the specific role of cinema in generating, framing, and circulating emergent notions about the modern city.
Urban Environmentalism
SCA-UA 631 4 points.
Environmental issues in cities and towns: their causes and how to remedy them. Larger questions about the relationship between human society and the natural world in the urban context. Utilizes the analytic tools of sociology and ideas from economics, political science, philosophy, geography, and natural science to develop a theoretical framework for understanding these issues.
Climate Change and Environmental Justice
SCA-UA 632 Identical to ENVST-UA 405. 4 points.
Addresses the natural and social impact of global warming in the context of the climate justice movement. Examines how populations are unevenly affected by climate change, and how this imbalance is being addressed by advocates of decarbonization.
Urban and Suburban
SCA-UA 633 4 points.
The history of urban and suburban development since the late 19th century. Major movements in town planning and in housing and transportation policy; schools of thought associated with urbanism; suburbanization; environmental justice and the struggle for urban sustainability. Close attention to the relationship between urban forms and modes of industrial production, transportation, and communication.
Governing New York City
SCA-UA 636 4 points.
Examines the complex politics and governing of New York City. Topics include: the structure of key political institutions; the “permanent” government; the role of interest groups; racial and ethnic politics; and, voting and elections. Examines three broad policy areas (education, housing and policing) to trace the impact of New York City’s political and governance structure on public policy.
Topics in Metropolitan Studies
SCA-UA 680 Offered every semester. 4 points.
Independent Study
SCA-UA 997, 998 Prerequisite: permission of the program director. 2 to 4 points per term.
Related Courses
The following courses count as faculty electives for metropolitan studies majors and minors. See the departmental or program sections in this Bulletin for course descriptions and prerequisites.
AFRICANA STUDIES
Hip Hop and Politics
SCA-UA 157 4 points.
AMERICAN STUDIES
Justice Lab
SCA-UA 19 2 points.
Work, Labor, and Power
SCA-UA 221 4 points.
The Criminal Justice State
SCA-UA 235 4 points.
Couture/Culture: Fashion and Globalization
SCA-UA 253 4 points.
ASIAN/PACIFIC/AMERICAN STUDIES
Filming Asian America: Documenting Community
SCA-UA 361 4 points.
GENDER AND SEXUALITY STUDIES
Queer NYC
SCA-UA 421 4 points.
LATINO STUDIES
Latino/a Art and Performance in NYC
SCA-UA 532 4 points.
The Latinized City, New York and Beyond
SCA-UA 540 4 points.
Cross-Listed Electives
Majors and minors may take no more than two. See the departmental or program sections in this Bulletin for course descriptions and prerequisites.
COLLEGE CORE CURRICULUM
Expressive Culture: Architecture in New York Field Study
CORE-UA 722 4 points.
ECONOMICS
Urban Economics
SCA-UA 751 Identical to ECON-UA 227. 4 points.
ENGLISH
Writing New York
SCA-UA 757 Identical to ENGL-UA 180. 4 points.
HISTORY
The History of New York and Paris: A Tale of Two Cities
SCA-UA 794 Identical to HIST-UA 309. 4 points.
IRISH STUDIES
The Irish and New York
SCA-UA 758 Identical to HIST-UA 180, IRISH-UA 180. 4 points.
SOCIOLOGY
Cities, Communities, and Urban Life
SCA-UA 760 Identical to SOC-UA 460. 4 points.
The Social Challenges of Climate Change
SCA-UA 782 Identical to SOC-UA 454. 4 points.
URBAN DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
Shaping the Urban Environment
SCA-UA 762 Identical to ARTH-UA 661. 4 points.
History of City Planning: 19th and 20th Centuries
SCA-UA 769 Identical to ARTH-UA 663. 4 points.
STEINHARDT SCHOOL OF CULTURE, EDUCATION, AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
American Dilemmas: Race, Inequality, and the Unfulfilled Promise of Education
SCA-UA 755 Identical to TCHL-UE 41. 4 points.