2023 cycle

https://calstatela.curriculog.com/proposal:12375/form

 

C1. Fit with the Institutional Mission / Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILO)

Knowledge: Mastery of content and processes of inquiry 

The minor in Urban Studies will allow students to develop an introductory mastery of key terms, concepts, and theories about the city, as well as introduce the processes used to investigate the city as a subject of research.  This aligns with PLOs 1, 3, 5, and 7. 

 

Proficiency: Intellectual skills 

The minor in Urban Studies will reinforce the methodological skills students need to become productive members of their urban societies.  This includes quantitative and qualitative reasoning skills, critically evaluating information, making informed relational decisions with that information, and presenting findings in written, oral, and spatial formats.  This aligns with PLOs 2, 6, and 8. 

 

Place and Community: Urban and global mission 

The minor in Urban Studies most aligns with this institutional learning outcome.  This program expects students to engage with their surrounding urban environments, looking at impacts that are both social and environmental, local and global.  Studying a city requires students to engage with their urban environments.  This aligns with PLOs 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8. 

 

Transformation: Integrative learning 

The minor in Urban Studies is a truly transdisciplinary program, developed with faculty across the College of Natural and Social Sciences (and to incorporate faculty across the university as implementation proceeds).  Cities represent several complex and contemporary issues facing the world, the US, our state, and our neighborhoods.  Students will be expected to engage with urban communities and conduct projects that are relevant and significant to creating more equitable, just urban communities.  This aligns with PLOs 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8. 

 

C2. Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)

1. Evaluate the role of cities as sites of political, economic, social, historical, and cultural production and consumption.  

2. Investigate urban areas as sites that alter and interact with physical environments.  

3. Examine the challenges and contextual relationships with key urban concepts, such as transportation, gentrification, movement of people, housing, and their spatial distribution.  

4. Analyze the relationship of cities within local, regional, and global dynamics, including scales from the neighborhood to globalization.  

5. Identify dynamics of racial, ethnic, gender, and class/labor tensions and solidarity within and between urban spaces.  

6. Apply appropriate methodological techniques for investigating the city, including quantitative, qualitative, and spatial methods.  

7. Explore critical urban concepts within the context of Los Angeles.  

8. Incorporate urban concepts and methods into a field-based culminating experience.