The Master of Urban Studies is a two-year, English-language program focused on contemporary urbanism. The program combines history, theory and practice to rethink prevailing understandings of urbanization, and to contribute to building more equitable urbanisms than the current ones. The main premise of the program is that the subject of urban studies is ireducible to the “city”: the global urban arena today, more than ever before, is where struggles over our collective future play out.

This transcdisciplinary program builds on insights from critical urban geography, urban planning and architectural history. Urbanism is seen through the conceptual lenses of socio-spatial dialectics and uneven urban development. Themes addressed in the program include housing and gentrification; urban nature and ecology; infrastructure and global networks. Urban Studies will introduce you to the basics of urban design and planning, as well as to a range of skills such as how to conduct a field work, write about urbanism and develop urban strategies. The art school/architectural department where you will study provide a great environment to combine critical thought and creative imagination.

Urban Studies prepares you for a career in planning, public policy and community advocacy. Our alumni work as urban designers in the private sector, as planners in public administration (municipal, regional and state-level), and as consultants in the NGO sector. They have founded advocacy organizations, and many are active as urban activists. The program provides a good basis for postgraduate study.