Urban and Community Studies

This course offers an overview of the discipline of Sociology from a global perspective, focusing particularly on cross-cultural examples of social, economic and political relationships. It explores how social forces impact the structure of society and its social institutions as well as cultural patterns, crime, groups, personality, and human interactions.

This course studies the ecology of social processes, organization and problems of the urban community. Hence it undertakes an overview of the evolution of cities in the US and recent and contemporary local and global patterns of urbanization. Evaluates social, economic and political forces that shape cities by examining social issues in the urban setting: immigration, ethnic, cultural and class diversity; cross-cultural and international comparisons; population and environmental concerns. Also studies social planning by examining major concerns of urban residents and the role of local, state and federal governments in addressing these concerns.

Urban Studies is a broad multi-disciplinary examination of the environmental, political, economic, socio-cultural and aesthetic factors affecting cities, urban life and culture. The colloquium will enable students to understand the dynamics of urban opportunities and challenges, thereby enabling them to understand the processes that make cities vibrant as they adjust and reinvent themselves in the ever-changing environments. In this course, students will spend one third of the semester in the classroom while the rest of the time will be spent on an independent study or individually designed and supervised field work in agencies of state and local government, community service organizations, programs and non-profit associations in Westminster, Baltimore, Washington DC and other surrounding areas. For those students not able to do service work, an independent study option will be made available to them that will enable them conduct an in-depth study and analysis of an issue related to their major within the realm of Urban Studies.

A comparative approach to race and ethnic relations in the United States. The course compares and contrasts the experiences of multiple racial and ethnic groups. Special attention is paid to issues of privilege and power and the underlying historical and contemporary symbolic and structural factors affecting both intra and inter-group interactions.