Explores methods beyond the conventional town-hall meeting to gather insights from communities on planning issues. Topics will include more traditional methods of qualitative research such as focus groups, interviews, charrettes, participatory action research, and scenario planning, as well as strategies like asset mapping, visual preference surveys, games, art-based visioning, participatory budgeting.

A seminar exploring how racialized inequalities have shaped American cities North & South, past & present, and the influence of racialized urban structures on the idea & experience of race in America. Topics include the effects of segregation, redlining, urban planning, redevelopment, white flight, ghettoization & neoliberal development on the form & culture of American cities & structures of inequality in the US. Graduate level will have additional requirements.

Urban analytics draws upon statistics, visualization, and computation to better understand and ultimately to shape cities. This course emphasizes geospatial data, familiarizes students with statistical computing using R, and introduces principles and techniques of machine learning. Students will also learn to explain and to critique the results of visualization, analysis, and predictive modeling.

Global Environmental Issues contextualizes environmental pressures through case studies on topics such as land use practices and soil health, overconsumption and labor conditions, deforestation and disease emergence, as well as resource extraction and disaster resilience. This course addresses the roots of global environmental issues while cultivating critical thinking about what is required for more just and sustainable futures.

Structured internship experience and reporting as a reflective practitioner for ten weeks or 200 hours of experience.

This course provides a framework for the completion of a Distinguished Major Thesis, a treatise containing an exposition of a chosen urban and environmental planning topic. A faculty advisor guides a student through the beginning phases of the process of research and writing. Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Distinguished Major Program.

This is the second semester of a two semester sequence for the purpose of the completion of a Distinguished Major Thesis. A faculty member guides the student through all phases of the process which culminates in an open presentation of the thesis to an audience including a faculty evaluation committee. Prerequisite: PLAN 4901

A series of one-credit short courses, whose topics vary from semester to semester.

This course will provide students with an interdisciplinary learning process related to real estate development including finance, branding, design, planning, land use, site planning permitting, adaptive reuse among others. Situated in an actual case, students will have the opportunity to work with a multi-disciplinary team on a real-world development project. Graduate course will have additional course requirement

Detailed exploration of the normative debate surrounding environmental issues. Focus on the foundations of environmental economics, questions about the value of endangered species, concerns of future generations, appropriateness of a sustainable society, notions of stewardship, and obligations toward equity. Graduate course will have additional course requirements.