Urban Studies News
Professor Margo Anderson named Distinguished Professor
Anderson's research has focused on American social, urban and women's history, including the U.S. Census. Since joining the UWM faculty in 1977, her work on the history of the Census Bureau has made her a national authority. She has described how the bureau has improved the accuracy of the count, how current events have affected or changed the process and how social prejudices have tainted the count throughout its history. Her work has uncovered new information about the census, such as documents that show the U.S. government provided the U.S. Secret Service with names and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II, even though it was prohibited by law from revealing data that could be linked to specific individuals. More details
Professor Marc Levine's new study on the 'skills gap myth' (Skills Gap and Unemployment in Wisconsin: Separating Fact from Fiction) recently aired on the Lake Effect WUWM radio. Webpage to download Levine's executive summary and report
Urban Studies has moved to the Northwest Quadrant (formerly Columbia Hospital), 2025 E. Newport Ave. NWQ B, Room 5482.
Urban Studies Events
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Please join us at noon on Tuesday, May 7th in Holton 341 for a brownbag discussion to mark the 45th Anniversary of the passage of the Federal Fair Housing Act.
For more information, see the event flyer (pdf) or contact Jasmine Alinder, the Urban Studies Programs Director, at jalinder@uwm.edu.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Join us for the 18th Annual Student Forum at the Hefter Center, 3271 N Lake Dr
Forum Program
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 11am
Please join us for a graduate workshop brown bag on "Giving the Job Talk and Interviewing for the Tenure Track Job", Tuesday April 9, 11AM in NWQ B - 5459.
Friday, Feb 22, 2013 12-1pm
Please join us for a brown bag colloquium, Friday, Feb. 22 at noon-1pm in the Urban Studies conference room, NWQ 5472. PhD Candidate Michael Ford will be presenting his dissertation research, entitled: "Connecting School Board Governance to School District Academic Outcomes." See the Event flyer (pdf) for more info.
Friday, Feb 1, 2013 at 6-8 pm
Please join UWM’s Urban Studies Programs for a reception and panel discussion on urban housing, neighborhood vitality, and the foreclosure crisis in the City Hall Rotunda, 200 E. Wells Street, Milwaukee. This event accompanies an exhibition of student work from the 2012 Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures summer field school at Thurston Woods, Milwaukee, on display at the City Hall Rotunda from Jan. 22, 2013 - Feb. 5, 2013. See the Event poster (pdf) for more info.
See photos of the event
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Please join UWM's Urban Studies Programs for a 5:30pm reception in the Union Art Gallery, and a free screening of "As Goes Janesville" and a panel discussion moderated by Brad Lichtenstein, the filmmaker, that follows the film in the Union Theatre. On November 29, Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein will be in the Union Theater for a discussion. See the Event poster (pdf) for more info.
See photos of the event
Monday, Oct 15, 2012
2-3 pm, Union 181
Wednesday, Oct 24, 2012
6-7 pm, Union 343
Learn more about Urban Studies Programs!
Join us for an info session about Urban Studies Programs: Ph.D., Master's, Undergraduate Major and Certificate. Get your questions answered about the application process, available funding support, and career opportunities in the field.
Event poster (pdf)
Newsletter
Giving to Urban Studies
Urban Studies Programs
Welcome to Urban Studies Programs at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. We are an interdisciplinary set of undergraduate and graduate programs housed in the College of Letters and Science and led by social-science faculty members from UWM’s Departments of Geography, History, Political Science, and Sociology. Our programs focus on the growth and development of urban communities and social institutions in order to understand urban processes and develop policies for the resolution of contemporary social problems.
USP offers an undergraduate certificate and major and graduate Master’s and Ph.D. degrees. The Urban Studies Program is one of the oldest graduate programs at UWM, with more than 500 Master’s degrees conferred since the program’s inception in the 1960s and over 100 doctoral degrees granted since the 1970s.
What is Urban Studies?
Broadly speaking, Urban Studies is any scholarly approach to understanding the city. UWM’s Urban Studies Programs focus on social science research methods. USP students and faculty use methodological approaches including ethnographic, archival, quantitative, GIS, and survey research. We take a metropolitan view of the “urban,” studying both cities and suburbs and regions. Much of the research conducted in Urban Studies is focused on the United States in general and the Milwaukee area in particular, but our faculty also includes international specialists.
For more information about the field of urban studies, see the recent discussion prompted by the Journal of Urban Affairs.
What can I do with an Urban Studies degree?
Like other degree programs housed in UWM’s College of Letters and Science, Urban Studies’ educational program nourishes students’ broad analytical skills, with an eye toward explaining cities. Urban Studies students learn to read urban scholarship, research and understand the urban world from a social science perspective, and write in an academic way. Students interested in purely professional program should look to UWM’s programs in the School of Education and the School of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Alumni of our programs take their skills into many professional arenas, including government, the non-profit sector, all levels of education, law, and the business world. The kind of critical analysis and writing skills taught in USP are transferrable to many interesting jobs where students can apply their passion for understanding metropolitan areas. See our annual Scott Greer Alumni Awards.